Amanda Phifer
Free-lance writer
As the number of volunteers in missions explodes, not even the family vacation
is sacred. Indeed, a growing number of families are ditching Sea World for flights
to South America and points beyond, laden with such things as evangelistic tracts
and crayons for street kids.
As the number of volunteers in missions explodes, not even the family vacation
is sacred. Indeed, a growing number of families are ditching Sea World for flights
to South America and points beyond, laden with such things as evangelistic tracts
and crayons for street kids.
While most mission volunteers still are adults or youth groups,
serving as families is becoming a trend, a story in FaithWorks magazine explains.
One reason is family togetherness.
“Youre not leaving behind somebody that youre
gonna worry about the whole time,” says Betty Dennis, who has taken mission
trips to West Virginia and Kenya with her teenage daughter. “You dont
have to arrange child care. You spend your time ministering together instead
of anxious about the family back home or the family members so far away.”
Church-sponsored mission trips might take Christians across
town or across an ocean. They last anywhere from three days to six weeks and
are sponsored by individual congregations as well as national mission agencies,
small and large.
Increasingly, such trips are being viewed as a family affair.
“I wouldnt trade a thing for any of the trips weve
been on as a family,” says Mark Hathcox of Columbia, S.C. He and his wife,
Lelanette, went on their first overseas trip without their children, who were
young at the time. “It was tough leaving them,” he recalls. “That
can be traumatic.
“Going together eliminates that,” says Hathcox, who
later went to Kenya with his wife and three children.
A second advantage is the ministry that occurs within families,
mission trip participants say. Sharing in the struggles, culture shock, excitement
and spiritual growth as a family means no one is left out. Mom does not return
home with an excitement about the mission field that she just cannot communicate
to Dad and the children.
The challenges of traveling together strengthened their family,
says Randy Higgins, who was accompanied by his wife and three children on treks
to India and Turkey. “It bonds the family, makes you feel like you can
handle things together, builds a legacy between you.”
However, it is not just the resilience under tough conditions
that bonds these families. As they gather at the close of each day and share
stories of how God has used them and taught them, the bonding rises to a spiritual
level. “You get to see God working in your childrens lives, and thats
priceless,” Higgins notes. “To see that growth is just powerful.”
Of course, it is not just the children who grow spiritually.
The parents do as well, and sometimes, the best teachers are their own children.
Hathcox tells of a night in a village in Kenya when the team
held an evangelistic service. Though Hathcox was to deliver the sermon, the
guide also asked him to have another team member share his or her testimony.
Thus, Hathcox listened as 11-year-old Jacob spoke to the congregation.
“To have my son be a part of that service, to have us
minister together, it was quite a moment for me, both as a pastor and as a parent,”
he says.
“Our trip to Kenya and ministry there together –
thats something well always have in common, something we can always
feel a oneness about,” says Dennis, a single mom who served two weeks last
summer in the country with her daughter, Tara, 18. “It really brought us
closer together spiritually.”
Working on the same evangelism team in Kenya, mother and daughter
were able to witness each other sharing the gospel. The highlight for Dennis
came one evening after she and her interpreter had shared the gospel with a
young man in a village. The man had listened but was unwilling to make a decision.
Later that evening, Dennis daughter shared how she was able to witness
to that same young man later in the day, and he had accepted Christ.
“It was so exciting for her, meant a lot to her, and it
was really special to hear her tell about it,” Dennis recalls.
Lessons that all volunteers learn while on mission trips are
only magnified when experienced as a family. For example, seeing the material
and spiritual needs of other cultures can be eye opening, especially when compared
with this country.
“I think our culture conditions us to yearn after things
we dont have.” explains Mike Jorgensen, whose family went to Peru
on a mission trip. “These trips help our kids appreciate what they do have
(and)
not become materialistic.”
Seeing another culture firsthand also can profoundly affect
how families, and particularly children, view the world.
“All of us made real friends in Turkey the summer of 1998,”
says Higgins. “And so, the next summer, when the United States started
bombing Iraq, Lauren, our youngest, was terribly upset, asking us Are
they hurting our friends there? Of course, she was thinking from a childs
geography, but just to know that she now empathizes with people on the other
side of the planet, that she understands they are people too, it was proof to
us that our children now know theres more than what theyve seen
here.”
Going as a family sometimes is an advantage in itself. The
example of a faithful family willing to sacrifice time and money and family
vacations can speak louder than words to non-Christians in many cultures. And
in countries where women or children are second-class citizens or where men
are poor family leaders, interaction with a Christ-centered family can teach
without saying a word.
Of course, there are drawbacks to family mission trips as well.
For instance, Mom and Dad can spend so much time taking care of the family they
miss ministry opportunities.
The expense also can be prohibitive for many families, especially
for overseas trips. However, many parents hardly think twice about spending
money to send their children to baseball, cheerleader, basketball or 4-H camps,
Higgins notes.
“(And) the experience of missions is far more meaningful
for the cost,” he emphasizes.
Of course, in some settings, it may be difficult for missionary
personnel either to use whole families for ministry or to care for them logistically.
“I think its probably easier for families to do
ministry in the States than overseas,” says Debbie McDowell, director of
missions mobilization for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. “Its
one thing for a family to do a backyard Bible club together, and its great.
But its harder to find things whole families can do together in an international
setting.”
Another disadvantage is the mission-trip “virus,”
some parents note. “The challenge is, the minute you expose your family
to this, and they get a firsthand taste, they want to have more,” Hathcox
says. “And sometimes, theyll go back whether you go with them or
not.
“Of course, thats a good thing, but it can sure be hard as a parent
to let your child go off to South America or Africa when youre not going
with them.” (ABP)