Missions

This blog was inspired by agWOODS' blog "Conversing With Our Enemies" and its discussion. I was going to post this as a response, but felt that it opened a different enough can of worms to start a new thread. Anyway, the discussion was on the government, the Bush administration, and US foreign relations.

The administration likes or doesn't like certain countries for odd reasons. We didn't like Iraq because they didn't have free elections, so we went in and "liberated" all of them. Then this past fall, international relations with Nicaragua dropped because they *gasp* held free elections. It just happened that the voice of the people doesn't always coincide with the desires of the US State Department.

I have a special sensitivity toward Nicaragua because of the missions I have taken there. The missions we conduct as a church have a greater positive impact on international relations than any government body. You do not know a country unless you know its people. When we serve on missions, we connect people to people, rather than government to government. We work on genuine Christian projects, seeking to build a true community of Christ. We learn from each other. We learn things that no news organization will tell you. We begin to see each others' true needs (and we as the US are in desperate need), and find ways we can serve each other.

While in Nicaragua, we met up with Disciples missionary Carmelo Alvarez. I took the time to have many insightful discussions with him. He had just finished meeting with Hugo Chavez. He recalled for us how they, in their meeting, felt comfortable enough to be jovial with each other. He also planned to return to Cuba in the near future. He has met with Fidel Castro somewhere around twelve times (he knew the exact number).

The point of all this is we as a church already make some huge contributions to international relations. We have mission partners across the globe. Several of our regions, like South Idaho, have regular mission trips, designed to strengthen our relationships and ties in Christ. For there is truly one Christ, and he is for all people. In the midst of poverty, conflict, and struggle, we have missionaries, whether professional or work groups, who serve a greater good by establishing those ties.

The only tragedy in all of this is that most of our members aren't aware of all that happens abroad. Most aren't even aware of the profound domestic mission involvements of the Disciples. It hurts us that all this information doesn't return to the churches. If we truly desire change on our fair planet, it won't begin in the house or the senate or the presidency. It, like all things, begins with God and will emanate from the churches. We as a justice-minded denomination should emphasize mission at all turns. In addition to all the good projects, we learn to relate with and understand each other.

But not everyone can travel abroad. Age and health considerations keep many of our strongest members from making the trips into poverty, and only those with training should enter into conflict. Yet all of our members need to know what's happening. These stories won't come from CNN or the New York Times or NPR. Even if they did, they wouldn't have the personal connection that from knowing that it's us out there, that I am making a difference. Perhaps we need more than anything else to relate back to the congregations that support our missions.

With all the media trying to tell us what to believe, our members are hungry for this information. We want to hear the first-hand experience about current events from a perspective we can trust. We want to feel that we can truly help our broken world by the power of Christ. In truth, not only can we help, but we already are helping through any donation we make to missions on a local, regional, or general level. We just don't know it.