There by the grace of God we go


This November, my family and I will be off to China on a short mission trip. This time, I'm not only bringing my kids but also my parents! My kids really enjoyed themselves last year (or so I like to think) and I'm really looking forward to seeing the place again. At last week's team building get-together, each of the team members shared their expectations for the trip. My expectations were as follows:

(a) to set an example for my children, so that they grow up with the paradigm that going on mission trips is NORMAL behaviour, and not a big deal. Otherwise they will end up like me, thinking that I am doing God a big favour by going. This will be our third trip as a family, and things have gotten easier from the first time to the second time (the first time, Daniel was still pram bound!), so hopefully we can maintain this discipline and enjoy it more and more as well. To be honest, it has not been difficult - both trips I've gone to have been amazingly fun!

(b) to demonstrate to my parents what a mission trip is like, because they've never been on one, and get them to enjoy the beautiful scenery in China! I suppose this will show them that their son is not a wild-eyed zealot and that mission trips are actually enjoyable, and not the preserve of religious nuts.

(c) to get myself used to going into uncomfortable territory for God's work. It's not so much China itself, which is rather nice, but as you might guess, my lack of proficiency in Chinese. This is, to me, a character building exercise, so that when the time comes for me to make uncomfortable decisions in living out my faith, I will be prepared to deal with the discomfort. If I am only used to acting out my faith in my comfort zone, then I might make inappropriate decisions in tough times or even miss God's calling when He comes knocking.

As you can see, my 3 expectations are rather self-serving. They benefit my children, my parents and myself! Shouldn't I also look to be an unconditional blessing to the Chinese who have not yet heard the good news?

But on reflection, I think I can be a little more forgiving to myself. In relation to my first two expectations of modelling to my children and parents, I think that everyone of us has a duty to model Christian principles in action to those around us, naturally starting with those closest to ourselves. It's somewhat analogous to what John says about those who claim to love God (whom they have not seen) while not loving their fellows (whom they have seen) - 1 John 4:20. If we cannot demonstrate our love to our families, it is a little odd (though not impossible and certainly not unusual) to prefer strangers whom we have never seen before (or see much less of). Of course, this does not mean it is right to say that "oh, since I haven't modelled Christian living to my family, I can't model it to other people". What happens with taking this attitude is that one's failure to love one's family becomes a convenient EXCUSE not to love anyone at all!

As for my expectation that the mission trip will build me up personally, I think God's law of sowing and reaping prevents this from becoming a trap for selfish self-improvement. In order for the mission trip to build me up, I must, as a matter of course, pour out my effort onto the people who I will meet in China. If I do not bless them, no self-improvement occurs. If I do bless them with God's love, then the law of sowing and reaping dictates that I will share the harvest in the building of my own character.

Have you gone on a mission trip before? If you haven't give it a try. Mission trips are not just for super Christians. Think you can't do it because of work/children/lousy toilets? Show the world that you, and God, cannot be beaten by a grubby toilet! If you think it helps, you can start small like me - go to relatively "easy" places first - my first trip was to Tokyo which is 99.x% non-Christian, but has fantastic squeaky clean toilets :). OK, less talk, more walk - get to it, everyone!

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