Short Term Missions Risk

They excelled! Folks, in mid-September Gilbert Langerak of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities and Ken Hall of Roberston-Hall Insurance offered an excellent seminar on Safety and Security for Short Term Mission Trips. It was a great seminar and I benefited from it immensely.

They addressed the following questions in a direct, forthright and embracing manner:

• What are the top security concerns with sending groups overseas?
• What health and medical checks should be required of mission trip participants?
• How can we mitigate the risk of injury and liability?
• What legal responsibility do leaders have for the health and safety of mission trip participants
• What are the best practices for avoiding the risks associated with short-term mission trips?

If you will be providing any level of leadership to a Navigators of Canada short term mission, I want to talk to you! They were clear where our greatest risks lie, what we can do to make things safer for the people we are responsible for and how we can reduce and minimize our legal risk and exposure.

I remember a conversation I had with Alan Andrews, the previous US Navigators National Director, and before that National Director for the Navigators of Canada. We were discussing finances, expenses, effort and investment of resources. He felt there were two things that were costly and well worth the investment. They were to do all we do with excellence. Not perfection. Excellence is doing the best you can with the resources at hand. The other was overseas missions.

We are called to the nations! To bring the gospel, healing and reconciliation. Nothing inexpensive here! We are called to lay down our lives.

And our short-term missions efforts are part of that! Thanks for looking at this together with me!

Yesterday, June 28, at about 10:00 pm, three suicide bombers attacked the Istanbul Airport and were taken out by airport security. It looks like 41 dead and over 100 injured. Everyone travelling to a retreat in the southern part of the country are fine.

This morning a retired CSIS senior staff commented that it is almost impossible to completely stop this kind of attack. His best idea and advice is to look at the root of this and address these issues. Otherwise we are treating the symptom and not the cause. I agree with him.

God knows exactly where these dynamics come from. At the risk of being incredibly simplistic, I quote James 3:18 – 4:2 (MSG)

You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves.You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it. You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you?

June 6 to July 5 is the month of Ramadan. One thing many Muslims do on the last evening of fasting is pray for visions from God.

I want to propose something to us.

Can we begin to pray that God will give thousands a vision of the Lord Jesus, reaching His Hands down to us all, calling us to peace, reconciliation and decrying violence? That He will give each one of us a profound sense of His Presence and each one of us will experience personal renewal and conversion and a new love for one another?

I will be doing this. I have my watch set to go off at 10:02. In Luke 10:2 Jesus calls us to pray for labourers:

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

Please pray together with me for labourers, for healing of our relationships and hearts, and for Jesus to appear to many Muslims finishing up their month of fasting! And to me too!

Back to Cuba

Wednesday we are off again. Yup, back to Cuba for 5 days. My fifth visit there, Laura’s second.

Thanks to God for  His great provision of a marvelous caregiver Jaqueline to be with Crista. Seems like His Stamp of Approval on this trip. Boy, do I delight on having Laura with me on trips like these!

Once again we will meet with Coba and Conchi. They are skilled disciplemakers and range this grand island to and fro meeting with disciples they have raised up, speaking, tending to the flock God has given them over the years. Pastors to pastors, they row through rough waters, help hard-working families stressed to the breaking point,  stickhandle through government regulations and limitations all the while making disciples. With constancy!

This is an important trip for us. Our director of the Caribbean Navigator ministry, Joe Maschoff will be with us. We want Joe to meet Coba and Conchi and get a feel for who they are. Face to face, heart to heart, with the Spirit of God bearing witness as to what He would want us to do into the future. Pray for open hearts to His leading as we meet together!

Would you please pray for us? With each trip to Cuba we feel a palpable presence of the Spirit of God and a solid does of spiritual opposition. The Spirit wins, every time. Hands down thanks to your prayers for us.

Please pray for the following:

      A deep and discernable sense of God’s leading.

      Unfurling of what He would want us to do together with Coba and Conchi, along with Joe’s direction and insights into the future.

      The Light of the Gospel to go far beyond any darkness we would encounter

      Strengthening the Hearts and Hands of this fine couple!

      For Crista’s anxiety to be minimized and real confidence for her to have in Jaquelin.

On another note, Laura sent a powerful letter to many of you about our family tragedy with the loss of our nephew Christopher in the prime of his life, living for the Gospel, loving his wife, cherishing the opportunities to bless others such as Friday French Toast and Tuesday Toasted Cheese at his workplace of truck repairs. To update you, the family is doing far better than can be expected. Like the American Bison facing an overwhelming Alberta Clipper, they have rallied together to face their storm shoulder to shoulder and are moving forward. As does the Gospel. Through thick and thin, tragedy and victory.

Bi-Focal Mission

Mission. It has an essential bi-focal aspect to it.

I remember my Grandmother Augustine darning socks in front of the farmhouse window as it looks south towards the barn and on to Lake Erie, about a half kilometer away. She sat there by the big window so she could see better as the gentle winter sunlight shone through. I loved watching her and chatting with her as her fingers went about their business. I loved watching her eyes flit from the bottom part of her glasses as she worked, then to the top when she looked over at me.

We wear bi-focals in our missions work. If we become energized about a house-build in South America with Habitat for Humanity, or plunge ourselves into a cultural and language change, I am able to sustain this energy if I have been looking closely at the mission right in front of me.

This afternoon, we will visit a funeral home. Our neighbours across the street from us will be hosting a visitation to honour a mother's life. We were last there a short 4 weeks ago when they lost a father. We walk with them.

And now my dear friend Amador, my best Chilean friend, is in the last days of his life. His cancer has spread to his brain and lungs. He has lost consciousness and is on a respirator. Despite a 6,000 kilometers gap, it's as real to us as our friends across the street. 

It may seem rather schizophrenic, but our spiritual eyes flit back and forth. We long for the full redemption of humankind and creation! We trust God that the Gospel is having its effect, both in Crestly Place, London ON as well as in Santiago, Chile. We cannot do this without our spiritual eyes seeing with bi-focals.