We are home

First all survived! 20 left and 20 came back.

Well we are back in the States and home. There is very little I missed while I was gone. I missed my family, both biological and ecclesiastical (if you don’t recognize the word, please look it up and use it in a sentence today). And if I am being honest, I did miss Dr. Pepper as well.

Some insights I gained from this trip. Keep in mind these are my insights, I am sure of the other 19 who went on the trip there are other insights gained. Let me begin.

I find that we tend to talk in generalities way too much. Maybe we are afraid of being specific. For example, “the Church in America”…fill in the blank however you want. I know the Church is different from Ohio to Kentucky to Florida and even Michigan. Yes, there are similar events that take place at each “branch” of the body. For instance, we all have worship in some form, we all give an offering, we hear a sermon or message, we all partake of the Lord’s Supper. The differences I can say I have seen and been a part of is the way these events are done. There is form and there is meaning. Meaning is the Truth and form is way the meaning (Truth) is presented. I heard several times on the trip the form of the American Church “discussed” and compared. Honestly, I decided that you cannot compare apples and chicken. Both are food types, but they are completely different. The Church in America and the Church in Mozambique are completely different. Let me say I love both.

Andrew Peterson, one of my favorite Christian artists, writes a song about a lady named Elma (I think it is Elma). Elma lives in poverty in South America. Let me restate the words of his song as if it were my statement, only because it is right on as to how I feel:

I’m just a little jealous of the nothing that they have.
They are unfettered by the wealth,
Of the world that we pretend is going to last.
They say God blessed us with plenty,
But I say they are blessed with poverty;
Cause they never stop to wonder,
Whether earth is just a little better than the land of the free.

It’s funny to me because they do see us as richly blessed (we are), and we would say we are not rich. They want to be “one of us”. We saw their simple lifestyle and were jealous because they were so innocent of materialism. Of ALL the Churches Don works with (I don’t remember but I am certain it is double digits), only one person has a car and it is a piece of junk apparently. I never saw that car. I met men who walked 20 kilometers (10 miles or so) to preach. I met another guy who walked 40 kilometers (about 25 miles or so) to get to school. I know people who complain about driving for more than 10 minutes to get to Church.

Another thing I bring back is prayer requests. I expected the African Churches to ask for money. They didn’t. Not one Church asked for money from the Americans. They asked for God to send missionaries. They have several Churches that don’t have a preacher. On our second Sunday we went to a church in Chibutu (in the Gaza province of Mozambique). This church was in the bush (also known as bushveld). This church has no minister. They meet once a month when four local preachers or evangelists come to this church to preach. Yes, all four men preach. I have already spoken about this though.

The Church wants missionaries, they want preachers and elders and evangelists to rise up and share God’s Word. How many times have I personally not prayed for God to raise up individuals but prayed that God raise up some type of thing, like a ministry or finances? These Churches made me think about what I see as important.

One final point that I have learned. We need to redefine missions and our role in missions. I am going to leave that up to you. If you are content in defining missions as an overseas or out of this country experience I am ok with that, but please support a missionary (I would recommend Don and Aleta Hulsey of Good News for Africa if you or your Church family does not know one). If you are not okay with defining missions as something that takes place far away then I challenge you to become a local missionary in whatever setting you are in.

This mission trip was unlike anything I have done before. While I have been on an overseas missions trip before this was definitely different. Usually on a missions trip you build something like a Church building. On this trip we did build something, the Church. We trained men as they go out and build the Church. One of the men I met started 30 Churches and another started 17 and another 11. 58 Churches were begun because of the work of these 3 men, and there were 22 other men whose stories I did not include here. They came to this college to learn how to “more effectively” share the gospel. I had to ask myself if that is what they are doing to become more effective, what have I done to be effective? This mission focused on building relationships.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for me and financially supported this missions trip. If you or your church are looking for a missionary or missions group to support I would recommend the work of Christ being done by Don and Aleta Hulsey through Good News for Africa. The website is http://mozambiquemission.moonfruit.com/. More than sending money though, let me make one final request of you. Go. Go to Mozambique for a few weeks. Let me know when you go because I will support you in every way I can. Thank you so much to you my supporters and thank you so much to Julie and Micah for sharing me for two weeks. I am glad to be home with you all.

all about Christ,
David