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Mission Possible II Complete
08/10/2007
“It’s not the
game, but the spirit of the people who are playing it.”
Associate Pastor Jeff Gehle
St. Matthew Cumberland Presbyterian Church
I applied Associate Pastor Gehle’s remarkable statement to
reflect a mission-oriented message in recognition of my mission to Mexico with
St. Matthew church last month: It’s not the mission, but the spirit of the
people who are praying it. Along with several other Burleson residents, my
son and I decided to turn our annual vacation into a mission trip in Mexico July
14-19 with St. Matthew Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was a decision that
would change our lives forever.
The stakes have never been higher. The
action has never been hotter. This is Mission: Impossible III. Tom Cruise stars
as Ethan Hunt in this pulse-pounding thrill ride. Bursting with breathtaking
excitement and thrilling plot twists, this movie delivers!
-promotional copy from Mission: Impossible III
Prior to our mission, we stopped off in San Antonio to
visit my cousin and watched Mission Impossible III [M:I:III] with all of the Tom
Cruise death defying feats, fancy sports cars and James Bond gadgets. I remember
Tom’s first gig in Hollywood when he played a rebellious teen in the movie
Risky Business when he slid across his parent’s hardwood living room floor
with a microphone in hand, but without his pants. This vision prevents me from
viewing Tom Cruise as a tough spy guy. Nonetheless, I was still able to
appreciate his “mission” in M:I:III. He has passion for his work and it is
definitely reflected in his movies.
After leaving San Antonio, we drove to our mission
destination in San Juan near McAllen to join the rest of the St. Matthew mission
team at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle.
Catholic shrines are located in 26 other countries with 55 in the United States,
but only one in Texas. The Basilica was our home for three nights where we slept
in dorm-like rooms, rejoiced in evening worship services, and ate in the
Basilica Café for breakfast and dinner. Our sack lunches were prepared the
evening before each work day by the tireless, but spirit-filled mission team.
Enter Mission Possible II.
Working on a church mission is a little different than a
Tom Cruise mission. Our “ride” was a church van as opposed to the movie’s cherry
red Lamborghini. We ate sandwiches not caviar, drank water not champagne. We
wore work clothes and work boots with thick socks and full brim hats to ward off
the hot Mexico sun. We weren’t in Cozumel or Cancun. We were in Rio Bravo,
located near the Southeastern Texas border, between the town of Reynosa and
Padre Island.
While Tom’s mission was to find the $850 million dollar
“rabbit’s foot”, our mission was to build a casita* for a family of six in less
than three days with up to 15 members on each team. But that was only part of
our mission. Our entire mission team consisted of about 80 people. Four teams
were organized to build four casitas, one team was in charge of a special
project at a park centered amidst a dilapidated town, and a Vacation Bible
School [VBS] team who reached young minds through the language of love, because
– as one of the mission members said – “only God’s voice was needed.” According
to Melissa Hagler, the St. Matthew Recreation Minister and staff person for
missions, about 45 children attended the VBS daily after arriving by foot, some
after walking two hours to the Volunteers in Mission [VIM]* facility in Rio
Bravo.
I have since questioned the term “rich” and the term
“poor.” What do those words really mean? I learned soon enough. As one of the
mission team VBS teachers handed each child their own special bag of goodies [a
pencil, a coloring book, a package of crayons, a bottle of glue, some candy, a
toothbrush and toothpaste], the young Mexican boy yelled, “We’re rich, Mommy.
We’re rich!”
*The VIM is a ministry of the Oklahoma
Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Multisensory Mission.
Our mission trip was indeed a multi-sensory experience, and
I wanted to remember everything. The smells. The sounds. The sights. The people,
but more specifically, the spirit of the people who were praying to make it
happen. First of all, my son and I returned now knowing we can build a house.
Wow! What a confidence booster for both of us. But that’s what happened on the
outside. The real boost took place on the inside. I do not know the depth of the
change in my heart as of this day. I know that when I think about my mission
trip I begin to weep. I can be anywhere doing anything and I am stopped by this
powerful emotion that can only be attributed to the power of God’s love working
in me. I feel more alive. By the second day of our mission, my son shared that
he was enjoying our mission trip just as much as a Washington DC trip he took
with his father last year prior to his deployment to Iraq.
What exactly is a “mission”?
Webster’s defines “mission” as a body of persons sent to
a foreign land by a religious organization to spread its faith or provide
educational, medical and other assistance. But the word “mission” --- just
like the word “love”--- is also a verb, and here’s how we put it in action.
We awoke each morning at 4:30 am with breakfast at 5:30 am
and on the road by 6:30 am once the church vans were loaded with our supplies
for the day. After crossing the International Bridge from the United States to
Mexico daily, we drove to our destination. Once we arrived at our work site, we
began the arduous, but incredibly worthwhile mission of building a brand new
home for a well-deserving family of six. The rooster crowed not just once in the
early morning hour like you hear on TV, but at least every five minutes. It was
a proud rooster and definitely on its own mission!
After our crew mixed the cement, my son and I began
slabbing cement mixed with hope on cinder blocks one after the other, following
instructions, under the 100 degree Mexican sun. By the end of the first day, our
casita stood proud with all four walls. We were building a house. And we were
building hope. By day two, we had established a good relationship with the
family whose young sons played professional-like soccer with my son and another
young missionary from St. Matthew’s. Soccer was a language that didn’t need
words. But it wasn’t so much the game, but the spirit of the children who were
playing it.
It’s amazing and almost embarrassing what we take for
granted in this country. Cold, clean water. Spacious bedrooms with enough beds
for each family member. Air conditioning. Trash pick up. A kitchen table with
enough chairs for each person in the family. Jobs. Cars. But most of all, I
learned that we take hope for granted in this country. Hope precedes
restoration. Hope means believing life will get better.
By day three, the last day, life was getting a little
better for our host family. When we arrived early in the morning, it rained like
Texas. Big, and then even bigger rain drops. But nothing stopped the building.
By mid-day, the sun returned in full force. Our mission team formally dedicated
the new casita to the family along with an adult and a children’s bible, and
other housewarming gifts we purchased at Wal-Mart the evening before, such as
sheets and rugs for the cement floor. But most of all, we gave them the gift of
hope. That’s something you can’t buy at Wal-Mart!
*A casita is a small 12’x16’ structure made
of cement block with a corrugated tin roof. The cement floor/slab platform was
prepared in advance of our team arriving by the families and the pre-assigned
maestros [mason construction leader] for each work site.
Your decision to mission.
I’ve talked to many people since returning from my mission,
and several have expressed a desire to participate in a mission trip. So here
are the facts. It was only $250 per person which included the transportation,
and room and board --- good food and good sleeping arrangements. It was only
four days and three nights and the time sped by while meeting new people and
developing new friendships. You don’t need experience or a degree, just a
desire.
If you already have a mission, such as going to college,
starting a new career, helping an elderly neighbor, quitting smoking, losing
weight, going to marriage counseling, volunteering to help the homeless, do it
with purpose. Do it with passion. Do it with possibility. With God, all
things are possible. And all missions are possible with God. This
mission delivered! Yes, it was even better than the movie!
According to Hagler, St. Matthew has already planned a
Spring and Summer 2008 missions in Mexico, and one mission to Africa next year.
For more information about future missions at St. Matthew Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, contact Melissa “Mimi” Hagler at
Melissa.hagler@stmattcpc.org or the church office at 817/295-5832. For more
information about Volunteers In Mission [VIM] Manos Juantos [Hands Together]
Mexico Ministry, visit
www.okumcministries.org.
Originally published in
Burleson-Crowley Connection Newspaper,
08/21/2007
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