Post-trip thoughts

Thanks for your interest and prayers during my mission trip to Mexico! The blog mostly focuses on my daily activities during the trip, so I thought I would email my overall impressions from the trip.

As normally happens with mission trips, I went to serve other people, but received more than I was able to give out. Just like returning from a really good retreat, it is difficult to describe my experience to people who weren’t there, and Power Ministry is a very different experience from my other mission trips. The best I can do is to say that it was like a combined men’s retreat, Christian conference, and really fun work day. We worked hard on construction, but there was so much more happening around the building.

One of the best experiences was hearing the stories from the local pastors and missionaries, and seeing their faith in action. They start with nothing, but pray for, and receive huge things. Through their prayers, they receive truckloads of food for their communities, or large parcels of free land for their churches, orphanages, or outreach centers. Then they pray again, and Power constructs them a building. This trip was a reminder that God still does miracles, and I have to be asking Him for big, miraculous things.

It was also interesting to see how we men bonded together on the trip. Each year we get about half of the guys back from previous years, so there is always a large group of new guys to meet and get to know. As an introvert, I really dreaded making small talk over meals, and trying to remember everyone’s name (we wore name tags the whole trip, which helped immensely). However, I really looked forward to our discussions in the vans. We were mixed up for each job site and long drive so that we were forced to meet new men, but that gave us the time to get into deep discussions and sharing about each other’s lives. In a short time, I gained dozens of new, deep friendships.

Since there was such variety among the guys, I was able to find a wise advisor on almost every van ride. At 51, I was still one of the younger guys on the trip, so there was an amazing pool of experience and wisdom to draw from. I was able to share my struggles and challenges with these guys, and get all kinds of great advice and ideas on how to parent adult children, manage extended family relationships, keep my marriage fresh, and many, many other areas where I needed wise advice.

Finally, being in a different culture and seeing how other people relate to God gave me a better understanding of who God is. The “Mexican Style” of prayer is for everyone to pray out loud at once. At the top of their lungs. I’m certainly more comfortable with a solemn, orderly prayer where everyone takes turns, which we mostly did when it was just us guys. However, it was a positive, emotional experience to gather with the recipients of a house, church, or orphanage, circle around them, and bless the building in loud mayhem.

In summary, it was an amazing, faith building experience and restorative retreat, all in one. Make sure to check out the daily details, including pictures, on my blog, and let me know if you’d like to join me next year, either in prayer, or in person.

Rick