I remember this time last year referring to E3's upcoming campaign in Cali and calling my week-long trip a "vacation" brought strange looks from my corporate HR Department and from peers -- who each seemed to turn their head in confusion like a dog and ask, 'Vacation ... aren't you going on a mission trip?'
One of the definitions of 'vacation' is "an extended break from work." During my flight home from my first E3 trip to Barranquilla, Colombia, back in 2008, I remember thinking my past week had been a dream vacation. My second E3 journey to Cali was no different when I returned to Colombia last year.
The "ambassadors" from E3 coordinate every facet of travel for trip participants and the trip into Colombia has to be one of the simplest among E3's worldwide trips: short flight into Miami, another from Miami to Colombia, then a quick bus trip to the hotel. All your expenses in Colombia are included in your financial commitment (less than $2,700) to E3 and may generate through fundraising. And then my wonderful wife, Lisa, thinks of everything I need inside my suitcase and backpack for each day, right down to this rejuvenating body spray that cools your face and last April at lunchtime was a highlight for my team in Cali.
So what happens on a typical E3 trip? For starters, E3 is equipping God's people to evangelize the lost and establish churches worldwide. Using two trips to Colombia as my only gauge, you fly in on Saturday and are introduced to your small team which is comprised of 3-5 fellow Americans. Friends for life after that. On Sunday, your team worships at its designated host church, you lunch with the pastor and his family then spend the evening at a rally alongside all the other pastors, their church members and area translators getting prepared for God's harvest that lies ahead. The translators are priceless and volunteer their week to bridge the communication gap in the mission field for slugs like me who always fail to improve their Spanish between trips. Mondays and Tuesdays are spent building membership in one church plant in proximity to your host church and the same for Wednesday and Thursday in another community.
My experience has shown me that these church plants already have buildings and a dedicated church staff and membership of 20-40 when we arrive; sometimes close to 100 when we leave! We have prayer, breakfast and "lab work" every morning at the hotel led by E3 before being transported by bus into our communities. Lunch is provided by the church where we are working and we conclude every afternoon back at the church with a short service to get the new Brothers and Sisters in Christ in the area quickly engaged into their local church and into a safe place and meeting their local pastor. Friday is our designated "off day" until late in the afternoon buses provided by E3 transport members from each of the church plants to a central victory celebration service -- which is nothing short of surreal.
E3 also includes a medical team with some of its trips to provide basic assistance to locals. In Cali last April, we also delivered hundreds of eyeglasses into our communities and saw first-hand how equipping someone with poor eyesight with free eyewear could transform their life.
On Saturday morning on the back end of an E3 trip, filled with memories and tons of new Colombian friends added to your Facebook who help keep part of your heart back in their community, you return to the States exhausted, but recharged and rejuvenated. Isn't a vacation supposed to do that?
You'll return home with these thoughts: God changed lives through you and your team. You witnessed miracles and healings and changed family trees forever. You've never felt closer to God and recognizing his voice and his touch. You are capable of anything, absolutely anything, with Christ's strength leading you. You can't imagine the rest of your life without some of the friends you just found in Colombia; both Colombians and fellow trip participants who walked side-by-side with you on your team.
(For one friend, it was truly life-changing. He returned to Dallas from Barranquilla in 2008 after his first mission trip and is slowly exiting his career as a mortgage broker to become a full-time missionary for E3 Partners, focusing on its 'I Am Second' ministry.)
E3's short-term mission trips have long-term effects. Our work alongside pastors and church members equips those individuals to continue building their membership and changing lives for Christ after we are gone. E3 has a staff of dedicated missionaries working in the countries where they work throughout the year, and curriculums that nurture believers long after people like us return home. Door-to-door evangelism on each team is further broken down into one American, a translator for him/her and 1-2 local church members. Most translators I've discovered are either taking or teaching English classes at local universities or are local pastors with strong English. Most are like us; they sacrifice a week of paid work to pay their way to volunteer building churches. No hammer and nails, but hands and feet.
Among the materials in our "mission kit" E3 provides every team member with Evangecube puzzles to help bring the Gospel to life. Great, great tool. Don't leave home without one.
When I recall Lisa's only E3 trip to Uganda in Africa back in 2007, I am comforted in choosing trips to Colombia knowing that I can wake up in the States and be at a hotel in Colombia that same afternoon and in the same time zone. There is AC at the hotel and restaurants or malls nearby and no need for mosquito nets around the hotel bed. There is a bathroom in our room and not a hole in the ground behind a wall. There is wi-fi at the hotel and tremendous food at every stop whether it's coming from a church family or area restaurant. And then I get to have Matt as my roommate. All great blessings.
Lisa told our small group church earlier this week (when one of our new members said she was from Barranquilla!) that according to her math, four trips to Colombia equals one trip to Africa as far as the toll on one's body. She has a passion for Africa like I do Colombia, but it's difficult enough to take one week away from work let alone 10-14 consecutive vacation days (and more money) to go around the world to Africa.
What truly makes an E3 trip a dream vacation for me, more than anything else, is how God gives you the privilege to share His word and His love with a total stranger that may change his or her life for eternity. Much like a doctor delivering a child, you're not responsible for the miracle, but you're front and center and in the middle of the divine appointment. You see the light go on, the skin removed from someone's eyes -- you see the peace and joy and the immediate transformation from one who is God's creation before you arrived to one who becomes God's child by choosing His son as His savior.
