Eyes Wide Open

Recently a friend of ours sent us a book called "Serving With Eyes Wide Open:  Doing Short-Term Missions With Cultural Intelligence" by David Livermore which was written for North Americans going on short-term missions trips. It was a very interesting read for us and it challenges a lot of common thoughts about short-term trips. I know I will be writing more about it in the weeks to come...

I read the book in the first days of our mission trip with the Mexican Bible school students. I wanted to see if the Mexicans would adapt some of the same attitudes and thoughts that we North Americans take on when we go on a trip. To tell you the truth, I didn't see many similarities. I can say that as well from my trip to India with Mexican pastors and leaders. They think so differently!

One example is that the Mexicans are not task driven on a trip. So many times we have seen teams come here and to Nicaragua and they rise early and work all day and then fall into beds at night because they came to do a job and they are going to get it done! That's a strength and a weakness of our culture, I'm not saying it is good or bad, just different... here in Mexico they sometimes took hours to sit at the table and talk with the hosts about their lives and then took time to pray with them. It was much more relational than any trip I have taken with North Americans, but less "productive " in a physical sense.

Another thing that was very different than a trip with North Americans is that there was no "plan" per se. We didn't have an agenda and we were taken here and there on a whim. It was a little difficult to have a trip like that, not knowing what we were doing from day to day, but it all turned out okay. There was only one Mexican on our team that asked me almost every day, "What is the plan?" and I had to tell him every day "I don't know!" We got a good laugh out of that.

Comments

[Sarah Pinnix]

This is interesting. We (N Americans) are such a "busy" society. There is value in slowing down a bit, and really listening to the people you're ministering to. I wonder if anyone has determined what the recipient's impression of the "busy" group or the relational group.