The importance of love

This weeked, there is a retreat at Bethel for the spring break mission trips. I love hearing about these, because even though they are only for a week, a few are longer but most aren't, they are so powerful for the people involved. A team of students going down to New Orleans helping rebuild homes is a huge thing, and will affect a lot of people. I think that sometimes people view short-term mission trips as a high school thing that only youth groups go on. Some view them as something that the kids go on to gain experience at witnessing to others, but they don't really mean anything. At least that's what I've gathered from my own experience, at my home curch, and various other people I have talked to.

That is not true by any means, however. Nett Lake is an example of this, as it is such a relational ministry, and one that affects the children of the reservation as well as our team. I could name over 100 kids that I know an that reservation, and I could tell you which ones have accepted Christ. That doens't happen by not caring about the ministry and investing in it, even if we only go there for one week at a time. The point is that we keep going, every other month and every summer, and we let those kids know we love them. If that's not a long term investment, then I don't know what is.

There is a girl named Tiffany, and she is a handful, to say the least. She is fetal alcohol, and also has other behavioral issues. The first time I met her she was 7 years old, and now she's 14. She's very active, and is hard to control, and sometimes it's hard to deal with her. But we love her anyway, and let her come back every time. There is a guy on my team named Aric who has a really special relationship with Tiffany. This past summer, we divided up into groups and prayed for each other. Tiffany prayed for Aric, and this was the first time any of us had ever heard her pray out loud before. When I think about things like that, that's what makes me love short-term missions, and realize the value that it does have, on everyone.