Trip to Joplin 3

I wanted to do one last post about our trip to Joplin – no pictures this time (see those in my first and second posts), just a few personal reflections on my experience.

First, the team. What a great team we had. I’m continually amazed by the willingness of people who attend StoneBridge to give of themselves to advance the Kingdom of God. After 4 1/2 years as a pastor here, I shouldn’t be surprised – but I’m still moved by it. The 10 people who traveled to Joplin with me gave their time, money, vacation days, and lots of energy to help people they’d never met. And they worked hard. In VERY hot conditions. Without a single complaint. I’ve been on church trips enough to know that sometimes you have good teams, and sometimes you have great teams (occasionally you have an awful team, but thankfully that’s pretty rare). This was a great team. It was my first time actually leading a mission trip – and they made it easy.

Second, the stories. One of the incredible parts of our trip was the chance to talk to so many people in Joplin, and hear their stories. Sometimes it was people using the College Heights Distribution Center. Other times it was people we met at WalMart or Starbucks. So many people were willing to share their experience. At times it was absolutely heart-rending. One woman at Starbucks could tell we were a volunteer group, thanked us for what we were doing, and told us about her husband, who was killed in the tornado. Other times it was inspiring. One man that part of the team met at WalMart told of his family of 8 who were having Sunday dinner directly in the tornado’s path. Their home had no basement. As he pulled a rug over everyone’s heads in the bathroom, he actually saw their house being ripped away around them. And he said the greatest moment of his life was watching every one of the 8 heads pop up after it had passed – they all survived. But each of these stories and more presented an opportunity for members of our group to connect with others – to hear their stories, to share in their grief and joy, to provide comfort, and sometimes even to pray with them. What a great privilege.

Third, God’s response to evil and suffering in the world. As time goes on, it becomes more and more clear to me how integral we are, as followers of Jesus, in God’s response to evil in the world. Ultimately, God’s response was sending Jesus. Not only did he pay for our sins on the cross – but evil did its worst to him that day. God became man and died. Died on a cross, the willing victim of the world’s corruption and violence. And then he rose from the grave – signalling the defeat of evil once and for all. And one day, God will set the world right – justice will truly be done, there will be no more suffering, and evil’s defeat will be complete.

But in the meantime, God chooses to work through us. He calls on us to provide justice to the powerless and oppressed. He calls on us to love our enemies and work for peace. He calls on us to show compassion and give comfort to the helpless, sick and hurting. And on our best days, we answer that call in both big and small ways. In Joplin, we saw the evidence of what can happen when Christians answer God’s call – thousands of volunteers have spent time in Joplin since the tornado, and continue to do so. And people’s lives continue to be touched as God’s people reach out to help.

Fourth, the Examen. For our evening “debriefing” times, I tried something new with our team. We used a spiritual practice called the Examen, which Christians have used for thousands of years as a way of reviewing their day. The goal is to become increasingly aware of God’s presence and the Holy Spirit’s movement in our lives. There are many forms – we used a pretty simple one that involved two questions: For what today am I most grateful? And for what today am I least grateful? And it provided a great way for us to talk about our day – the good and the bad – and to see how God was working in and through us.*

I could probably go on, but for the sake of space I’ll stop there. It was a great trip, and I was grateful to be a part of it.

* If you’re interested in the Examen, here’s a short book about it that I found helpful.