“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I will be with you…”  Matthew 28:19-20

I am getting ready to go on a short term mission to Honduras, in fact I will be leaving my house at 4:00 am to catch a 7:30 am flight to Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  A few years ago, I had never heard of such a place!  Now, I look forward to seeing and worshiping with old friends I know and love.  They have become my brothers and sisters in Christ, even though their lives are very different from mine!

As Americans, we tend to think we’re the center of the universe!  Everyone should speak English!  Just talk a little louder and maybe they will understand!  We are distracted by our lives, our Facebook pages, our computer screens and our cell phones.  But there are some things that Google cannot teach you.  It cannot help you care for a sick person who has no possibility of seeing a doctor, it cannot help you experience the sights and sounds of a strange land. It won’t let you see the joy on a person’s face as you fit them with a pair of reading glasses so they can read God’s Word again!

In Honduras, many people live in small, one-room houses.  They sleep on the floor and have never experienced air-conditioning even though the temperatures hover around 90 degrees.  They will gladly serve you, their guests, their last bit of rice.  Their generosity is overwhelming.  We might think they are poor, but they are RICH in faith!  A mission trip will give you the opportunity to experience the Body of Christ in a new way as you worship with them.

You will have the opportunity to be the “hands and feet” of Jesus as you pass out vitamins, aspirins and antibiotics.  I tell my team, we are here to serve the Lord.  We should see Jesus’ face in every person who comes through the clinic, and help them as we would help our Savior.  You don’t have to be a medical person to work in a clinic, you just have to be willing to do what is necessary.

We not only treat the body, we treat the soul as well!  In the afternoon, there is a children’s Bible class where a story from God’s Word is told to the many children who hang out at the clinic.  Some are sick, but many come out of curiosity!  They want to see the “gringos” and maybe get a sucker or piece of candy.  They will be hearing the story of “Daniel” and learn how sometimes we have to stand against the evil around us, but God is always with us and He will help us.  Our team is creative!  They will be decorating baseball caps, face-painting and doing art projects for the kids and adults.  Patients sit waiting for several hours to see the doctors, so adult coloring pages will be a good way to occupy the time and create a verse to take home.

Here’s the mission trip challenge:  take a walk in another person’s shoes.  Encounter Christ in a different nation.  Do something that stretches you!  See what the Lord is doing in other parts of the world.  Go make disciples of all nations.  Trust Jesus!  Ask the Lord what He wants you to do, then do it!

“What does love look like?  It has the hands to help others.  It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy.  It has eyes to see misery and want.  It has the ears to hear the sights and sorrows of men.  That is what love looks like.” St.Augustine

Your friend, Jean