Preparing Spiritually for the Trip

As preparation for our trip to Mozambique, we are reading through the Short-term Missions Workbook for Mission Tourists to Global Citizens by Tim Dearborn. After reading the first chapter, I already feel like I’ve received lots of helpful insights that I hope to carry with me on our trip. I’ll just share a couple with you from chapter one.

Dearborn offers “Eight Great Questions” to consider before, during, and after your short-term missions trip. I’m planning to print out a copy of these and put them in my mission trip journal, which I’m starting up this week:

1. What can I learn about myself?

2. What can I learn about God?
3. What can I learn about community and the church?

4. What can I learn about culture and its impact on faith?

5. What can I learn about justice and poverty?

6. What can I learn about discipleship?

7. What can I learn about my lifestyle?

8. What can I learn about my vocation?

Dearborn says, “The fundamental ministry God would have all of us exercise as short-term visitors and servants in another culture is the ministry of affirmation. God is inviting us on a treasure hunt. Our privilege is to be so led by the Spirit of God that we can find treasures in this new context that had been hidden from our eyes previously. Not only were they hidden from us because we’ve never been there before, they may even have been hidden from the eyes of the people who live there.”

Dearborn offers ways to engage in this ‘treasure hunt:’

Walk with humility. Remember, you are showing up late to a meeting. God has been at work among these people long before you arrived!

Embrace with affirmation. Your greatest gift to the people you meet will be affirmation, not criticism.

Live with vulnerability. Don’t be afraid of weakness – it’s normal.

Practice flexibility. Always expect the unexpected—you’re not in control.

Live as a student. Be determined to learn from everyone.

Work as a servant. Be willing to do whatever needs to be done.

Speak as a storyteller. Let the Spirit tell God’s story through you.

I’m already preparing to act on two challenges that Dearborn gives at the end of chapter one:

1. I’m going to find a prayer and debriefing partner who will agree to pray daily for me while I’m gone and meet with me several times after I come home for prayer and debriefing.

2. I’m going to pray now for two new relationships God will give me while in Mozambique. I’m going to commit now to pray for and keep in touch with those two people after I return.

One final quote to close the chapter with: Dearborn is quoting from a book called Beyond Duty: “The weakness of much current mission work and much current preaching is that they betray the sense that what is yet to be done is greater than what has already been done.”

--Hillary