Entering the airport, I now knew it was different. Small, so full of people it was cramped, and a little scary since I had never traveled outside of the U.S. before. My first mission trip. If I can just pass inspection. The only impression to make was that they thought I was respectful to them and that I looked like my passport picture.
Before leaving we had learned about how things might look different or might be different from what we are used to. Meeting our ride, the taxi was already different. Driving was an adventure of its own. If you honk more and are bigger (thank goodness we were) then you get to go first on the road.
Lots of run down houses and trash everywhere you look. This is my first encounter with this tropical place. You think tropical and great vacations in fancy resorts on beautiful beaches enter your mind. This was not the picture I was seeing. How can we make any difference for people who have to live here?
The hotel room looks like any I have been in except for the tile only floor. Home for the next week. Looks like it will be o.k. Later to find out that hot water is over rated. And toilets only flush when they feel like it.
Meeting the kids in the first village lined with shacks was like meeting kids anywhere I have ever been. They enjoyed the same games, fought with each other, played with each other, and ignored their parent's plea to come home for lunch. They had different skin color and went home to no air conditioning, but they were like all kids I knew.
I quickly learned that I was in another world with different social rules to follow (especially being a woman) and different ideas of homes, how to travel (many motor bikes), and how schools ran. However, families are families. They have parents who care for their kids, schools for them to learn in, and daily routines to follow. I only hoped that we were able to bring Jesus into their life for the short time we were there.
First impressions don't always reveal all that is there. It would have been easy to go back to the comfort we were used to. Oh, but what we would have missed out on by not meeting these kids with big dreams of who they want to be and the chance to help them shape that with Jesus in their center.
Loved your description of going on a missions trip. I've often felt, after going on trips like this, that the people there do a lot more for me and my faith than I did for them.
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