Published by Brian Slezak on 23 Jul 2008 at 02:45 pm
My Closing Thoughts on the DZ Mission Trip
I wanted to provide a last post to lay down my thoughts about the trip and event as a whole. Without a doubt, I feel the mission was worth the time and money to visit the Navajo people and serve them, even if for a short time. Could we have done a lot more and been more efficient? Oh sure, hindsight is always 20/20. Would we have had the same cultural experience if we were more efficient … probably not. In all ways it was worth it, and I really hope I can return again some day.
Ironically, the Monday after I returned I found a post on a blog I casually read titled Are Short Term Missions a Waste of Money? In the post, Andrew addresses the Washing Post article, Churches Retool Mission Trips. I’d suggest taking a moment and reading those posts, they are both thought provoking.
I’m guessing this topic is an age old question that has been asked since missionary work was formed. I’m also guessing that people gave Paul a hard time about how far he traveled at such great expense of time and or money, only to get thrown out of a town on his butt. Is it a shame that Paul didn’t decide, “Hey, I can make a lot more impact at a lower cost of time and risk if I just focus on the local community?” In the Washing Post article, a Florida pastor was quoted in saying,
“It became too hard to justify the expense of flying the kids overseas”, Brinton said. “If you’re going to paint a church, you can do that in Florida as easily as you can in Mexico.”
Ouch. While I am sure it is easier to pant a church within a 5 mile drive of your house than one in Mexico, I think the cultural experience is going to be a bit different. The article sites some great examples of mismanaged mission efforts, and I agree that there are probably a decent number of trips that need to be canceled, heavily trimmed, or completely reorganized. But as a member of the race of broken people, I can’t see the brilliance in ignoring everyone outside of our comfortable range of influence and hoping that there is someone closer to do the job for us.
In an age where the majority of American students can not identify the 50 states in our Union, or are unable to recognize that Asia is not Russia or vice-versa, I think we need to be sending more young adults all over the world to be positive Christian influences in more lives! Recently I had the opportunity to visit Toronto, Canada (great trip, loved the city; that’s a whole other post) and used their top notch public transportation system. For a quick reality check, I’m a 30+ male who grew up in a rural area of the Mid-West who never had exposure to a city of that size up until that point. I was truly surprised that none of the people on the buses, trams or trolleys talked to each other. Most sat by themselves, put on their MP3 player headphones and did their best not to make eye contact. Is that our future?! Are we to all become highly civilized anti-social societies, too scared to start up a conversation for fear of attracting too much attention to ourselves?
The trip to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico will be one I remember for some time, if not forever. I say without hesitation, that I was truly honored to have met some memorable people, some of them only briefly. As our modern world grows, it grows smaller. The age of isolationism is dead, and every one of us alive today needs to learn more about the world now than our parents ever did at our age. Our youth need more exposure to the world, not less.
My retort to Pastor Brinton is, if you are only teaching your youth how to paint any church in any town in the world, are you sure you are canceling the right trips? On the other hand, painting is a valuable trade skill to learn.
Tags: mission
2 Responses to “My Closing Thoughts on the DZ Mission Trip”
Laura Guy on 24 Jul 2008 at 7:38 pm #
Hi Brian!
Great reflections – you did some deep thinking on this trip 🙂
I had lunch with two other pastors today, and we compared notes on the mission trips we had taken. I brought up the article you referenced, and they both said they were aware of the controversy over mission trips. In the end, we agreed with you, however. Sure, there are horror stories of mission trips gone bad or people with good intentions wasting their time and energy on meaningless tasks, but most people find that a mission trip opens their eyes to new understandings. They also describe a mission trip as a spiritual experience unlike any other, when they have felt very close to God. It is often on mission trips or retreats or camp that people hear God calling them to do something new. So, yeah, I think they’re a good investment of time and money. We’ll never know all the good they do, but we can see some of the fruit in our own people and in the lives of the people we meet on the trip.
Ray on 24 Jul 2008 at 7:52 pm #
Great, great entries! Your pastor, Laura sent me the link to your blog which I will be placing on the Navajo Work Camp portion of the Disciples Men of VA webpage http://www.disciplesmenva.org
You my friend got it! Unfortunately, there are those out there that just don’t get it. I remember when Kim and I came back from DZ for the first time in 2002 and a lady in our congregation asked excitedly, “So, how many Injuns did you save?!” Kim and I politely smiled and tried to find a way to exit from further conversation gracefully.
The beauty of the people, the land the just the experience of the Dine people and Dinetah is something that I revel in and love to share with others. I sense in the language of your posts that you too will be recalling the times you spent their this summer with others throughout your life encounters.
As organizers and supporters of all who travel to DZ to participate and learn we are very glad you and the others from Living Water CC have become involved in this effort to show others the love and grace of Jesus.
We will leading a group back sponsored by the VA region next summer. It will be our 5th trip and the 7th year of helping get others involved with their own church sponsored trips. We too love the people of the DZ community. As I’ve told many, there is just something wonderfully peaceful and spiritual about being there and seeing the face of Christ in those you meet.
Thanks so much for your participation and thought regarding the DZ experience. Something tells me that we’ll get to meet and participate directly with some of you all from Living Water CC.
Peace be with you!
Ray & Kim Gryder
Mechanicsville, VA
CO-directors, Navajo Work Camp