Over the next few days, I (Diana Strand) hope to share some post-trip reflections from several members of Team 1419. I'm starting with some closing thoughts from our family on what it was like to serve as a family in the mission field since we just got off the phone with MOST after discussing this very topic. As you may or may not know, our family served as guinea pigs, so to speak, for MOST Ministries on this trip since children younger than 12 have not previously been allowed on MOST trips. Since my husband, Greg, and I had served on a MOST trip to Quince de Julio last year, when the opportunity arose for us to return this year, our first question was whether Adam and Audrey could come.
Serving together on a short-term mission has been a goal for our family for several years now. We have wanted to serve as a family unit as a means of equipping our children for acts of service as members of the body of Christ. We particularly wanted them to have a cross-cultural experience like this while they were young and impressionable, before their worldview was jaded by media, peers, and growing up privileged in America. Knowing that other families reading this may have these same goals, we wanted to share some of the highlights and challenges of spending just over a week in Nicaragua with our 8-year old girl and 11-year old boy.
After this experience, we would say that our greatest takeaway is that kids are valuable team members who can connect cross-culturally in ways that adults can not. Adam and Audrey were not just tagalongs -- they were valued team members. Only kids can truly connect with other kids and for them, the language barrier was never a real issue. They were able to just play with the kids in the church yard, participate with them at VBS, and hold hands and give hugs in ways we could not as adults.
And yet it wasn't just the cross-cultural connection -- they were part of our team of 12. True, Adam and Audrey couldn't take on the same team jobs all the adults could -- they're not quite ready to cook breakfast for 12 without adult supervision. Yet they did take on jobs like helping to prep the crafts for VBS and serving as photographer. Our teammates were great about asking the kids for their input and perspective, and Adam and Audrey often had different insights that were helpful to the team.
One incident that stands out is when we gave our kids the opportunity to contribute in sharing a devotion with the team on our last night together. Both of them chose to speak from Philippians, chapter 4. Adam went first and read from verses 10 to 13:
Adam talked about how his perspective was changed after a week of seeing real poverty firsthand. He said he kept thinking of these verses and how little we truly need of "things" when we have God.
Audrey then read Philippians 4:6-7:
So based on what they shared at our team devotional time, I would say that both kids came away from this trip with valuable lessons. However, there were challenges as well. The biggest challenge was sleep, or lack of it. Adam was with Greg in the guys' "dorm" and Audrey was with me and the other women. Adam was able to tune out the world and go to sleep, but for Audrey, it just wasn't possible. She is just so social that she simply could not sleep if others were up and talking. The lack of sleep probably compounded some of the stress they felt -- for any participant there is a certain level of stress in a cross-cultural setting. The kids did have one evening of fighting with each other that the rest of the team could not help but overhear, but we were able to work with the kids in their conflict resolution and have them restore their relationship with every team member and not just each other.
Yet in spite of these challenges, I would say that when it comes to being thrown into a new situation, kids are probably a bit more resilient than adults. They are accustomed to not being in control of their daily agenda and just doing what they're directed to do, so the uncertainties of what was coming up next didn't really bother them. As Audrey said one evening when we asked her what she thought of the trip so far, "You go with the flow -- you never know." I would say both kids, as different as they are from each other, embodied this attitude throughout the week.
So if we ever felt that God was calling our family to another missional service opportunity would we go? Yes, we would definitely do it again. We didn't just survive our week in Nicaragua. It was a time of growth for all of us.
Terrific analysis, glad that it worked out so well! Perfect that the team was blessed as well as the community!
ReplyDeleteNot a surprise, really, but glad that it was more than hoped.
ReplyDeleteBlessings indeed!