“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”--1 Corinthians 13:13
On May 22nd ten of our youth and three sponsors left for Springfield, Missouri to work at Victory Mission, a non-denominational Christian ministry. I will be completely candid when I say that, in my heart, I went on this trip primarily to spend time with friends and on the promise of an end of the week visit to Silver Dollar City. However, after the first day of work my eyes were opened and I came to the realization that what we were doing would be more of a reward than any amusement park.
Most of my preconceptions about the mission were quickly extinguished. For instance, the kitchen in which we served the homeless people was absolutely nothing like the dirty, bug infested soup kitchen dishing out gruel that I had somehow conjured up in my imagination. Instead what we found was a perfectly clean, fully functioning restaurant that served lunch to the public and dinner to the homeless staying in their shelter.
The first night that we served the homeless men was a test of courage and mental stability for me. This can be attributed to one of the workers who so kindly informed us that some of the men became physically confrontational if they didn’t like what was being served. Suddenly I wished for something a bit sturdier than my 135 pound frame in the off chance that this was one of those nights. Fortunately we encountered nothing of the sort and once we began serving my fight or flight reflex subsided somewhat.
As I watched these men eat I had time to reflect on a few things that I had not really ever been confronted with before. As I said in church, homeless people are so often demoted to a position as footnotes of American culture. They are plot devices for Academy Award performances and fodder for primetime news program filler. We see them in our periphery, but rarely do their lives intersect with ours. Drifters and drug addicts were characters from the pages of Jack Kerouac to me before this trip. But as I looked at the fifty or sixty men in front of me, each with their diverse life experiences, I was finally able to perceive these footnotes of society for what they truly are: human beings, loved by the same omnipresent God that we worship every Sunday in our immensely blessed church.
One night we were given the opportunity to minister to these men by leading their chapel service. I was in charge of the welcoming and opening prayer, and once again I found myself grasping for something to quell my nervousness. I was well aware that the chapel service was part of a package deal: you go to the service, you get a free meal. These were men who had either never had anything or lost everything they once had. These were people who truly knew what it was like to be without and here I was wearing clean clothes I had just bought at the mall; a twenty year-old kid who has never had to spend a frigid night on the street wondering if I would ever eat again. How could I tell them to trust in a God that wanted the best for us? And yet, for the most part, we were granted with a captive audience hungry for the kind of peace and hope that can only be found in Christ.
I could go on and on about the experiences we had doing yard work at the women’s shelter or sorting literal tons of clothing at the clothing warehouse or bagging cereal and potatoes for the ministry’s food pantry, but there just isn’t the space. The meager mission work that we did on this brief trip didn’t solve any of these people’s problems, we didn’t put an end to homelessness or poverty, and we didn’t lead thousands to Christ. But in the end I don’t think that is the true measure of whether or not mission work has been a success. I can only speak for myself, though I’m sure everyone else who went on this trip would concur, but I feel as if I have a new respect for the preciousness and fragility of life. I am also more aware that my possessions are not what I should be looking to in order to fulfill my happiness. As St. Evremond said, “We want fewer things to live in poverty with satisfaction, than to live magnificently with riches.”
I want to take this opportunity to once again thank the church and everyone who helped to make this mission trip a reality. By allowing a few of us to step out of our comfort zones and help those that society so frequently ignores you have made a lasting and positive impact on many lives. I will now leave you with the reflections of some of my fellow “mission trippers.”—Chris Piercy
