Why Go?

This week is going to be a busy one for me. In addition to my regular, 40-hour-a-week job, I've got lots on my plate- leading our church's first Coffee & Worship night, Bible study, guitar lesson, grocery shopping, taxes, meetings... the list goes on and on, and I don't want to think about the pile ahead of me. But one of the things that is predominant on my mind this week is this upcoming Sunday. This Sunday, I'll be speaking at two different churches, delivering the sermon, in order to raise funds and awareness for our Bolivia trip.

I'm not nervous about speaking in front of the churches. I've been in front of crowds in one capacity or another as far back as I can remember, and feel just as comfortable there as anywhere else. My thoughts are, what am I going to say? I've been praying about this one for a few months now, and I still don't know what I'll say. But the topic that keeps circling my mind is, "Why go?"

There are lots of things in North Carolina that scream for attention. There are people in need here. There are orphans who need love just a few miles from my door. So why am I taking a group to another country to help the needy when the needy are all around me?

The most obvious answer is that God has called me to it. I don't think that foreign missions is any more or less important than anything that the church does. But God has given me a passion for the foreign field, and I must obey my Lord. As Jeremiah said, it is like a fire in my bones, and I cannot ignore or stifle it. But beyond that, why do we go on mission trips? One of the best answers I've heard to that question came from my friend, Kasey. Speaking at church after returning from a mission trip to Georgia, Kasey brought up that same question, and his answer was, "When you help out those you know, it's because you love them. If you go somewhere else and help people you've never met, it's because you love God."

There is also the impact that such a trip has on those who are going. While the work done on the field has an effect on those in the country being visited and meets the needs of the needy, the impact is far greater in the lives of the individuals who stepped out of their comfort zone on faith, witnessed the brotherhood of believers on a new, global scale, saw the greatness of God in ways never before experienced, and return to their homes touched by God. The people who go will never be the same. Though I've been on quite a few trips by now, even having lived in a foreign country as a missionary, I am still challenged and changed and shaped by these trips. Could God have used the apostles had he left them in their boats on the Sea of Gallilee? No doubt. But God chose to call those men out of their comfort zones, out of the areas in their life that they had always known, and used his grace and majesty through those 12 ordinary men to change the world.

That is why we go on these mission trips. Because when God changes you, he then uses you to change the world. And this world needs that kind of change.