Posts Tagged ‘missions’

People waiting for medical treatment at mobile clinic

What does hot, cold, and rewarding have in common?

They are the ingredients of a recent medical mission trip to Nicaragua. For three days, a team of over 20 doctors, pharmacists, nurses and volunteers associated with Health Talents International brought medical attention to the poverty-ridden people of Managua.

The needs were great. Conditions such as parasites, infections and malnutrition drove almost 1200 people to wait in lines for 8 hours a day.

The weather was hot. The showers were cold. With winds whipping over a barren parcel of land at what seemed like the ends of the earth, dirt coated everything.

Why would anyone spend a week of their life in such conditions? For me, I found three benefits.

It elevates my vision. In a culture the massages the message of “it’s all about you” into the soul, a trip like this forces you to look beyond yourself. You see needs more clearly, blessings more thankfully, and others more compassionately. As a pampered American, I need to become less spiritually nearsighted.

It sharpens my wits. The enemy of mental sharpness is the dullness of routine. I, like most people, follow a mindless regimen. Seldom do I get jarred out of my mental lethargy. I just don’t have to think. Nicaragua forces a different diet, enduring cold showers, and long days of doing something besides working in an office behind a computer. The long days of helping people who are hurting shifts my mind into high gear. I come back able to think expansively and with clarity.

It enlarges my circle. Everyone who goes on the trip is a volunteer. The take vacations to give to others. Eating together, working together, praying together, and talking together provides something most people lose–perspective. When I return from Nicaragua, I have had the pleasure of getting to know people whose heart makes my heart purer.

As the team was breaking up on the trip home, we all expressed a similar thought. The trip was not fun (in the way a vacation is) but it is rewarding. That is what gives purpose to the difficulties.

I am grateful to those who went and for the changes I experience.

Making an Effective Mission Report

I’ve seen the yawns and the wiggles-and I’ve had them as well.

Over the years, I’ve endured hundreds of reports from mission fields. Most, if not all, had the interest of dust settling on an old table.

The problem was the focus.

• The focus was on the missionary. Inevitably, the theme was “look what I did…”
• The focus was on disasters. One missionary related how he had selected a place to worship associated with a cult in that town. Now, the church was suffering. Now, his lack of forethought was the devil’s fault.
• The focus was on the pictures. Many reports are glorified travelogues. The rhythm of the presentation are punctuated with the phrase, “this is a picture of…”

The result of this focus was a presentation out-of-focus!

In January of 2009, I was part of a medical mission to Nicaragua. The Waterview Church of Christ (where I serve as a staff minister) is a supporter of the church in that location. It came my time to give the report. I decided I would not repeat the mistakes I had heard many times.

Out of that experience, I learned what an effective mission report demands.

It demands organization.

Too many times, the only organization is putting pictures together. A great presentation is a story with a strong theme. It has points which are parallel. It is clear and moves in a direction. For my presentation, my story was how three different people saw our work in Nicaragua through their own eyes.

It demands knowing the audience.

My audience was church members who had heard some about our work, but did not feel the impact of the work on people. They needed more than data. They needed deep appreciation. My aim was not the subject but the audience.

It demands faces and feelings, not facts and figures.

My pictures were face shots. The eyes tell the story. As the faces appeared on the screen, I described pain, suffering, need, and yearning. The audience had to identify with the people they saw. They did not need to know the dates or the travel routes or the itinerary. Above all, avoid cluttered slides and bullet points. The strangle the life out of presentations.

It demands preparation.

I worked for over 12 hours on the presentation. I rehearsed and refined it 8 times. Every presentation to a new audience demands focusing on the needs of particular audience. Take time to learn about each audience. Canned presentations smell of opened tins of sardines.

The result of the presentation was humbling. Tears were shed. Hearts were changed. Wallets were opened. Souls were pricked. And hopefully, God felt the glory due him.

Does he demand anything else but that kind of presentation?

(To hear the presentation go to http://www.waterview.org/mp3/20090222pm.mp3