I shall be veering from my regular format for the next few weeks.

 

Why?

 

I said YES to a short-term mission trip!  Saturday the 12th I leave for Guatemala.  I will be traveling with another nurse, a dentist, a doctor, and a pastor.  Both this week and next my blog will address 6 ways that mission trips are supposed to change lives.  (gulp)  Okay – I went into this thing with eyes wide open and with no expectations.  But I really think it’s gonna surprise me.  I am writing next week’s blogs THIS week and will have to show Ted how to post these for you to read while I’m gone.  And then, I plan to go over these 6 reasons again when I return – to see how things changed for me.

 

According to Seth Barnes*, the second way short-term missions change lives is by revealing our narcissism.  Okay … just so we all understand this:

nar·cis·sism

[nahr-suh-siz-em]

noun

inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. Synonyms: self-centeredness, smugness, egocentrism.

I think we all have some narcissistic tendencies – times when we are selfish.  Who isn’t needy and egocentric at times?  But sometimes we need to step back and take a good look at the things in our little worlds that really are petty concerns compared to the needs of others.  The air conditioning is broke and we are hot?  What if we lived where there was no electricity and we could never escape the scorching summer heat?  We suffer a small cut and fix it quickly with triple antibiotic ointment and a Band-Aid.  With no access to clean water or fancy ointment – people in poor countries could get an infection and die from a small cut.

And even in our own comfortable, civilized, worldly world we live in … how often do we whine about trivial things that in reality are of little concern in comparison to God, love, and life?

In Guatemala we will be sharing medical knowledge, doing dentistry in the small dental/medical building, and building relationships with the people.  I hope I can set aside my own discomforts and needs so that I can see the needs and concerns of others.

Open my eyes Lord – Give me Your eyes so I can see.

Just Laurel

2 Timothy 3:1-7 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people

*Posted in Short-term Missions by Seth Barnes on 10/19/2010