Hello My Friends. I want to share my insights about a mission trip that my wife and I were blessed to be a part of earlier this year. We are active members in our church, New Life Church in Arkansas. A group of 13 people from our campus got on a plane on July 23rd of this year and flew to the Dominican Republic. We partnered with Mission of Hope Ministries and our job was to go into a community that is experiencing poverty and food insecurity.
We teamed up with a Church in the city of Santiago and we provided funds and other aide to the church so they could grow within the community. First of all, the DR is absolutely beautiful. Mango, Guava, Avocado, and Banana trees grow wild in the forests like oak, pine, pecan, and walnut trees grow here in the U.S. Second, as our team went door to door in this community I noticed something that hit me to my core and has stuck with me since. The homes we went into were little more than 'hovels' that were sparsley furnished with old tattered furniture (that had definitely seen better days). NO electronics. (i think I only saw one television in the whole community). What struck me though is this, these people were genuinely happy and content. They were grateful and thankful for what little they had without having any idea about what they didn't have. I realized that we, here in the U.S., take life for granted. We have things that the people in the DR will never have and they don't even realize what they their missing. To them, they aren't missing anything, except maybe clean running water. Which by the way, we distributed a number of portable water filters throughout the community we served. Not only that, but the people were friendly. I mean sincerely friendly and grateful in a way that I have never witnessed.
This trip changed my life. It changed my thinking. When we got home I told my wife, "We have too much, 'stuff'". I realized that here in America we build our identities on our possessions. That is to say, our outward appearance is judged by what we have. If we have nice things then we must be well off. That reminds me of the story of the rich man in the book of Matthew; "Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus replied, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments." The man replied, "All of these I have kept. What do I still lack?" Jesus answered "If you want to get into heaven, go, and sell all of your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come and follow me." When the rich man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Matthew 19:16-22) In Matthew 16:26 Jesus asked, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
My wife and I have since started selling possessions that hold no value or significant usefulness to us and have increased our tithes and offerings. Just something to think about...