First, I should say that short term and long term is all about perspective. When I started out here, two years sounded like a long time, but now that I'm almost a year in, I know that it's really not. I'm almost halfway done and there is still so much I have left to learn. I also know that to people who have devoted their entire lives to mission work, two years is short term. I have been on a ten day mission trip, a three week mission trip, and now I am in the middle of a two year experience that I don't like to call a trip because I have a permanent address and I am living as a part of this community. This has been my experience, and it is only from this experience that I can speak. Other people will have different experiences, and that does not make either of us right or wrong.
When I look at these teams of people and try to see the world through their eyes, I admit that I think of some of the things they will not do. They will never have to experience what it means to be a mandated reporter, and they will never sit in Trauma 101 or suicide prevention training. They will be gone before they become familiar, so they will not know what it's like when you're no longer new and exciting. They will get tired, exhausted even, but they will not be here long enough to go through periods of burnout. They might learn a little about the boarding schools and generational trauma, but they will not be here long enough to see how it is woven so tightly into the fabric of the community that you can almost miss it if you don't know where to look.
One of the things I've noticed about mission work is that everyone loves to call it "God's work." Although I think this title is quite pretentious, (imagine the reaction if an accountant, or teacher, or stay at home parent dared to give their work such a title, even though their work can easily be just as Godly as mine), I guess I can understand where it comes from. And if there's one thing I know at this point in my life, it's there is a whole lot about God and God's work that I do not know.
So, the short term teams will do what they feel is their part of their work, and I will continue to do mine. When they express their excitement about being in a place where a reality show was filmed, I will try not to roll my eyes, if only for the sole reason that my mother taught me that it's rude to do that, and I suppose missionaries should try not to be rude. When I see them excited for the work they are doing, I will be happy for them. I will do my best not to join the debate about whose work is more important and more effective, because my desire to do this comes from a selfish place, not a call from God.
These teams will leave soon, but not without teaching me something. I have very strong feelings about the way mission work should be done, especially in a region that has been so deeply damaged by people calling themselves missionaries. But my strong feelings do not make me the ultimate authority on the subject. And if we are indeed going to have the boldness to call this God's work, then I should be so busy consulting God about how my part of the job is to be done that I have no time left over to criticize what anyone else is doing.
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| A random picture of a wildflower I took recently, because nothing else seemed to fit with this post. |