We don't have to be scholars (I'm evidence of that), we only have to be willing to be His hands and His feet. As E3 reminds us every trip, we're not forcing doctrine on anyone, rather offering a free invitation; a free gift. We're not asking for money when we knock on a door or pushing someone to do something for someone else to earn a reward -- we're only revealing truth that can all be found in the Bible. That's what separates Christianity from any other religion: it's nothing we can do or earn, but only by God's grace.
Sure, we could do God's work by walking our streets at home, and God calls us to do just that, but Colombians (and the rest of the world) are different, which attracts me. Colombians are beautiful and welcoming at every threshold, they value family like I've never seen and live a much simpler life than what we call "normal" in the States. You're invited into most any home, people aren't in a hurry to get from A-to-B every minute and you're not battling a multi-media circus (i.e. TVs, phones, iPods, iPads) when communicating face-to-face.
The importance of family: I still remember the amazement from my first day in the mission field in Barranquilla. Early in the afternoon, I found myself sitting in front of a family representing four generations. A mother opening the door. Her daughter coming downstairs holding a child in her arms. Another daughter coming outside with her child and then another daughter soon appearing and later a siater to the mother. After following the lead of her daughters and granddaughters in accepting Christ, the near-blind grandmother who had sauntered out from the back of the house during my visit tugged at my shirt and pulled me close and patted me on the shoulder, nodding in approval and joining us in prayer with tears in her eyes.
That single experience where God used me, and that entire house chose to trust in Him for their salvation no matter what happens or whatever background they came from, beats reading a book at a beach or exploring a museum. One of my desires to return to Barranquilla this fall with E3 is to return to that same barrio, that same casa, and to see how God changed that household after three years. Like everything else, I have to be comforted knowing God is in control. His plan is perfect. That family welcomed me for a reason and recognized they had a huge hole in their hearts that only Christ can fill.
One of the cards that Lisa sent with me to Cali last April closed with "Be in Awe." On the way to our local church after I pulled the card from my backpack, I challenged God (of all the nerve, right?) that day in prayer with my team to show us a miracle, something that defined "awe." Late in the afternoon, as I began to doubt God was hearing our prayers (of all the nerve, right?) I watched on as my translator, Samuel, prayed for the healing of a very sick and elderly woman wailing in a bed, and moments later we watched as she stood up, slid into her slippers and told Samuel and her family she felt no pain anymore for the first time in months.
Click into our trip to Cali at this Blog and read the title "Acts 4:20" for the story and to see the photos.
That's "awe" my friends. (The life story of Samuel my translator is a miracle in itself; a former bodyguard for Pablo Escobar who dedicated part of his life to bringing cocaine from Colombia into the States and is now a pastor committed to changing hearts for a God who pulled him from inside prison walls here in the States. Listening to the transformation of his life during a lunch break in Cali showed me that our God can rescue anyone -- and use anyone for His glory -- willing to surrender.)
Dream vacation for me.
Sadly, my trip to Cali in several weeks will be without Matt, who has committed to an E3 trip to Barranquilla in the fall and has already recruited two of his close friends. I never imagined until rooming with Matt back in 2008 in Barranquilla that I would vacation with a guy and the last thing we would do in our hotel room every night was pray together. We laugh together until vessels burst in our eyes (truly) and we've cried together. Our time in prayer in the mornings and late, late, late every night. Wow.
Looking back to our trip to Barranquilla in 2008, I remember spending more time anticipating what Matt and I would do on our off day on Friday and where we would explore more than anything else. I was scared to focus on four days of evangelism, where I felt totally uncomfortable and out of my element before landing in Colombia. That I quickly found is my sweet spot, but it's all the Holy Spirit. Only my hands and my feet willing to do the work.
One day into the mission field in Barranquilla, I remember Matt and I (on separate teams) met back in the hotel room that Monday night. We had each already made the decision that our off day on Friday would be spent buying taxi rides back into our respective communities loving on some of our new Colombian brothers and sisters and making sure they boarded the bus that afternooon for the victory service.
The trip to Cali, and our Friday was no different -- beyond anything I could ever, every imagine in my lifetime. Read the link on this Blog from 2010 titled "Leave Nothing."
We only have to be willing to be His hands and His feet.
Lord willing, I'm hopeful of returning to visit the National Police of Colombia on our Friday in Cali, which just happens to be Good Friday. Thanks to Facebook, I'm plugged in with many brothers and sisters in Christ from Cali, many of whom are police we met last spring. Matt reminded me last weekend I need to wear the personalized hat the police presented me last spring to speed through airport security this year in Cali. Wise man he is.
Want to join me? It may be too late to climb aboard "Team Cali" for 2011 in April, but I welcome your prayers, which are the most important component of one's journey. You can follow me on this page through April, or get bold and start planning your first or next E3 trip by visiting their website. at http://www.e3partners.org/.
You can also donate financially to my cause and/or support E3. Your donation is tax-deductible and if you include my name in the "Designation" it will go toward the balance of my trip to Cali or start my funding toward Barranquilla in the fall.
www.e3partners.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=2371
Less than two months. Can't wait.
Blessings,
Dave
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