a global missions trip... to Illinois

i had the immense privilege of visiting Bolingbrook, Illinois this week, where a number of churches came together to present WorldVision's "Step into Africa" exhibit, a prayer path-like experience where you are transported through photography, narrative and interactive elements into the story of a child affected by the AIDS pandemic in Africa.

in planning to fly out this week, i didnt know what to expect. selfishly, i was excited to be able to travel and spend some time with my sister and her friend in Chicago, which was an awesome, captivating city that i want to go back to soon. but as soon as i met up with my WorldVision connection, Lynne, i knew that my trip was far more than just an excuse to get away for a couple of days.

There is so much to say about what happened for me on my "global missions trip", but what is striking me now, the morning after, is how much emotion i feel about what i experienced in the exhibit. What you experience is visceral.... and heartbreaking... and haunting.... and it doesn't just go away. It feels as though it's settling in me and perhaps wanting to stay with me so that i don't just keep living the way i have before. I have seen some incredible films in the past few years that have truly ruined me (in a good way) to care about the plight of people who have experienced extreme injustice ("Call and Response," "Invisible Children," etc) and so this "feeling" is not new. The moment you enter into the story of someone whose life has been forever changed by one of the myriad global issues threatening humanity (poverty, AIDS, war, human trafficking, etc), you can't help but be caught up in it and struggle through it's implications about...humans, sin, God, life, eternity, justice; all of it. And this experience now feels very similar. And while i have responded in the past to these feelings and to these realizations by trying to educate myself and get involved and support organizations that are taking action in these issues, what is haunting me about "Step into Africa" is what it's implications are for our church, and for the Church of Santa Cruz at large.

By taking steps towards putting on the "Step into Africa" experience, and in turn choosing to support a specific community in Africa through a long term commitment (child sponsorships, vision trips, fundraising, educations, etc) we have the opportunity to bring an life-changing experience to the Church and larger community of Santa Cruz. It's easy to disassociate ourselves from AIDS and poverty when we don't actually experience the reality of it. For most people, they won't be able to go visit a community afflicted by these issues, and so they can remain at a comfortable distance. This exhibit gives people to chance to connect to the reality and the stories and to the emotions of what millions of people are going through... and they can do that here, in their own town. Once you have connected to something like this, it compels you to act, to change, to grow, to love. And through those next steps of action, we as the Body have the opportunity to make a lasting change for a whole community across the world by offering them clean water, sustainable agricultural supplies, health care, education and economic support. I didn't know too much about World Vision before this trip, but from what I learned and experienced, this is an organization that not only knows what it's talking about, but has taken action for the last 60 years on behalf of the world's poor- and has learned what works, and what doesn't. They have the infrastructure and the vision and the tools to help take a church from not just caring about global issues, but to actually do something about them.

Though it was a short trip, and it was only to another part of my own country, i have this sense of having been transported to another world, to another place, to another life. the stories and voices of these children echo in my mind and i cant escape the narrators reminder at the end of the story that for some of these children seeking sponsorships, they may not have another person in the world who prays for them. i feel compelled to action, not just by my emotions, but by a deeply seeded truth inside of me that my heart is connected to the heart of God... and that what breaks His heart should break mine.

my heart is breaking.

and i am ready.