The Life-Changing Lessons of Missional Work

I just returned from Jamaica for the second time since 2007. As part of a team working with Son Servants – a missional arm of Youth Conference Ministries (ycmhome.org) – I had the privilege of being an adult volunteer leader for our senior high youth group. I say privilege because it seems that each time I go to ostensibly do something for others, namely build houses for the poor of that nation, something is done to me. I am permanently and indelibly altered in my thinking and value system. In essence, the very meaning for living my life is challenged by simply meeting and interacting with the people of this beautiful island.

One of the first things you will hear from the veterans of this trip is when we are in Jamaica, we will be working on ‘Jamaica Time’. What that basically means is, “It will get done when it gets done,” or, “the schedule is VERY flexible.” Since we are working in a third-world country, there are always unforeseen difficulties – broken-down busses, failing equipment, lack of manpower, missing materials, etc. – that make adaptability a much needed gift to have. As Americans, so much of our lives are schedule-driven that trying to stay on task in Jamaica can drive you crazy if you let it. Yet, for the Jamaicans, this is business-as-usual. They live with these problems everyday and yet, I could see no signs of stress in the locals I was working with on either trip. I have no proof to back up my theory, but I would hazard a guess that heart disease and hypertension are not common ailments in Jamaica. So why would a nation that can’t stay on track the way we can not suffer from these problems when they are so prevalent in the US? Why would a people that have so much difficulty simply having enough food and water to provide for their families not be wringing their hands and dropping like flies of stress-related disorders? I have prayed long and hard for an answer to this question and I think the answer can be summed up in a very simple statement – “God is not found in a schedule.” We spend so much time here worrying about whether we will accomplish this or that goal that we completely miss the grace that God pours out to us every day. We are unable to see past our daytimers and PDA’s and cell phone calendars to the gifts God leaves for us in our daily walk – Things like a beautiful sunset, or the child amusing himself with a simple cardboard box, or the love of our families. We spend so much time trying to stay ahead of the clock that we run right past the truly important things in life – a family dinner, a bedtime story with our kids, a much-needed phone call to a hurting friend, a moment of quiet with our God and Creator.

When I go to Jamaica for these mission trips, I go planning to work HARD, to do whatever is asked of me to the very best of my ability with absolutely no expectations or preexisting biases. I go knowing I will come back exhausted and used up. Yet, I go knowing I will be refreshed in spirit in a way I cannot anywhere in the US. I know this because I go without my cell phone. I leave behind my watch. I don’t take a calendar. I go planning to be told where to be, what to do, and how to do it as need be for ten days. And when I get back I realize just how much I hate my electronic leash, how much I despise my over-filled calendar, and how much I long for the peace of truly living in the moment – whatever that moment brings.

There are other lessons I wish to share, but I am still on Jamaica time. I will get to them when I get to them.