As many of you know from your own experience or stories others have shared, mission trips typically have some huge obstacles. Whether it is sickness, missing loved ones, the living conditions, or cultural shock, mission trips can be hard. . After receiving some pretty heart breaking news while on the trip, I have found myself struggling with counting down the days until I am home. From my missions experience, I have rarely been homesick on a trip. It isn’t that I don’t miss my family, because I most certainly do (Hi mom), but I usually fall so in love with the people or place that I never want to leave. This news, however, broke my heart in two and I found myself wanting to be home with my loved ones. I was depending on their comfort. I was pretty much a crying zombie for a few days, not really knowing what to do with myself. It wasn’t until our nightly Bible study that God really spoke into my heart.
To give you a bit of background on my team and our Bible studies, we decided to just start reading books of the Bible. We would read through a chapter and then sit around the fire or table and talk about what stuck out to us or what God was really just trying to speak into us. We first read through Ephesians and then went on to Philippians. Our first night reading Philippians was the night after I was so devastated. This was really my first time diving into Philippians and it rocked my world. I learned two huge lessons through reading just the first chapter.
The biggest take back I had after reading this was joy through suffering. I had the suffering part down, but I was missing the joy aspect of it. We read through the first chapter of Philippians and Paul is writing with joy from prison… I don’t know about you, but I probably wouldn’t be very ecstatic about being in jail held in chains. In Philippians 1: 12-13 Paul says, “I want you to know brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.” Wow. Talk about making the best of a situation. While I may not be in prison, I was definitely not where I wanted to be. I learned that, although I may be in a lot of pain and going through hardships, I should use that pain to continue to show Christ’s love. I’m in Africa; I think I can manage to do that. Joy through suffering may not be easy, but it is essential to know that God has a bigger purpose for why there is pain in my life right now.
This brings me to my second lesson. I was in pain and away from home. I wasn’t able to just hug my mom or cry on my bed. All I had was God. He was putting me through this pain so far away from home to show that I don’t need anyone else to comfort me, because no matter where I go in the world, He will always be there.
As I begin my final week in Africa, I am making the most of my last few real days here. This excludes the twenty something hours on a bus and sixteen- hour flight back… I will be sleeping for that. This next week will be my practice of joy through suffering in all I do to show Christ’s love even through my bumps in the road.
