Mission Team Update: Kinda Like Disney World

Anna and Amber at "Dinner Ridiculous" at our last camp. Everybody had to dress up for dinner in something funny.

Amber with her face painted (in her teams color) at the field day at camp.

Anna putting a harness on a camper before he climbed up to the tight-rope walk.

Amber playing with the kids at the local elementary school in Terra Boa.

The worm/maggot that we pulled out of Gabriel's head.

A not-so-friendly spider we caught at the last camp

Amber, Jim and one of the kids from the orphanage in Colombo.

Anna. during the last camp.

Our internet here on the mountain has been horrible for over a month and a half now. We’ve had either no connection or the connection has been so slow that we’ve barely been able to open our emails. So posting blogs has been impossible. I haven’t even been able to open my blogger account, much less post a blog... it’s very frustrating. But we’ve had a lot of stuff happening nonetheless.

On September 18th we had a couple college students come to intern with us for 3 months and to experience the mission field... “the real mission field.”

The reason I say, “The real mission field” is because although “mission trips” (the ones that last a week or so) are great and are life-changing for the people who come on them, but living on the mission field is totally different. It’s kinda like the difference between going to Disney World vs working at Disney World. 

Going to Disney World is awesome. The rides and attractions are soooo fun and exciting. Everything is done with excellence and everything is so fresh and clean all of the time. The people that work there are so nice and helpful. The landscaping and all the flowers are perfectly maintained. Between all the rides, music, fireworks and all the Disney Characters walking around...it’s like sensory overload because of everything going on. 

But working at Disney World is different. To keep everything so fresh and clean, it takes thousands of man hours each week and so many things have to happen that most people never know about. For example, there are over 10,000 paint colors inside the Magic Kingdom. And each one is used to freshen-up everything and anything that doesn’t look new each day. The landscape crews work all through the night so that the visitors at Disney never see work going on. And the reason that you don’t see workers emptying the trash (anywhere inside the park) is because all the trashcans are part of a network of underground tunnels that, once trash is placed inside of one of the cans, it shoots the trash to a place underground where it’s disposed of. That’s why there’s no trash liners that need to be changed. And you’ll never go more that 30 steps without reaching a trash receptacle (because of research they did, that showed that people won’t carry a piece of trash more than 30 steps before they drop it on the ground). I could keep going, but it’s pretty amazing to read about all the stuff that happens at Disney (that people never know about) just to keep it running the way it does.

And it’s very similar when you go on a short term mission trip vs living on the mission field long term. On a short term trip (the week that you’re there- wherever it is in the world) every moment is packed-full of stuff that blows your mind. You see the great need for the Gospel. You get to minister in churches, on the streets, in orphanages, in the schools... basically everywhere! You get to feed the hungry. You get to build stuff that helps the people that live there. Each and every day is meticulously scheduled so that every moment is full of things that you’ll never forget. And it’s all good. But when you live on the mission field (or stay long term), rather than just visiting (short term), most of your time is spent just trying to survive. For instance, this past week our water went-out at least 5 times. And by went out, I mean- it stopped working. Which meant that we had to climb up “the hill” (or “the hell” as I like to call it), at night of course, just to find out that our water source had dried-up. So then we had to figure out how to get water to 3 houses so that 12 people could flush toilets, drink water and cook. Fun, huh? Our electricity has gone out for several hours at a time (only at night, of course) at least 3 times over the last few weeks, our internet is non-existent 99% of the time (which only compounds the feeling of isolation and loneliness here on the mission field), we’re continuously inundated with spiders and bugs of every shape and size (see the photo of the spider we caught during the last camp), Me and some of the kids have had intestinal worms several times over the last year, the altitude that we live at (combined with all the moisture) causes mold to grow on everything from the walls to clothes to shoes to decorations in the house... you name it, mold is on it. It’s gross. And just this past week we had to remove a worm out of our son’s (Gabriel) head. He had bumped his head at school and some type of insect then decided to lay an egg in the wound. Then over time (several weeks) the egg hatched and some type of maggot-worm-thing grew in it (See photo. I laid it next to the chapstick just for scale). That was in his head! MJ and Matthew removed it with tweezers but still... this thing hatched and grew inside my son’s head! And, as I’m sitting here writing, Maryssa just came running in the house yelling because bees just attacked her and were stuck in her hair. One of our dogs came in right behind her and had about 30 bees stuck on her (stinging her as she flailed around on the floor), one bit me on the temple, they started attacking MJ as they (the bees) started swarming into the house. As we were getting stung, MJ and l tried getting them off of Maryssa and our dog after I slammed the door shut and closed all the windows in the house. You can actually hear the bees hitting the door and windows trying to get into our house right now. “We’re literally being held hostage in our own home by a massive swarm of bees!” What's up with that!? And I can see Amber and Anna (the girls here on the mission trip) out my window. They’re standing off in the distance because the bees chased them and a few of our kids off when this all went down. Welcome to the mission field: )

Sure, we have ministry stuff happening, but it seems like there’s more “just trying to survive time” than there is “ministry time” happening. Being on a short term mission trip (visiting Disney World) doesn’t allow someone to really experience this. But going on long term trips (working at Disney World) does. And that’s what the girls have been enduring alongside of us since mid September. Between all the camps, working with street kids, visiting orphanages, ministering here on the mountain, etc., they’ve had their share of drama as well. But that’s what living on the foreign mission field is like (especially with a new ministry like ours that, although it’s growing, is still in it’s infancy stage).

These girls are just out of high school and trying to decide if foreign missions is something that God is calling them to. So, our prayer is for them to experience God in a way that they never could at home and in their own environment. That’s first and foremost. And another one of our goals is for them to see what it’s really like being on the foreign mission field long term. So we’re not flowering stuff over and doing the whole “one week mission blitz” (which is still an awesome thing), we’re just allowing them to walk alongside of us as we’re navigating through what God has called us to do here in Brazil. So, please pray for them as they’re here with us until mid December... they need it! lol! 

Love Ya,

Jim

PS- they’re actually doing great if you’re wondering. But still, please pray that God moves mightily in their lives.