There’s a running joke in our family. Someone that we know (who shall remain anonymous to protect everyone involved, haha) had made the comment to one of us that “missionaries are just people living in tropical locations on other people’s money.” For real... that’s an exact quote. Obviously the person who said it has never lived on the foreign mission field (or even visited the foreign mission field) or they wouldn’t have said it. At least with a straight face, because missions is anything but a vacation : )
But what about “Mission Trips?” Are “Mission Trips” just another word for going to a tropical location on someone else’s money (because you typically raise support to go)? If you’ve ever been on a real mission trip, you already know the answer. I had been on 6 mission trips before Me and MJ moved our family to the foreign mission field. And every one of the trips were not only life changing but also physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausting. So, for me, another way to spell mission trip is W-O-R-K. Every trip we took made an eternal impact for the Kingdom of God AND was hard work. So the answer is no. Mission trips aren’t vacations they’re real ministry.
And that brings me to today’s blog. We had a mission team (6 people) from NC and California come for 2 weeks and they were awesome. We’d been trying to finish the obstacle course (something to help draw children/teenagers here so we can get the Gospel to them) for several months now and the work they did put us over the top. They were able to help us pour all the cement on the remaining obstacles (which was all mixed by hand after the materials were wheelbarrowed uphill about a 1/4 mile thru the jungle to where the course is... fun!). I don’t know how many yards of concrete it was either, but it was a lot! Then they were able to help paint the inside of the 2 upper bunkhouses. Combine that with all the other ministry that took place at the orphanage, the day program for street kids in Curitiba, the home visits and food distribution on the mountain, the discipleship meetings... in other words, “they were busy, busy, busy!”
But there’s one thing that most people overlook about mission trips. It’s a HUGE encouragement to the missionaries who are there on the foreign mission field. That’s right, it’s a huge encouragement to the missionaries.
Even though the people coming on the mission trip leave changed, the missionaries are changed as well. Your visit to the mission field helps encourage and strengthen them more than you can imagine.
Being on the foreign mission field is very taxing. Not only are you constantly fighting against the enemy to get the Gospel to the people group that you’ve been sent to (and this plays-out spiritually, physically and emotionally), but you’re constantly fighting against loneliness.
Even though we have friends where we are and we’re seeing people’s lives changed, we still miss home and we still miss our family and we still miss our friends and we still miss our church. But when someone comes and serves alongside of us for a week or two, it helps us know that we’re not in this alone and it gives us the encouragement we need to keep going!
So a BIG thank you to the Firth’s, the Berkleys, Crossroads Church, the Roberts and the Robinsons for coming here and serving with us (here in Brazil) over the last 10 months. You guys are such a blessing to us and all the people we’re ministering to: )
Love Ya,
Jim and MJ
PS - the pics up top are of the last mission team (the Firth’s) and some of the stuff they did while they were here. Thanks Guys!
If you or your church would like to schedule a mission trip to Brazil, just send us an email to HopeAndLifeBrazil@gmail.com and we’ll get you all the info you need.
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