Are These Trips Necessary?

(One response to the cost of mission trips.)

Some have raised the money issue when it comes to mission trips. Is the money spent on mission travel good stewardship? Wouldn't it be better if we stayed home and sent the money instead?

Attempting to follow God's leading and, at the same time, being good stewards involves us in decisions that are not always clear-cut. Our partnership with the Church in Guatemala takes us into what is for many of us new territory and requires us to take steps without having complete knowledge or certainty. This may be one of them. Let me defend what we are doing.

First, if there is an international partnership that has created more commitment and has more persons involved than the Presbyteries of Western North Carolina, Suchitepéquez and Sur Occidente, I am unaware of it. Why has it roused so much energy and become such an important cause in so many of our congregations?

Humanly speaking, I believe it is the person-to-person contacts. Since 1993, more than 100 members from PWNC churches have been to Guatemala. Even if only briefly, they have stood, literally and symbolically, with Guatemalan Presbyterians in their struggles for the abundant life God has promised and against oppression, poverty, hunger, and disease. By going, they have put their bodies and their money on the line in witness to the oneness we have together in Jesus Christ. If the contacts had been limited to mailing letters, making telephone calls, or sending e-mails, would our partnership have had the same effect? I think not. People touching people has made the difference.

For most Guatemalans, relationships matter more than projects. Being in partnership means more than constructing a building or sending a check. Arriving at their doorstep, breaking bread at their tables, praying together in their churches, these are what have given birth to the relationships that now empower our partnership.

Would the variety of programs now developing between PWNC, Suchitepéquez and Sur Occidente Presbyteries be happening if persons had not gone and returned with a vision of what it means to be one in Jesus Christ? Again, I think not. Admittedly, it's expensive. Is it worth it? I believe it is.

Second, theoretically, I cannot deny it. Money spent on traveling to Guatemala could purchase supplies, medicines, and equipment. In reality, however, that is unlikely to happen. It has been suggested to by more than one person that instead of traveling to Central America, we should stay at home and send the money. However, we have yet to receive a check for the amount of a trip from someone who has made that suggestion.

Think of mission travel expenses as an investment. People who will ante up $1,100 to travel to Guatemala are unlikely to write a check for the same amount and give it to General Mission. I wish we would do that, but most will not. Yet many of these same people who go to Guatemala will come home resolved to raise the resources here that can serve the great needs there.

Presbyterians will spend money on personal travel. Mission trips provide an alternative to Caribbean cruises, Hawaii vacations, and other more conventional options. They are a gift the church can offer her people since they make a positive contribution to the persons who go as well as to those who welcome them.

Third, the same principle is true in reverse. Western North Carolinian Presbyterians benefit from the spiritual gifts Guatemalan Christians bring to us. Are these gifts available through e-mails, telephones, and the mail? To some extent, probably, but e-mail messages and letters are poor substitutes for actual presence. Our purpose is to be of mutual encouragement (see Romans 1:12). When Guatemalan Christians stand with us as we try to follow God's call here, we are encouraged. Our discipleship and service to others are enhanced by the gifts that come to us from the Guatemalan church. By them we are enriched in faith. Without them we are the poorer.

Christian faith is incarnational. The Word became flesh and lived among us. When people are together in the church, Christ is in their midst. When Christ is there, that fellowship becomes a vehicle for spiritual transformation.

I appeal to Hebrews 1:1-2. When God finally and fully expressed his love, he didn't send an e-mail or a letter. He came enfleshed in the person of Jesus Christ. Even good marriages and other kinds of human relationships are often difficult to maintain from a distance. They are fed by times when people are physically present to each other. So it is with Christian partnerships.

You ask whether it is necessary to have so many traveling back and forth and at such great expense. We are learning that the strength and potential of this partnership is in proportion to the number who have traveled to Guatemala and/or who have received Guatemalans when they come to us.

I also appeal to 2 John 12:
"Although I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink; instead I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete."

In the 1997 Mission Yearbook, Mission Co-Workers Paul and Judy Jewett write that they struggle with the need for money to do one project or another. Sometimes when a letter would come from someone asking to volunteer,

“We are tempted to write back, ‘Why don’t you just send us the plane fare you would spend coming here, and we’ll use it to build a house, or to start a garden for malnourished children, or to sink a bore-hole for a well, or whatever...’ We may think that initially, and yet we are reminded time and again that the Lord uses our volunteers in his own very special way. The sacrifices they make are not ‘wasted,’ because, without exception, our volunteers are themselves transformed by these personal experiences in mission. The ‘work’ they actually accomplish is less important than the life-changing experience they had while working here.”

The gifts of many have been multiplied because Western North Carolina and Guatemalan Presbyterians have been together. It couldn't have happened without the trips. The resulting joy is the fruit of the face-to-face and faith-to-faith encounters, which lie at this partnership's heart.

Is this good stewardship of God's money? It seems to me it is. How much are transformed lives worth?

Adapted by Ginnie Stevens from William M. Paul
Pittsburgh Presbytery