Words by Mark Gregston of parentingtodaysteens.org sent me June 3 by Marlin Miller of Plain Values Magazine. Lengthy (1276 words 7 min. read time) but certainly worthy as we consider our summer FAMILY mission options….
I’ve had wonderful opportunities to visit some amazing countries and spend time on the mission field helping those in need, mainly targeting kids who have been living in orphanages and waiting for adoption. I most recently was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where I was able to spend a few days with a group of 200 young girls at an orphanage. No doubt they loved having an older white guy with grey hair hang out with them for a few days. It was the mission trip of a lifetime.
I think I helped a little. Maybe. As I was there, I thought about the cost of the trip—the housing, travel, and meals—and wrestled a bit with the vast amount of dollars it took to get there… just to be on the mission field. Nonetheless, it was a great trip. An eye-opening one. To see the need of these young girls encouraged me to want to help more. In reality, I knew there was very little that got accomplished. Traveling all that way and spending all that money that produced very little (in my eyes) was a bit disheartening. And that trip didn’t prepare me for what situation and mindful conflict I would come home to.
I live with 60 struggling teens who come from all over the country to live in our residential counseling program called Heartlight. This beautiful place is a haven of peace, a respite of hope, and a mission to parents and their struggling teens. But something happened not 400 yards from our place of hope that still puts a lump in my throat to this day.
A 14-year-old young lady named Kim, who lived near our property in East Texas… only 400 yards from a “respite of hope,” had a bad day while I was in Ethiopia spending time with 200 young girls at the Ketchanie Orphanage. She was so overwhelmed in the midst of her bad day, that she picked up her two little dogs, put them under her arms, and walked out to the railroad tracks and stood there until an oncoming train took her life. Just 400 yards from where I live. Four. Hundred. Yards.
Here I thought that I had to go thousands of miles away to find a mission project, and I missed the very one that lived just a short distance away. I felt I had missed a chance to help a neighbor.
Last weekend, Jan (my wife) and I drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit her recently widowed Dad. We spent a couple of days cleaning up his yard, trimming trees, cutting branches, scrubbing out gutters, and caught up on yard work of his once-pristine home landscape. He had focused his efforts for the last five years on taking care of my ill mother-in-law (an absolute jewel!) and neglected to take care of everything else around him. He’s 94, worn out, sad, lonely, and feels a little lost in fulfilling his purpose of taking care of his bride of 73 years.
Shearing bushes, cutting and tearing down trees, bagging leaves, and chain-sawing remnants of trees that had passed years ago became an act of love for a man who feels much like his yard… neglected, ignored, dying, and in need of some revitalization. This two-day excursion to Tulsa to help my father-in-law is one of the most important mission projects I have ever worked on and been a part of. And it was right there in my family; not a foreign mission that I needed to travel thousands of miles to “help.”
I wonder if we all sometimes miss the mission projects right in our own backyard (our family) because we feel that to be “in missions,” it’s got to be somewhere far away and more exciting.
I wonder if we miss the very “mission” that God has placed in our family, the opportunity to help those who have played a significant part in our lives.
Now don’t hear me saying that mission projects should all be at home. Or that we should never travel to help others. What I am saying is that there may be so many people in need right around us, that we don’t have to go far to extend them the hand of Christ. The apostle Paul said, “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” (Romans 12:13)
Your mission field may be right outside your back door. Maybe just 400 yards away. Or someone in your family who desperately needs hope that is wrapped up in a little help.
Would you consider taking on a mission project? It could be someone in your family. Or a neighbor who is within a stone’s throw of your porch. Or someone in your church that is too proud to ask for help but needs it more than anyone will ever know. Here are some ideas.
- Go take care of someone’s yard. When you mow yours, go ahead and mow theirs. When you trim bushes, trim theirs. When you rake leaves, rake theirs. And don’t just do it once. Make it a habit to help take care of something that might just mean the world to them.
- Commit to helping a family that has a child with special needs. And don’t just do it once. Commit to giving them a “break” by saying that you’ll be over at their home every Tuesday afternoon for the next 4 years to give them a respite and some time to refresh.
- Look around you and find a person that looks about as neglected as their home and take on a small project to make life just a little easier for them. Fix a faucet, help paint a fence, get rid of their garbage. You’d be surprised how small things mean a lot to those who can barely take care of themselves, much less a house, a barn, their property, or anything that once meant the world to them.
- Instead of keeping your kids from hanging around those “bad” kids, take those kids on as a mission project. God may have placed those tough kids around you so that you can help change their lives. I’ve found that these “bad” kids really aren’t bad, they’re just lost. And helping someone find their way when they’re lost is one of the greatest things anyone can do for another.
There are people around you who are just like the young lady, Kim, who had lost all hope. There are fathers-in-law just like mine all around you who need help but are much too proud to ask for it. Just do it anyway. And there are those who are within a stone’s throw from your home who are praying for someone just like you to come lend a helping hand.
What I thought was going to be a purposeless, horrible, two-day time of sweating and getting worn out, ended up being my mission project of the year—right in my own family. I’ve never been thanked so many times as we sat and talked about his wife, getting older, the future, yet-to-be-made decisions about a retirement home, and what to do about a dog that is seeing her last days. God had other plans for my time during those days than what I had thought.
And I was the one that drove home with a sense of fulfillment that my efforts had truly made a difference in the life of one man… right there in my own family.
NEXT UP: Honestly, no idea. Yet!