| Delegations |
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Mission Trips: Do they really further Global Mission? |
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 Over the past years, the Costa Rican Lutheran Church has had the joy and responsibility of hosting groups of people who have come on Mission Trips from the United States. Their visits involved them in a mission of sharing Word and Sacrament, and of service in Christ's name. From time to time, these folks ask the question, “Are mission trips worthwhile?” They want to know what difference their visits have made in the lives of local people, and they want to understand how mission trips relate to the church's global mission. |
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| Nombre de autor:
Comunicación y Relaciones |
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 Of course, these concerns are well founded. People have every right to get a wider picture of what they have been involved in. As a church, we want to answer some of their questions, but before we do so, we want to say loudly and clearly to all who have come, “Thank you! Thank you everyone for your love, concern, and practical solidarity with our church.”
The impact that visiting delegations from the United States has had on the communities of the Costa Rican Lutheran Church is hard to describe in a few words. The benefits and influences have been numerable. Without any doubt, for our church, the most important benefit is the sense that we are joined together with others in strong bonds of fellowship. By welcoming churches members of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America into our communities, we have had the opportunity to share our lives with them, and to discuss with them how we discern the Lord's guidance in our ministry in our society. In turn, the delegations have shared their vision and witness with us, and in this way, we have enriched one another.
In addition to developing relationships with our communities, mission delegations have made a number of important practical and economic contributions to our church. In fact, the contributions that mission trips have made to the life of our church consist of BOTH, the up-building of relationships (through renewal of friendships, workshops, liturgical services, etc.), AND the building and maintenance of physical structures (by building walls, painting, putting in floors and electrical installations, etc.).
There are many examples that can illustrate how these contributions have come together through the mission teams that have visited us over the years. WE can take many examples: laying of a cement floor, sanitary drainage and other that could satisfy an immediate need of poor rural people.
As a physical improvement, it would not only give the community a safe place in which to play, but it would serve, in years to come, as a very suitable environment for other organized activities for local kids and youth.
The team that worked on this could not know, however, that the floor, sanitary drainages, electrical installations, paintings they fixed would also serve to provide a safe haven and a means of defense against the impact of the winter time, like floods, humidity etc that ussually come every year (and will come in the future).
These regions are very vulnerable. Rough weather like storms and flooding are a constant threat. These measures give us the means of reducing the damaging impact of external threats, like floods and lack of security in all Costa Rican Lutheran Churches and it becomes a resource for stimulating the development of the communities.
The small example above illustrates how the work of mission delegations to our church goes way beyond solving immediate needs. The influence of mission visits live on in the lives of our people, and they strengthen the mission of our church to incarnate the gospel of hope and justice.
We agree with those who say that the needs we see around us are too many, and that it's impossible to address them all. We think, though, that the question isn't whether needs continue to exists or not. The larger question is whether we are capable of setting signs of justice through our ever deepening partnership in christian love and solidarity.
Mission trips help make a difference in this regard. The delegations that have come over the years to visit different faith communities of the ILCO, have truly translated the values of the gospel into practical tasks. They have reminded us of Matthew 22:39, where Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We deeply appreciate their identification with our situation. Their presence and involvement have helped us demonstrate what it means to be a living community of love.
In closing, we want to say that the efforts of all of you who have visited the ILCO, encourage and inspire us to continue to work together as partners, to address such challenges as discrimination, exclusion, and the impact of natural disasters. To be sure, buildings and structures can be replaced time and again, but not relationships. That's why we must urge ourselves to give maintainance to our relationships, so that they do not grow rusty. A cement floor, electrical installations, painting, creating spaces for learning by doing, etc. serve to build up the mission of our church. They all give hope and inspiration to local faith communities. Let's maintain the visits as a vital part of our fellowship.
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| Fuente: Participación |
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