October 31, 2007

Dear Friends,

During the final wrap-up on the last day of every mission trip we’ve coordinated, as the visiting delegation is leaving to go back to the United States, there’s always a question: “What next?”

After spending a week or more with Christian brothers and sisters in Mexico, many short-term mission trip participants answer this question by saying they want to learn more Spanish. Others promise to pray for their partner church in Mexico, or to stay in email contact with friends here. In written evaluations of their experience, some say they want to support PC(USA) mission work financially, and they plan to encourage their church to contribute to our salary support or to support our work.

One delegation returned home and began a new outreach to Spanish-speaking persons in their community, offering English classes and opportunities for fellowship. Several members of another group went back and enrolled in an intensive Spanish language camp near their town.

We’ve always responded to the question “What next?” by suggesting personal involvement, finding a way to put faith into action, doing something back home that will make a difference.

Over the past ten years or so, Nancy Escue participated in many mission trips to Mexico with two different church groups. She served as group leader several times, and took a personal interest in many of the issues that she learned about on short-term mission trips. In June, Nancy’s resolution advocating for a humane immigration policy was approved by the General Synod of the United Church of Christ. She had worked for over a year on the resolution, which declared that “the militarized border enforcement strategy of the United States government has been ineffective and inhumane.”

This summer, the Virginia county in which Nancy lives passed a new ordinance requiring everyone to provide proof of legal presence before using any county service. The proposal came up so quickly that people didn’t have much of a chance to study or discuss it. But Nancy felt the ordinance was discriminatory, racist, and anti-immigrant, so she went to a meeting of the county board of supervisors to speak against it.

“I was given exactly one minute to make my feelings known,” Nancy said. “There were also many other people that spoke. The hatred, fear, and prejudice expressed was appalling. I haven’t heard those kinds of racial slurs since I was a child in the 1960s. It literally made the hair stand up on my arms.

“It was hard to look into the eyes of the people that were the target of such brazen racism. The ignorance of the elected officials was stunning.”

Attending that same meeting was Susan Edmunds, who has also participated in many mission trips to Mexico. This year, she and her husband, Bob, a Presbyterian pastor who has led numerous mission trips to various parts of Mexico, spent three months of sabbatical in Merida and Mexico City. “She made (almost identically) the same points that I did,” Nancy said.

Nancy also went to a meeting of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras (Mexicans Without Borders), a local grassroots group that represents day laborers and other Latino immigrants. She had to do something there that she had done on many mission trips: step outside her comfort zone.

“I was a little nervous at first because I was one of only four gringos there. They welcomed me with the same openness and hospitality that I have always experienced in Mexico,” Nancy recalled. “The meeting was conducted mostly in Spanish but since they wanted to include everyone they took turns translating for the English speakers. I am not sure how I can help them but I know there is something I can do.”

Susan and Nancy have both responded to the question “What next?” with courage and a deep commitment to social justice that has its roots in their personal experiences on short-term mission trips. It isn’t a by-product of such a trip; rather, it is the very essence of the transformation that is a desired outcome of mission in partnership.

Returning home from a mission trip, the “What next?” question could be phrased as it is in Micah, chapter 6:“And what does the Lord require of you?”

To which the answer is: “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Dave and Susan Thomas

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 66