As you travel to a new place you may experience yearnings. You go on this
trip with a sense of call. Something beckons you to this mission adventure.
You may not see it clearly in front of you. It may be something you sense
just outside your peripheral vision. You have a growing urge to see this
place or meet these people. You may have a sense that this could be a holy
encounter. You want to walk and talk, work and eat with the people. You want
to experience life by walking in their shoes awhile. You hope to glimpse a
new bit of Jesus in their face.
Traveling with such a yearning makes you vulnerable to change. To be a
“temporary local” you stop focusing on your own ideas, adjust the side
mirrors, and open yourself to the perspectives of the true locals who will
surround you on your visit and invite you to experience the mundane aspects
of their lives. These people and experiences are closer than they appear.
New Objects Approaching
In preparing for your trip, you probably began to envision things which
might happen. You learned some of the story of the people you will visit.
You formed notions of the people and their life. You may even have
formulated questions which you want answered. But once you are there, you
will need to keep your vision wide, to look not so much at yourself, but at
what is surrounding you. The answers to your questions and the clarification
of your preconceived notions will be found in your encounters with those who
live in that place and join you on your journey there.
On the road to Emmaus, the disciples had a
burning in their hearts as they talked with a stranger who came walking up
alongside them. They finally recognized Christ in the simple, everyday act
of eating a meal.
The reality of life for the people you visit
will be revealed to you in everyday activities. You may take a bite of a
peanut butter sandwich and taste the spices that lingered in the grinding
bowl where the peanuts were ground by hand. You may accept a cup of tea and
realize by the smoky flavor the water was purified by boiling it in a kettle
over an open fire. You may be invited to harvest coffee beans and then
return to the growers’ small hut for the subsistence meal their income
allows .You may tour a sweatshop and realize the clothes being made are
identical to those you wear. You may accompany your host family to a medical
appointment, only to be turned away with them at a checkpoint designed to
segregate their society. Your view of the peoples’ life yields to these new
realities.
Change Closes In
These new realities may begin to work a change in you. Once home you may
find that certain tastes, smells, sights, news photos, items in the store
transport you back to the place you visited. The side mirrors now reveal
memories which are not so far away. You catch a glimpse of them and your
heart burns.
In that burning you begin to discern the call
of Christ to new journeys in your own town. You remember a man you saw
picking discarded bread off the street and your heart burns to know more
about the soup kitchen in your neighborhood. You show your friends a photo
of the children you met in the shantytown and an advertisement for Big
Brother/Big Sister volunteers echoes in your head.
Bringing It Closer to Home
After the disciples’ encounter with the risen Christ, they returned to the
others with a story to tell. The encounters which closed in around you on
your journey now provide words and images to share the visit with those at
home. The everyday realities were the place where you saw the face of Jesus
in new ways. You bring those stories home and that same opportunity for
change is now closer than it appears for your friends and family. |
