Scars!

In the article, the three steps that need to be part of all short term preparation are: cultivate a compassionate heart, develop an understanding of what the Bible says about injustice and my favorite one, be willing to take action.
Being merciful is very important for us Christians, God call us to be merciful cuz He is and always be merciful for us sinners. When we go in a short term mission trip, usually we visit slums and low profile places with problems such as racism and poverty. For example: if we feel the need to give like a gift or money for a cause, we need to do it because God has placed compassion in our hearts rather than for some effect, like expecting something back or as we say in Spanish doing it “ a regañadientes”, that means like forced too. There’s this quote in the article that really caught my attention: “God wants soft hearts more than efficient remedies; a compassionate heart gives us eyes to see and keeps us awake to the world”. God, in His wonderful mercy, wants us to act for compassion rather than some effect, because in this way God can act through ourselves, and be a softener for our hearts! By doing things for compassion, we work for His glory and mercy, and He works in us changing our hearts.
Knowing and developing an understanding of what the Bible says about injustice have to principal benefits for us: first of all it makes us walk between three rock solid understandings: That we believe in God on a cross, we believe that judgment will come beyond judgment on earth and that we believe he wants us to be involved in the solution. When we walk between these, it makes stronger our faith and gives us authority to preach when we see injustice taking action, and that’s the second point: preaching. Knowing what’s injustice in Bible terms, gives us the authority we need to preach about what’s right and wrong according to His word.
My favorite one: taking action. As God want his people be involved in the solution, taking action is part of this. We need to be very good observers (eyes and ears open) in order to be able to see things around superficial stuff: if one problem is racism for example, we need to look beyond, seek the causes, how’s affecting the population, the reason why this act is developing, I mean, there’re so many background things that we can’t see simply, but if we analyze and found this things, important things, that can really be part of giving a solution. Maybe people will disagree on some solutions, but as the article says, ignorance and denial is unacceptable. I feel like all the previous preparation that we receive at all the meetings during Sunday school at church were a way to as we prepared for the trip, we prepared too in taking actions. This previous preparation I really feel that have opened our eyes, to see things beyond the context, and I’m willing to form part of the solution.

Questions of Trust

PQT stands for ‘prior question of trust’. It’s based on the question: “Is what I’m thinking, saying and doing building or undermining trust?” What this chapter explains is how our actions can build bridges of trust upon people that have a different culture. There’s this phrase in the article that develop this topic crystal clear: ‘no matter how interesting is your story, the spinach between your teeth distracts from what you say’. Cultural differences are a fact in this mission trip, and in communication is really going to be kinda like an issue, even though that Peru is a Spanish-speaking country, there’ll be at least quiet a few differences. These are just mindsets of people from two different countries, but as we go to Mancora, we need to think constantly if our actions are really building trust. Forming relationships there is part of our goals and trust is a fact for a relationship. How can we build relationships without trust? How can we be trust-worthy if what we do may disrupt our intentions? If cultural ignorance distracts from the message of Christ, as we think in what we say, we need to learn how we say and do things in order to be able to share the Gospel.
Cultural Communication Patterns: I got a friend that told me he had a horrible experience in a foreign country (don’t remember which one) by calling a cop by only waving his hand, apparently that meant something really rude, like a curse symbol or something like that. Maybe in Peru, some patterns of communication maybe different from here and we need to be aware of that, we need to ask the senior leaders for them to guide us, and we need to be really good observers, so we can learn also by looking to other people. We don’t wanna go there and like nod our head to say yes to someone and we are saying something like: I don’t like you! :(
Humor: This maybe a little controversial for some people in the team that already went to Mancora, but as I see it, it maybe a difficulty, let me explain: In Panama when we are like in a group of friends, or in a group in which we feel very comfortable, we tend to make jokes, but we know unconsciously that we are just kidding, it depends in the trust of the group. We really don’t want to make them laugh by telling a joke that they may look at it as negative. Humor in a new culture frequently sounds negative, so here we need guidance from the senior leaders and also be very good observers.
Time Views: CBC is a chronometer :) Service starts at this time, end at this team; meeting starts at this time, end at this time. Some Panamanians lacks of this chronometer, but we are used to be on ‘time’ on CBC stuff, at least CBC is on time, indeed. We don’t know how things are with time in Peru, they may be on time, or late, we don’t know; we need to apply the Gumby philosophy here and see things around to look how they work, if they are always on time, or have the ‘elegant late’ of the Panamanians. :)
For me, the most difficult will be the frames of reference. I have many ways to express my frame of reference, in they way I see it, even the phrases in our speech determines that. I used a lot the word ‘man’ and mention some Spanglish words in my talks, and I do it unconsciously. For this I need to work my mind for general points of common understanding; general subjects that may not be an offense for the people in Mancora. I need to think very carefully the things I say so I need to train my mind!

