This Is Not A Mission Trip: Part 1

As my date to departure gets closer and closer, I've really been wrestling with where I stand on missions, and particularily, global missions. Why can't they do ___ for themselves? Some have asked me. Number one response of defense: Cool thanks, that's really (not) encouraging. Number two response of reason: I'm not being paid, I'm a volunteer. Would you volunteer this much of your own time for your own country? If yes, fantastic, however you manage to do so sustainably; we need more of you around. Admittedly, using a title like "This is not a mission trip" is intentionally snarky as I wrestle with my own doubts, the critiques of peers, and global media. Bear with me in grace.

One of my college roomies recently shared this article on Facebook and I can't stop thinking about it. It's titled Voluntourism: More Harm Than Good so you know why it got my attention. Yes, it is most definitely a negative critique on the traditional "mission trip" and yes, I absolutely got defensive while reading it. But I came out at the end of it thinking, Yes, this is/isn't what I've grown up to envision as missional work and these examples are what I want to avoid. This is what MCC wants to avoid and they do ___, ___, and ___ to ensure ___ doesn't happen.

I'm reminded why the program I signed up for is called Serving and Learning TOGETHER. Here I want to quote some of my favorite points of the article, but I do encourage you to read the whole thing.

The temptation to swoop in and fix a village’s hunger, poverty, and disease seems simple enough and personally fulfilling, but it presents Africa as “victims” and creates a feel-good spectacle for the volunteers. By sending out untrained volunteers, we are essentially saying that development work is “easy,” that our skills as middle-class twenty-somethings are so valuable that they can save a village, and that just because we are from the U.S., we are superior to the third-world countries that we aim to serve.

A reflex reaction to this critique may be, “At least they are doing something,” or “Wow, I guess we can’t really do anything,” but this would be lazy thinking. It’s not that our intention isn’t genuine, it’s that our analysis isn’t. As long as the West has the kind of economic, cultural and militaristic stronghold over places like Uganda, our hard work is still not targeting the root or causes of oppression. Our main goal should be evaluating foreign policies, which we play a direct role in electing, not short-term solutions that make us feel like we “done good.”

Let’s support vocational training and community-based initiatives. Let’s talk about this White Savior Complex and how to keep it out of ministry. Let’s match volunteers to their existing skill set and require them to be integrated with their host communities, learning and listening to real needs.

Thus begins the conversation of why I shudder at the words "mission trip." Makes you do some deep reflecting, right?

He must become greater, I must become less. John 3:30. Challenge accepted.

Reduce and Reuse Me

Hi friends, family, anonymous readers- thank you for visiting my new little blog as I prepare for the trip of my lifetime! As I'm still about a month away from orientation, I've been finding myself day-dreaming (more than usual), caught up on a few details of my assignment. I'll try to connect some points and we'll see if I make any sense of these fleeting thoughts.

First to note, this primary school where I will be assisting- in fact, all of Project Gateway's missional operations- is set in a renovated prison. That's right, Pietermaritzburg's historical prison and now national monument, which had previously held great peace leaders of our time such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi! How neat is that! I will pry my nose out of the history books for now, but only to get to my point more quickly.

A second, present-day piece to note about South Africa is their strained importance on security. Did you know it's the highest grossing market in the country? For reasons, eh, I'll let the history speak for itself. Even I have personally seen and felt the tight surveillance- the concreted fences with metal spikes, the barred windows and doors, the home keypad systems- the enclosed feeling in and of itself is enough to make this free-roaming American shudder with culture shock. That's a topic that must be saved for later.

What is overwhelming to my soul is this age-old concept of reusing materials (insert joke about Mennonite frugality). Honestly, what was once, by all intensive purposes, a disgusting and horrific prison is now being used to foster church outreaches in the greater community. If that doesn't shed some hope on South Africa's peace efforts, I don't know what will! Since 1992 (basically in my lifetime!) the mission of Project Gateway has been to:
Change people's lives by
Helping them physically, emotionally and spiritually. We aim to
Uplift people and their communities through job, business and life skills,
Reaching all people without prejudice, showing the
Compassion and care of Jesus Christ, and
Honouring our Creator.

How beautiful! I don't think you have to be a peace studies major to see the goodness in that! However, I may use that acronym later to illustrate why I chose to study Peacebuilding with a side of Bible and Religion. For the time being, I'm feeling safe and secure knowing that my Lord and Savior is busy reusing creation (and using me) to better creation. I can still pray that his love cuts through those scary concrete fences...

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:7