Commissioned

Commissioned. Charged to do a task. Sent for purposeful activity. Acting on behalf of others. Blessed and supported, in our case, by God and our sending congregations.

For the sixth time in five years, St. John's Lutheran Church in Arnold has commissioned a team of "short-term missionaries" to travel to Open Door Ministries in Tocoa, Honduras. But for the first time ever, all members of the team have already been to Tocoa at least once--some as many as five times. So you'd think we all know what to expect on this trip. Right?

Of course we do! We know to be ready to adjust plans on a daily (or hourly) basis. We know to be ready for hugs from the children. We know that we'll see and try to help people in distressing conditions, that we'll have opportunity to worship Jesus in Honduran style and share Bible stories in quasi-bilingual style, that we'll serve on plumbing, painting, electrical, and/or other projects to be identified upon arrival. We know that each mission trip is different.

We also know that many in and around Arnold, Missouri have been and will continue to be supporting us in various ways, including prayer. They are co-missioning with us. Knowing that, we are now good to go!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In, Up, and Here

For the fourth year, and fifth time, St. John's has now sent a mission team to Open Door Ministries (ODM). Nineteen of us--some men, some women, some new to this, some for the second, third, or fourth time--find ourselves this morning in the city of La Ceiba, roughly half way to our ultimate ODM destination  of Tocoa. Traveling to Tocoa is always worth a few comments. This overnight rest stop in La Ceiba was planned. However, barely getting the entire team through check in and security in time to get onto the plane in St. Louis was not planned. (Rumor has it that the pilot was the one who ordered the gate reopened for the last seven team members.) It was not planned that some team members were required to check in their personal luggage in St. Louis. (But the plan now is for that luggage to be delivered to Tocoa later today.) In addition, many of the large suitcases carrying supplies to be used and donated this week, which we did check in per plan, have not yet been flown from Mi
Read more

The Road Ahead of Us

The team has been in Tocoa now for 24 hours, having arrived in time for Sunday morning worship with the children and staff of Ministerios Puerta Abierta. Even those of us who know little Spanish can follow along (sorta) with the singing and the message. It helped that some children acted out the Biblical story of the ten men healed of their leprosy by Jesus. (Shout out to Dan and Tom for agreeing on the spot to play the role of priests who declared--mostly nonverbally, in this version of the story--that the men were healed.) Only one of the men returned to that Jesus. The other nine were so, so ready to get on with their lives. Our team is so ready to move on. Yesterday was good. No one was injured by climbing a tree with the children, or by playing soccer ("football" here, of course), or by playing party games at the mission's s celebration of October birthdays, or by hosting tropical birds on their shoulders. We explored the grounds of the orphanage and enjoyed seeing
Read more

Maybe. Maybe Not.

"Why don't they...?" That's a question we all ask ourselves when running into Honduran customs and practices. Why don't they mow their grass to look like our suburban lawns? Or drive less aggressively? Or follow our construction codes? Or do something about their tap water? Or the astonishing rate of early pregnancy? Surely we could help them better their ways, couldn't we? Maybe. Maybe not. (Arrogance check. There are probably immigrants and foreign tourists who are right now wondering why we aren't doing things the right way in the USA.) To one of those concerns about Honduras. Yesterday we may have helped the ODM orphanage take one step toward good drinking water out of the tap. Team members arrived at 6:00 a.m. to work on several concrete projects, one of which was a pad for future placement of water purification equipment. One member spoke what the rest of us were thinking: "I'm glad to know I was a part of making that happen!" Open
Read more