There's a particular kind of nervous that comes with going somewhere for the first time. No previous team to ask. No stories from last year. No idea what you're walking into.
That was Belize this summer.
Nineteen people from Highlands Fellowship got on a plane in July and spent a week in Roaring Creek Village in the Cayo District, the first team we've ever sent to that country. They weren't going in cold. Our partners at Body and Soul Ministries have been doing the work in that village for a long time, and they knew exactly where nineteen extra sets of hands would help.
So here's what the week added up to.
Meal bags went out to more than 58 families. The team served over 405 warm meals. 115 children enjoyed three days of vacation Bible school, which for a lot of them meant a week of games and songs and somebody learning their name. Around 60 students showed up for a teen night. 40 adults sat down for Bible studies. And it closed with a community family celebration that drew more than 125 people.
Read those numbers again, though, because they're not the point. They're the container. What was actually happening was 19 people having several hundred small conversations with people they'd never met, in a place they'd never been, about the one thing they were sure of.
And by the end of the week, 18 people had decided to follow Jesus.
Eighteen. In a village most of us couldn't have found on a map.
That's the whole mission in a sentence: help people experience life with Jesus. Make disciples. Love our communities. Change the world. It turns out "our communities" stretches a good bit farther than Southwest Virginia.
If you prayed for this team, gave toward this trip, or hugged someone goodbye at the airport, this is what you were part of. The seeds this team planted will keep growing long after the flight home, and we're already thinking about next year.
See the full photo album: https://flickr.com/gp/highlandsfellowship/e0J977441P
A few questions worth sitting with
- When was the last time you did something with no roadmap and no guarantee it would work?
- What's the thing you'd go do if you knew somebody local was already there to show you the ropes?
- Who's been praying for you or backing you quietly, and when did you last tell them it mattered?