There's no place like home

Hello, it’s Pat – We arrived back home Sunday night at around 7:30 and there is no place like home. I wanted to close out this blog with some reflections on the week and tie up some loose ends… again from a first time missioner and from an adult’s perspective. I’m sorry we didn’t blog on Saturday night – we didn’t get into our church location until late at night and it was a loooooong day of travel. We stopped at a church in Warrensburg, MO. The church is undergoing a huge expansion and it was quite exciting to see. We got up very early on Sunday morning to complete our final leg back to Colorado.

We were tired, sore, humbled by what we’d been through and yet – everyone got along great on the trip home. I was quite impressed by this. Of course, some comic relief helped – like when the bird flew into our van, and the remains and feathers hit the second van. And then there was the time that Heidi went ahead and paid for our gas, and we promptly drove off without actually pumping the gas. We got a few miles down the road when Bonnie said something causing Heidi to look at the gas gauge. So we had to turn around and claim that gas.

John and Russ promised that we’d tell you more about our adventures with Bertha and Wilma (our GPS’s). They were quite helpful along the road – finding restaurants and finding our interim destinations. But when it came time to find Redbird – they were useless. They didn’t have a clue and we had to rely on ourselves to get there, hence the phrase that was coined by Michael “I am my own GPS”. I have to admit that he did great getting us around in the back hills of Kentucky.

Some reflections on the week – I find it so hard to comprehend the extent of the poverty in this part of the United States. I’ve seen it in places like Baja, Mexico, and some parts of Russia but in our own country? Values are really different in this part of the world, where no one gets driver’s licenses or insurance because they can’t afford it and because there is no law enforcement, so why bother? But, if medical care is needed – they can’t risk driving into the city. Education is not valued by many people and they don’t have a lot to do – so they sit around on their porches or in their homes all day long. It feels hopeless to the casual observer.

I have a deep and humbled appreciation for what Redbird is trying to do here – their mission is multi-fold and all the people who work here have huge hearts. There are volunteers that come down year after year to contribute whatever they can. There are people who have retired from their professions who make Redbird their new home. The two physicians are husband and wife missionaries from Kenya who are willing to work for very low wages. Our group leader was Tim and he worked with us side by side on the job – talk about patience! None of us were really qualified to build this addition and he affirmed us and joked around with us, but worked so hard. James was our supervisor and no matter what we did or how we did it – he was able to make it work.

At our closing service on Friday night – so many people stood up to share their experiences of the week. Some of the stories were so moving and I really got a sense of how God was moving through each and every one of us. There was the iron worker who was told by his company that he could not take the time to come to Redbird – did so anyway and upon arrival learned that some welding needed to be done on some bridges. He was the ONLY one with welding experience that could do that. The following week when he returned to work, he learned that he was fired. So he turned around and came right back to Redbird to continue where God needed him to be. There were people who came back to Redbird year after year to do whatever was needed. There was the job that is too disgusting to even mention in this blog – where the missionaries just delved in and did the work… despite the fact that when they returned the next day, they found the same behaviors continuing. The worship at the end of this week was powerful, moving and unbelievably beautiful.

I had a lot of time to reflect on the trip during our long journey home and I still have a lot to process. It seems hopeless and our work there seemed like a drop in a bucket. It didn’t feel like we could possibly make a difference from my human point of view. There is so much to be done. Yet, it is clear that God has a plan and who am I to doubt this? We may not, and probably will never see how His plan is unfolding. It is not our job to see and know that plan – it is our job to simply be the hands and feet of Christ in our world and reflect His light into a world where there is little. We did that and the people of Good Shepherd UMC should be very proud of this group of missionaries. As shared by Aysha that night at closing, we need to make this be, not the end of our mission journey but the beginning of many.

Who’s ready to go next spring?

Pat

The last of the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/patc303/RedbirdMissionTrip02