May 17: Commitments!

I do not disagree with any of the commitments. I think they are all very necessary and if we do them we will have a successful trip.

Two commitments I feel strongly about are:

• WE WILL stop thinking of short-term mission trips as a service to perform and see them as another expression of a seamless life of missional living that includes giving and receiving. It’s a time to learn. When we’re with brothers and sisters from another part of the world, let’s spend less time thinking about how we can tell everyone back home what we did for them and more time finding out what they’re truly facing and getting their perspective on how we can help.
• WE WILL humble ourselves before God as His servants, and humble ourselves towards those we are serving as their servants, too.

I agree with these statements because they define what missions are. We are supposed to go and SERVE the people, SPEND time with the people, and LOVE the people. The only things we have to build are RELATIONSHIPS! I know God wants us to go and be brothers and sisters to the people in Mancora, he wants us to serve Him and love Him by serving and loving the people in Mancora. Another important thing is that we have to learn from them because we are not perfect. We are christians just as they are christians trying to live for God in a sinful world.

Our indiviual and team preparation will be characterized by...our humility, our flexibility, our unity as a team, our desire to serve, our love for Christ and our desire to be like Christ!