“Mission to Mexico 2009″ is now the “Fight for Fargo!”
Note: This entry is a shortned version of An Interesting Day for people who have shorter attention spans. I felt some of that post was important enough, it should even be read by people who may not have finished reading the other, longer entry.
Bethel has canceled this year’s youth Mission to Mexico trip. There have been many reports recently about safety of US travelers in Mexico, and from what I understand, the danger has been overstated. The current popular opinion seems to be that any American entering Mexico will be shot-on-sight, so it’s understandable that there would be concern about sending 20 high-schoolers into such an environment. However justified it is, I understand there were discussions amongst church leadership about whether or not this is an area where we should boldly act in faith, but eventually the reality of the possible danger (and potential consequences of putting youth in harm’s way) won out.
I’m going to stop for a moment and bring up Esperanza, the organization we work with in Mexico. There is a lot of information on their web site about what they do, as well as the current safety situation in the area where they work. I strongly encourage you to take a look at some of it and support them in any way you can. The consequence of the current fear of Mexico is that about half of the groups that do missions trips with them (churches, etc.) have dropped. They simply don’t have the resources they need to continue investing in as many people and communities as they have. The real victims of this situation are the people who live in those communities, and to paraphrase what was pointed out in the meeting this evening, when all the “good” people are forced to abandon them, who remains?
So the Mexico trip is canceled, but in it’s place, another opportunity has presented itself. As you also may be aware if you’re keeping up on current events, there are some major weather issues occurring in the Midwest. The Red River along the North Dakota / Minnesota border is expected to reach heights of at least 41 feet, and although I’m no expert on floods or rivers, it seems to me that this will cause major problems, especially for an area where there are large, sub-terranain sections of people’s houses (i.e. basements). There is likely to be a severe amount of damage, and people will need help. Bethel has youth that were planning to go on a mission trip during their spring break, so it now appears that instead of helping people build homes in Mexico, they’ll be helping people deal with the aftermath of their homes flooding in our own country. Details and logistics are almost non-existent right now, but Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead, MN is ready for us to come help.
As I sat in this meeting, that I hadn’t planned to be in, it suddenly became clear to me that I should go too. I can’t explain exactly why, but I’ve had this feeling before, and I’ve learned from less-than-pleasant experience that it’s in my best interest to follow it. Therefore, provided of course that Bethel can figure out logistics (and I can take care of some of my own) - which I’m confident will be taken care of if this is what we’re supposed to do - I will be going with the Bethel team to what has been dubbed the “Fight for Fargo”. The obvious major hurdle to overcome for this trip is the financial one. Clearly flying a team of 20-30 people halfway across the country will cost more than driving them down half of the state. I’m not particularly concerned for the cost of my own participation, but you find yourself interested in contributing to the cause in general, let me know and I’ll put you in contact with the right people.
I’ll close with another statement made at the meeting tonight, using air-travel as a metaphor for life:
God makes no promises that the flight won’t be rough, but he does promise that we’ll land safely.
Originally published at myfaultgeek.com. Please leave any comments there.