“Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of[a] the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” –Hebrews 12:2I have had the privilege of participating with several mission teams in different parts of the world. Most of the mission projects I have participated in involve construction or disaster response. I have also had the privilege of participating in a few medical mission trips. I have found the medical mission trips to be far more challenging for me than the construction trips.
I will never forget my first medical mission trip. Our team was serving at the United Methodist clinic in Rio Bravo, Mexico. I really struggled on this trip because I had no medical expertise offer. My Spanish was limited. I did whatever I could to help, but often wrestled with whether or not I was making any difference. I did whatever jobs were available. The trip was wonderful. We served several hundred people who would most like not have received medical care without the help of the clinic.
We witnessed many difficult things on this trip. Hard to imagine just how good our medical care is in the United States and how deficient it is in other places. We did our best to help. I witnessed hundreds of people leaving the clinic with smiles on their face after receiving medicine, hope and the loving care of each of our team members.
Our missions team that year was made up of medical professionals from several denominations. We had United Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Catholics. While working on that team I was blessed to witness a beautiful event. On our last evening of the trip before we returned home, our team gathered in a small room where prayed together. The Catholic priest who was with us blessed the bread and wine we had and our small team took Holy Communion together. In that moment, our denominational backgrounds were all set aside as we focused our hearts and minds on the love of God and God’s love that had called us together to serve.
It would have been easy for me to focus on the medical condition of many of the people in Rio Bravo. I could have simply focused on my inability to make much of a difference for the team. However, because we took time to look to God, I found strength and joy in the midst of our work.
Rev. Keith King, Online Campus Pastor
