The point of going on a mission trip is to provide support to the people you are visiting.  The first step is just sitting with them– experiencing their way of life and spending time together.  For all the first timers on our team this was their primary job.  The second step is listening to what they need.  They need a well.  They need a meeting room to gather.  They need a nearby primary school so all the kids can join and finish.  They need teachers.  They need education; reading and writing.  They need doctors and medicine.  They need a nearby church to gather.  They need a girls school to better prepare them for college.  We can only do a little in the 3 weeks we are there.  That’s why we partner with the college and Live Love Malawi so they can support the villages every week.  The Grove has been going to these same villages for 20 years and slowly building up these facilities to support them.  The change each year is amazing because the people in the village are utilizing them and developing them.  The ABC graduates are prepared to help even more villages all over Malawi.  They are the future leaders of the country. 

Why Me?

I mentioned in the previous post all the ways we help the villages and interns.  That’s not the primary reason why the Grove sends so many people to Malawi. We get so much more out of the trip than what we put in.  The Malawians are actually the ones teaching us about community, hospitality, how to love others.  The trip takes us completely out of our comfort zone and forces us to look at this unfamiliar joy face to face.  It makes me ponder why their joy is so great.  It makes me want to hold onto that joy when I go back to the US.  The Grove’s leadership team challenge to us is to return to the US like the interns.  Hold onto the joy and show it to others in the US. It’s an uphill battle, but joy is contagious.  Unfortunately negativity, materialism, and individualism are also contagious.  This is the lesson.  This is the challenge. 

Why me?  Because God decided it was my time to go with my two sons.  There’s nothing special about me.  It would do most Americans a lot of good to go.  Maybe next year God will decide it’s your turn to go. The people of Malawi will welcome you with open arms, smiles, singing, and dancing.