Mack and Leanne's Guide to Short-term Mission Trips

I can summarize this article with the phrase “You reap what you sow”. In this track that’s our life, there are definitely going to be some difficulties, and in some of these we may have to take some risks for our own good. But the things that may be go wrong in our trip, are external forces that we can’t control, so as risks, and the seven aspects about risks of this guideline are just the key point of how to handle it and encourage us about it. The ones that really caught my attention were: Jesus rewards risk: that’s so cool! But we are soon to forget this! These must be our pillar to take some risks for own good; Risk on things that are worth it: Come on! We are not talking about risking two hundred bucks in one all-in poker bet! But we should take the ones that will build us, that will build trust upon the people, maybe as the article says, eating some risky food to build trust, doing like some cultural thing that seems risky for you; When something bad happens, and something bad will happen, be calm and compliant: …Something bad will happen? OF COURSE. I mean, we are representing the body of Christ in there and we have a big enemy that will just do anything to ruin our trip, but we have a bigger God that already won the war, the only thing that we need to do is ask for God for patience. There’s a verse in the Bible in Ephesians 6 that talks about that we need to wear the armor of God because when the bad day comes, we need to be prepared. The Bible here is implicitly saying that, THE BAD DAY WILL COME! And we must be prepared for this, because if that day hits the date when we are in Mancora, as we lose our patience, we may lose our goal, and most importantly, we may lose some souls for Jesus. We may not change them; Jesus is the only one, who can make a change, but we are the ones that throw the seeds, and Jesus will handle the rest. But we can be mediators in this growing by building up some trust. There are going to be things that we need to take some good risks, In Mancora there can be some trust issues, language issues, etc. For these stuff, risk is good and important.

Summarize

Maybe for me, risk is called eating a fruit! Maybe for others, risk is called not saying a specific word. But risk involves a subject that I found very important in this guideline: BUILD TRUST. Risk is necessary, is good because it will make us become the people that Jesus wants us to become (Jesus rewards risks), and as I mention before and my two previous posts about risks and team issues, we must be constant in prayer, I believe that’s the only way to control our patience and emotions. Some of us may be not that patient, but we have to remember always that God is in control, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and as we think we can handle our emotions ourselves, HE as a gentleman won’t be involved, as we pray and let Him in our hearts, He will handle us. Let’s remember this always!

Dos and Dont's

Definitely, the most dangerous ones will be the food, water and health issues, and some low profile suggestions. Maybe because we live here in Panama, we are used to drinking water to take a bath with it, to brush our teeth with it, and in there we can’t use it like that, but bottled water. If someone gets really sick, that will be kinda dangerous because it will not only affect directly the ill team member but also will affect indirectly the other team members as we worry about him or her. I don’t think that someone will eat something that fell on the ground (hope so), but we are ALL exposed to illness in some way, maybe the water, or a mosquito bite, let’s say that someone eats something that fell on the ground (…), for this we have to be constant in prayer, for ourselves and for our team members.
I think it will be difficult for anyone some communication aspects. In almost every country, that’s an issue, and Mancora is not the exception. We are used to our own cultural mindset to communicate ourselves, that we found pretty normal some things that in other countries may be rude or inappropriate gestures. Some talking subjects, as politics, wealth, etc, are very delicate as I see in the handout. Even some conduct aspects like taking pictures, appropriate clothing, the amount of money you carry, I mean, we should be very careful in these things, because obviously is going to be difficult for use, but we should be aware also of these aspects, ask our hosts, see what other people do, and ask our team members with experience on previous Mancora missions trip what should we say or do. We as a team and as a representative of Christ and our church, we don’t wanna give the wrong image, or to our goal as a team in a mission to be ruined just for one of our conduct or communication issues in there. For this also, we have to be constant in prayer.

African Planter

There’s this section of the article that says if short-term missions trip help, It says that they call them learning opportunities, because short-term missions implies agenda and something to do over there, even though that change doesn’t happen in weeks because life is way too much complex for that. Both of these definitions apply to us, because as I think of this mission trip, changes don’t happen in a week, but we can make a change for a lifetime in a week and as we do that, we have a lot of opportunities to learn about God and His church over there. Also the statement about the partnerships with the churches, what was the key of that partnership? Someone that’s a good listener and is trying to learn, this applies to us in the very same way, because this is what this is about! The relationships that we build over there, are going to make the change, over this mission trip been seen as a community work, relationships are going to be the key to the change of a lifetime, not only to them as one of the goals of our mission trip, but also to us, as we learn so much more about God and the importance of missions and sharing the gospel. I also agree with the statement that talks about that many churches in America have been inspired to think about the needs of the world, but they may not know of anyone who can play the role, so do they cultivate those people? 1. Cross cultural change opportunities 2. Internationals that have come to live in America 3. Sending individuals. Number one and three are the key statement that applies to us because in Panama (personal opinion) many churches may be inspired into the world needs but neither of them doesn’t know how to play that role. We have in Crossroads cross-cultural opportunities nearby, as a bilingual church, people who talk English and Spanish interacting may be learning mutually about the other culture and how to relate to them. Also this church have send and support individuals to missions, we have to Gumbs, the Galvez family, I mean, as part of Crossroads Bible Church, we as a group of youth, are learning about the needs of the world, and in Mancora we will learn a lot more about them.

Jahango Fair

1. I saw God Almighty in the Jahango Fair in a very curious way! How everyone in this world form part of God’s plan and how even the cultures can worship God in their own cultural songs and dances. At the fair, they were showing some of the traditional dances of the Jahango culture. But I really imagine how humans in terms of their own culture can worship God. The creation worships the Creator.
2. That both cultures have the very alike cultural laws in terms of religion, the poor Christianity in there, I mean, less than 5% of the population are Christian, so it’s interesting how Jahango and Kenyans are so alike in cultural terms, they have both African influences, so I think that maybe the reason for it.
3. First of all, I think that the Galvez will face a language challenge. As they have to learn the language of the place they will go in Guinea. Also, the food may be a challenge as well, at the Jahango Fair there was this food that was typical from that culture, I didn’t taste it though, but for me it didn’t look very tasty, weird aspect...weird smell! So, the Galvez need to get used to this kinda food. Also I think that a challenge for them may be the clothes that they used in there, not for them but for their kids! They have small children and as they are growing this is the medium that they will be involved too.