A Mission Trip leader shares his thoughts…

In evaluating our recent trip to Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico, some thoughts have gone through my mind as to why we go on the Amor Mission Trip anyway.

My 16 year old son, who plays football, brought home his helmet to adjust. On the back of the helmet I noticed a warning label which included some intense cautions. “Keep your head up–Don’t spear with this helmet…failure to follow these rules can result in severe neck injury, paralysis, brain trauma or fatal brain injury.” These warnings were followed by a capitalized statement that said: “IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THESE RISKS, DO NOT ENGAGE IN THE GAME OF FOOTBALL.”

Likewise, there are risks involved in a mission trip to Mexico. But weighing the risks against the benefits of building God’s Kingdom keeps me wanting to do more. I understand the dynamics of working with the parents of students and I must honor their wishes when it comes to caring for their children. The safety of our students is priority. Challenging our students and teaching Christ’s mandate to be witnesses around the world requires constant tension.

This year, the violence continued to raise major unease in Juarez. Our parents expressed their concern for safety issues. In discussion with Amor, they opened up the opportunity to go to Puerto Peñasco. Most of our parents were excited about the opportunity and felt comfortable with the change. The change of location proved to be an awesome opportunity to serve our neighbors. The poverty issues were much the same. Unemployment at 70% as the tourism based economy was hit hard by the travel warnings, Puerto Peñasco is in desperate need of the church’s help. We can be tools of His Kingdom assisting the local church to meet the ever present needs surrounding them.

Amor is making a major impact on this city through the local church – and the community is eager to be involved also. Ministry opportunities are plentiful in this city. We were able to visit a couple of the local church ministries including a free health clinic and a radio station. Other ministries include food pantries, clothing banks, children’s programs, etc. We wish we could have gotten more involved in them, but time did not permit on this trip.

Yes, there are risks involved! But at no time did I even feel any danger while on this trip. The border crossing was uneventful. The Church and the community welcomed us with open arms. It was hot! (That may be a slight understatement!) We worked from 6-12 in the mornings and just a couple hours in the evenings to complete the houses in plenty of time. Some did get sick with the flu (we brought along with us) and the heat was a challenge. Along with this, the usual smashed thumbs, minor cuts, blisters, sunburns and bruises persisted.

My point: IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THESE RISKS, STAY HOME! “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

Steve

We are opening up two week: July 24 – August 7.
We need 150 participants, 75 each week to make both weeks happen.
Cost is $600 a person which provides everything but airfare and the day excursion.

Contact ladonna@amor.org with questions

Photo taken by Andrew Flavin. Puerto Peñasco, Mexico

If you have a photograph from an Amor Mission Trip that you would like to see as our Photo of the Week, please email it to jon@amor.org .

It’s not easy to slow down life. I’m as guilty as anyone. The normal ‘North American Sprint’ often becomes just the way we move in and out of everyday life. The hustle and bustle of family life, business, ‘to do’ lists, instant information in a myriad of media formats, and a fast-food culture can keep us racing from one thing to the next. In our racing from Point A to Point B, we can find ourselves moving into autopilot mode and losing small slivers of our true selves along the way.

I was first introduced to this poem through Parker Palmer’s book A Hidden Wholeness. Palmer shares these words as part of a slowing down process to connect back to “the seed of true self”. The poem is “Love After Love” by Derek Wolcott:

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Today, in the midst of a racing world and plenty of bags that we think we ought to claim, I hope to give myself a few minutes to slow down and feast on my life. Somehow I know this will deliver more wholeness to the journey between Point A and Point B.

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” – Luke 5:16

Travel Gracefully.

Jason Barger, 11-time Amor leader and author of the book, Step Back from the Baggage Claim:  Change the World, Start at the Airport

“Strip down, start running and never quit.  No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.  Study how he did it.  Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.  And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside of God.” – Hebrews 12:2 (MSG)

Today, we take each person’s spiritual life in the Ministry seriously, but it wasn’t always that way.  Sure, we had a fall Bible study and we prayed daily for the Ministry but as I look back, we were going through the motions—that is until we had a study on the book of Romans.  You can’t study Romans without looking at what “righteousness” is and isn’t.

During that time, I began praying that God would reveal the unrighteousness within the Ministry.  When He did, it wasn’t pretty!  In fact, it began with Scott and me.  We realized that we didn’t have our finger on the pulse of the spiritual life of those serving with us.

We made assumptions, many of which were wrong.  We assumed that because we are in a ministry that serves the Church, that everyone working with us would be just as committed to their local church.  We also trusted that the lives our staff lived while away from the Ministry reflected the words of Christian character as set in their job descriptions.

When I began to confront these issues and others, I was met with great resistance in particular by those that were being held accountable for their behavior. As a result, I was not very popular.  Most were either mad at me because I was perceived as unfair to them personally, or felt I was being unfair to a fellow teammate.  Eventually, someone had the courage to come tell me what people were saying about me.

Although these “little foxes” of sin were not horrible, we all know that it doesn’t take much to bring down a ministry.  Regardless, Scott and I felt we hadn’t given all these years of our lives to see the Ministry destroyed by a lack of accountability.

It was during this time that I became the Chief Spiritual Officer of Amor Ministries.  Though it wasn’t a promotion with a pay increase, this change was about dealing with the issues at hand and about developing a strategy so that spiritual life would take center stage.This is how our yearly scripture themes became our annual focus and is why the theme is often reflected on the shirt we give each participant.  If you follow us closely, then you usually know our topic because I refer to it on a regular basis.

[If you can name the themes from the last five years, you can win a free trip with us!  Hint: Last year’s topic was taken from Revelation 3:16.  Remember that whole lukewarm thing with the Church in Laodicea? NOTE: First person to respond will receive a waived participation fee.]

The idea of a new theme has been on my mind as I considered that next year we will celebrate 30 years of ministry, especially in light of this past year and all the challenges we have faced.  And I got some incredible advice from a beloved friend of the Ministry, Dan Kuban.  Our dear brother has pancreatic cancer and yet still had time to assist me in setting the course of study that would become a part of our spiritual life during this anniversary year!

Our scripture from Hebrews 12:2 in the NIV says, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Fix our eyes on Jesus.  When I look back over that period in the Ministry when our spiritual pulse wasn’t quite right, I get a big pit in my stomach.  I think about all that was at stake and how close we came to the edge.  More importantly, I feel responsible.  Yet, the one that started and finished the same race that we are in, never took His eyes off of us.  It took time, but we turned things around.

Today, we have an intentional spiritual life strategy that is woven into the fiber of our existence as a Ministry.  This year, together we will study the one who did it and never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish line in and with God!  Join us on this spiritual journey and together, we can face any challenges we find along the way!  This past year is certainly proof of this.

By Gayla Congdon, Founder and CSO of Amor Ministries

Read more by Gayla by clicking here.