Comments on: Poorism: A Double-Edged Sword

By: AllisonO of O My Family

AllisonO of O My Family — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:38:58 +0000

So often I hear (including here in these comments) this pattern: “I went because I was going to go help people, but I was the one who was helped.” Why, then, should we go on subsequent trips?

It’s something I’ve been struggling with for a while. I want to hold things, even seemingly good things like missions trips or visits to encourage sponsored children, with loose hands. My hesitation is this: Once we know that WE are the ones who benefit more than those we go to visit or serve, is it selfish of us to venture out again? Is it irresponsible of us to use the resources necessary to get there (assuming international travel is involved) just to have a spiritual high and return home?

To answer my own question, no. To seek God’s face, near, far, here, there (in a house with a mouse? Sorry. Seuss joke.) is not selfish. It is what we were created to do, and I think that is what keeps drawing more and more people. Our God’d heart is for the least of these and I want to be a woman after God’s heart.

I think, ultimately we ought go with the purpose to know God and make Him known, be that unto others, or known unto ourselves.

By: Sarah Ray

Sarah Ray — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:38:09 +0000

“May the eyes of your heart be enlightened so that you may understand….” Ephesians 1:8. Jesus not only bid us come and follow, He bid us come and SEE (John 1). Many of us cannot empathize, nor live in response to the lives of our suffering neighbor if we don’t first become intimately aware of their plight. We must first see – with the eyes of our hearts. However, in seeing, we must not make a further discrepancy between ourselves and our neighbors. We must not make of them a spectacle. We must step into their very lives with great respect, lending dignity by giving up of our own. That is how Jesus walked. Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Ghandi…these heroes modeled that. And so do many others. Yes, come and see. Come and serve. But in coming, know that it is YOU who will leave most changed by your encounter. Feel free to join us on a Yobel Exposure Trip to Uganda, Thailand and India in 2012 for that very purpose, or go with another fantastic organization like Compassion or your local church.

By: Juli Jarvis

Juli Jarvis — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:07:03 +0000

@Sonya - Yeah Sonya! And yeah Compassion Canada! Woohoo!

By: Mike Stephens

Mike Stephens — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:46:23 +0000

I like Dave’s answer, “I have this deep sense that God planned that we would go long before we were even born!!!” I agree with that!!! Looking at the picture from Nicaragua I went simply so she could see me. The Philippines is a little of the same thing except I have a little more of a mission this time. I hope to dunk a basketball for Angelo to specifically encourage him in his dream to become a basketball player. The core reason why I am going I am not sure I really know!!! I went to the Dominican Republic in High School with my youth group and I went b/c I thought it would be good and liked our youth group leader a lot. It was an amazing trip!!! I went to Russia b/c a friend who lived there for 10 years or so as a missionary son said as we were taking a break from lifting weights “Stephens you need to go to Russia with me.” So I went and I shared a quick little testimony on New Year’s and an older gentleman raised his hand when the Russian Pastor took over after my sharing. That is the only time I have seen someone decide to accept the Lord with the help of me saying something. There are so many reasons but at the end of the day I go because I BELIEVE I have to!!! I believe it is a matter of LIFE!!! I think I know why I am going but God KNOWS why I am going b/c he is the one who ordered it before I was born!!! Thanks Dave!!! Proverbs 16:33 “Even the things that seem accidental were really ordered by Him!!!” Amplified Bible.

By: Brianne Mullins

Brianne Mullins — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:28:37 +0000

Thanks so much for your responses! Dwight I love what you said, “Money is not everything.”

I actually really struggled with my 1st call to go on a mission’s trip. I was a leader for a middle school youth group and I was approached to co-lead a group to Mexico. I was terrified. And, in all honesty I kept thinking, “Why not take the money I raise for a plane ticket, food, room…and just give it to the mission organization?”

I am so grateful our Lord is a relational God. My time with Him, the way He speaks to me, the way He listens to me…nothing can replace the love I feel in His presence. So I went, not really understanding why I went. I remember getting on the plane and hearing, “This experience will change the rest of your life. It will change how you live.” That was actually not exciting for a 20 year old girl to hear. I liked how I lived and was not much interested in changing it up. And I knew the change would be a difficult one provoked by the reality of poverty. But He showed me the power of relationship.

Since then I have gone on quite a few different mission trips and I always have the same feeling on the plane, “The way you live is going to be challenged after you see this. You’re going to have to change.” And each time it is true.

So I guess at first I went because it was what Christian middle school leaders do. Now I go because His relationship with me catapults me into a desire to love and be there for those in need. Lastly, I often find it is actually their embrace I needed – probably more so than they needed mine. (Hmmm, that was long. Thanks for allowing me to give you a glimpse into my heart my blogger friends!)

By: Dwight

Dwight — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:05:48 +0000

This is a good question Brianne.
I attended School at MBI in downtown Chicago only a 1 mile or 2 from a large public housing project. It gave me my first taste of seeing poverty. I always wanted to go on an international mission’s trip but I was always working. The teen age child that I was sponsoring at the time asked if I could come and visit…; I think they said I am praying that someday I will meet you. I had the money and I always sent family gifts…. So I thought how can I say no to that?! Sending money is not everything.

By: Amber Van Schooneveld

Amber Van Schooneveld — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:52:44 +0000

Michael, I loved your story. What a wild and wise thing for a little girl to say.

Brianne, I’ll answer your question–just to get you to say why YOU went.

My answer to why I first went on mission trips is the un-spiritual one: I love cultures and languages and travel. I want to go everywhere and see everything. So that spurred me on to mission trips in college more than my desire to help others. But I think God gives us our passions for a reason. I think God gave me a passion (that I still very much have) to go and see everything so that it will prod me on to continue to learn about and understand other people and cultures, and to serve and help them when I can (while they in turn bless and teach and humble and give to me ).

By: Meredith

Meredith — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:24:53 +0000

What amazing testimonies to the power of personal experiences! Thank you for sharing how the Lord changed and shaped you through your journeys! I hope that these stories inspire others to step out and dare to see God where there seems to be nothing else.

By: Sonya

Sonya — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:39:18 +0000

My first trip was to Kenya and Tanzania to visit our sponsor children. I had never been to a developing nation, and my first shock was walking into Mathere Valley in Kenya, since then our lives have NEVER been the same.
I think I wanted to go, because it would be ‘cool’ to go to Africa…that sounds a bit funny now, but thankfully God works through all that, and He
changes hearts!
I like Michael, and Juli found myself being blessed by the people who have what we think is so little, but have a faith that is unreserved. God OPENED my eyes and is changing my heart!
Upon return, I joined the Advocacy Network in Canada (Eh!), and I am constantly encouraged by how God is using Compassion to reach His children. Children like me and children like the children we get sponsors for.

By: donna

donna — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:54:32 +0000

The first time I went to Guatemala I was 10 years old and I went because my parents were the leaders of the missions trip. My mother was shocked at the poverty. I simply observed and was too shy to play with the kids. I didn’t understand what I’d seen until much later and the perspective it gave me on my life was enormous.

Now, at 40-something, I’d like to go back. I feel like I’m starting to forget.