Memos From The Mission Field - According To Plan?

The first rule of mission trips that we try to teach people is that nothing...absolutely nothing...goes according to plan. You can have the best laid out plans in the history of mission trips but I promise they will change once you actually get on the ground. That's what happened to us on Friday.

We met up with a friend of mine named Tim for breakfast around 7:15 in the morning. Tim is a resident of Panama where he and his family serve as missionaries. He will soon have a new job title of connecting local churches in the states to local churches in Panama. For that reason I invited him to travel to David with us in order to meet some

of the contacts that I knew there.

Our short, one-hour, flight to David left at 9:30 and we were ready to hit the ground running. The plan was to meet Pastor Ricardo, who is a local pastor and is heavily involved in mission projects, upon arrival and start exploring ministry options. That was the plan...

When we were met at the church by Jim (a North American who lives in Panama) we were informed that Ricardo was ill and wouldn't be able to be with us for the afternoon. So much for the plan, right? Well actually that's wrong. On the mission field plans don't completely fall apart...they just change. We were ready to adapt and move on.

One of the things that we needed to do while in David was to find a tour option for our mission team to enjoy on their day off. After grabbing a homemade lunch we were off to the Pacific to check out some beach options. There's a great beach resort close to David named Las Olas but unfortunately they didn't have enough rooms available for our day off for our group...but that didn't stop us from enjoying the beauty of the beach.

After striking out at the beach we decided to head to the Panama/Costa Rica boarder to see if there were any options there for a group to enjoy on a day off. Unfortunately we struck out again. While it was pretty cool crossing the boarder into Costa Rica there was absolutely nothing a mission team could do in that area on their day off.

We may have failed in our quest to find a tour activity but we got to enjoy some of the most beautiful scenery on the face of the planet in doing so. We talk a lot about how big God is with the understanding that there's nothing we can encounter that's bigger than Him. Exploring His creation and seeing the vastness of it goes a long way towards advancing that understanding.

The day ended with us attending a Friday night Bible study at the local church we're working in partnership with. It was an amazing day but there's still a ton of work to get done. Including finding a tour option.

Memos From The Mission Field - Mission Trips Really Aren't Like This

Typically when it comes to traveling I enjoy being in different places but I really don't enjoy the process of getting there. That has changed a little bit for me on my last two trips to Panama.

Flying on a plane can be a bit exciting if its your first or second time but after a while the adrenalin rush of speed and high altitudes gets replaced with the burdens of cramped seating, crying babies and anxiety to arrive at our destination.

Last November when I was leading a team from the Capital Baptist Association the airlines had a mix up on our plane tickets by overbooking the flight. The end result was a majority of our group being bumped to first class on our flight from Orlando to Panama City.

Now, fast forward to this trip. We are on a scouting trip in which we are exploring ministry opportunities for a group we are bringing in March. There are just two of us traveling this time and a great friend of ours from church got ahold of our flight information and upgraded our tickets to first class. So here I am again arriving to Panama in front of the plane and once again the process of getting there has become fun.

We arrived in Panama City around 2:00 local time and met up with one of our missionaries named Dave. Dave took us to his house for a little while where we enjoyed some iced tea and caught up on how our families have been since we last visited a few months ago.

After visiting for a little while we were off to our hotel to check in and then to dinner. We actually chose a Lebanese restaurant which I found amusing because we were in Panama. Over dinner Dave and his wife Nancy shared with us some of the amazing things God has been doing through their ministry.

As I settled in for bed that night I couldn't help but think over the day and how much I had enjoyed it. I got to fly first class with a good friend I've had since college. Got to visit with another longtime friend at his home and over dinner and I was settled into a comfortable bed in Panama City. The final thought I had was that if all mission trips were like this then I bet a whole lot more people would come. Fortunately they are not like this.

I say fortunately because comfort is the thing that keeps us off the mission field the most. We're not too keen on giving up our lavish lifestyles to be uncomfortable serving Christ to people who live in a completely different culture.

You could very well be screaming, "Wait a minute! Who are you calling lavish?" Well...its you. I'm saying that you live a lavish lifestyle. Even if you're on the complete opposite end of the tax bracket from the multimillionaires that you consider to be lavish you are still so far ahead of the people we're about to encounter and compared to them you've got it made.

We put so many things in the way of fulfilling the Great Commission and reaching out to make disciples in "all the world." The excuses of family, finances and culture among other things all become excuses we offer to God when we are asked to instead pick up our crosses and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23).

The question we must all ask is, are we willing to sacrifice family time, finances and embrace another culture to advance the cause of Christ? Mission trips aren't about first class, nice meals with friends and comfy hotel beds. Its about being willing to abandon comfort zones to answer the call of Jesus to go and make disciples. That's what we'd be doing and over the next 60 hours our hearts would become broken and our world views completely shaken to the core.