This is part 2 of a post that I started yesterday.
As a newbie on this trip to the exotic, beautiful Dominican Republic, I was amazed at all the things my eyes were taking in. I was stunned by the beauty of the country, and the people…oh my goodness. I didn’t speak much spanish then, but the smiles and eyes and hands…It didn’t take very long for the warmth of the Dominican Republic to make its way my heart.
We were working at a medical clinic and a nearby school that first year. My radar was up and running to see how we interacted with the locals, to see if what our leadership promised was actually going take place. Did we partner, build relationships, and invest in the local leadership, or was this going to be a “look how good we are!” kind of trip? I was concerned about the possibility of getting this wrong, of going with the wrong motives, of doing more harm than good…
It turns out that our leaders know exactly what they’re doing. We got connected with the folks at Solid Rock International (the medical clinic)–folks who were either locals or Americans who had moved down to the DR (what’s up Nik?!) to invest their lives in that little community. We have certainly made our fair share of mistakes over the years, but from the outset our intent was to come alongside the folks who are on the ground, the local who have a heart to see the Kingdom of God grow in their homeland.
Seth Barnes has written extensively about the good and bad of short term mission trips. Q Ideas posted a letter to a short-term missionary from Bob Lupton that echoes some of the same warnings regarding the negative side of STM. My lead pastor referenced this letter just yesterday in an email to our staff. Dan’s proposing that we re-think what we call our trips, changing the focus from what we do while we’re there to what happens in us as a result of our going. I don’t know if he was serious, but he tossed out the idea of calling our trips VISION TRIPS instead of mission trips. I could get behind that.
Over the years it has been interesting to see how many lives have been affected by this trip. There is no doubt that we’ve made a difference in the DR. Greater still is the difference the DR has made in us. Maybe it’s time to think about vision trips, not mission trips.
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