Every mission trip I have been on, I have had the opportunity to be provided with wonderful material to back the trip, and learning how to properly go into a mission setting. It is so easy for us to go into a third world country, or a place where poverty is prevalent, and think that we are going in and truly changing their world, and making a huge difference. While we are making a difference, sometimes it could be said that we get a “big head” over it, basically having it boil down to the fact that many times, we give off the vibe that we are better than them. We have what they lack. I am not saying that everyone’s attitude is like this, but I am just saying that I have seen it happen many times. I think that is why it is very crucial that you have some sort of learning aide to help you before you go on to a mission trip.

One book that I have read before every trip that I go on is called “Helping Without Hurting” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. In their short book, (I promise it is a short read, it is quick and very good!) they get down to the roots of the whole idea of poverty, boiling it down to broken relationships with God, self, others, and the rest of creation. Before reading this book, I had what I thought was the picture of real poverty in my mind: lack of money, and lack of materials such as food and water. But after reading through the chapters, I came to the realization that I have poverty in my own life. Poverty is about the broken relationships in our lives, and I can almost confidently say that almost each and every one of us has a broken relationship in our lives. Having this knowledge helps you go into the trip humbled, realizing that you are no better than these other men and women around the globe, and help us to connect with them better.

When on a trip, it is so important to help meet the physical needs of those that we are helping, such as providing fresh water, food, and shelters, but having this new idea of poverty brings to light that relationships are key. If someone came over to you while you were walking around and gave you 50 dollars for no reason and walked away, you would hardly remember them, and soon their gesture would be forgotten to you. But say someone walked up and gave you 50 dollars and shared a little bit about their lives. They mentioned that they saw you with your daughter and wanted to bless you with some money to take her to a park, being as the girl reminded them so much of their own daughter, who is now grown. Wouldn’t you remember that moment so much more than just a hand out? That is basically what a trip boils down to. Handouts don’t change too much, they solve the problem of the day, such as having a full belly, but then a new day dawns and the problem is back again. But by forming a relationship, these people know of a safe place they can come back to and come to see Christ in your relationship with them.

I know that this is a step away from my usual posts about what kind of opportunities are out there, but I think that this is a very important thing to learn about, and it certainly helped open my heart and eyes to how close minded I was about the idea of poverty and the “poor”. Knowing this made going into the trip and a different country a completely different experience for me, and I still to this day, and humbled for it.

What has your idea of poverty been? And now after reading this, I challenge you to think a little more about poverty and the lack of relationship that is behind it.

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