Please welcome guest blogger 16 year old Mariah Pettapiece-Phillipps! Below, Mariah shares her reflections on her adventures with the mission so far. Mariah is an aspiring creative writer of short fiction. I hope you will enjoy hearing her voice as much as I have. Mariah will join us again next week to share her reflections:
As Judy said, I'm an aspiring writer- emphasis on the aspiring. You also obviously know this blog is one following the lives of those on a mission trip across the globe to Peru. I use the term mission trip loosely, because of personal experience with the premature judgments that come with it. I find that sometimes when we think mission trip, we envision an unrealistic, untrue, and invalid image of self-righteous, strict Christians who only want the company of others just like them. Further than that, sometimes the judgment can be that those on mission trips believe to be above those they're serving, as if they are all-knowing and have the answers to all questions. Unfortunately, if that were true, I wouldn't find myself asking all the questions. In fact, I find that I myself have more questions than answers. So, what I'm getting at, or what I hope is the message coming across, is that if this mission trip was the picture-perfect self-righteous image people envision when they hear "mission trip," I'm pleased to say I would not be here, a part of any of it. I came on this trip not to judge, not to teach even, but to learn, experience, and to hopefully resurrect that feeling in my heart that overflowed in my previous mission trip to Africa. Perhaps if I show you just a sliver of my time here, I could help you understand.
Every individual on this team is a member of a smaller, more specific team according to their personal interests, talents, and so forth. I found myself put on multiple teams including the school team, a semi-permanent, semi-useful member of the media team, and last but not least, I plan to write an official piece at the end of my trip. Hopefully it will come out half-decent, otherwise my future aspiring career in the writing world might be slightly misplaced.
So, as a part of the school team, my duty, if you can even call it that, is when we visit schools and teach children, I get to enjoy their company, which I find is a priviledge more than a duty. Yesterday, for example, the whole team visited a church so the townspeople could visit the dentists and eye doctors. On the bus there I kept thinking that these people are traveling and venturing from their homes to our clinic in hopes of finding answers to all their problems, and they're turning to us of all people. But I soon realized as I got there and the people began milling in that I had been wrong. They weren't looking to us for answers. I don't believe that. I believe that most of them were simply looking. For us, for a smile, for a conversation, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that they weren't expecting miracles. In fact, they didn't expect much of anything. I could have flashed a smile and made their day. And that is when I realized my own problem. High expectations can only lead to falling short. These people I met only expected what they received, and they were happier because of it. It just goes to show I could learn a thing or two from them.
At the church we visited, I basically played with the kids all day. They loved it of course, what with the books and toys they have never had the opportunity to use, but I probably enjoyed it more than them! There is something so incredibly right about children and their complete innocence. It doesn't matter if they're from Canada, Africa, or Peru, they still touch your heart. Language barriers don't seem to matter when it comes to loving somebody. You don't have to have a conversation with them, you don't even have to know them, you simply have to be with them. I promise you that even if you are the most rigid, uptight person in the world, that little girl Stella, or Sareya, or the little boy Luis or Giovani will dig their way into your heart so that just the thought of them will make you smile on your worst day.
Today, on the other hand, my team and I visited a school that we'll be at for the rest of the week. We went there with the assumption that we'd be working with the kids- that is until we found out it was National Teachers' Holiday and they weren't allowed to be at school. It's a strange, upside-down world when the kids want to be at school, isn't it? They put me to shame! Once we were enlightened of the situation, it gave the team a chance to become familiar with the building, the owners, and organize our plans for the following week. With that opportunity though, came our judgments of the place we were in. "Hey, this isn't so bad. They don't seem all that poor. Is our help even needed?" Which is when we were led up the hill from the school and into the kids' neighbourhood. We had a rude awakening. With closet-sized houses made from scraps, usually occupied with up to four or five families at a time, and the families living on an average of three dollars a day, we were in no position to be judging the need of these people, or the depth of their poverty. We had no idea. I was then reminded of the saying, 'Don't judge a book by it's cover.' It turns out to be actually true, and a much more valuable lesson than I knew. Like they say, looks can be deceiving. My guess is I'll never put down a book again without reading at least the back!
No comments:
Post a Comment