My little brother wrote one of my favorite songs in the world while he was on a mission trip to Africa. It wasn’t about the people. It wasn’t about the culture. It was about something much bigger and more universally understood than that. It was about falling in love on a mission trip.
This happens a lot. We go away on a mission trip. We fall in love. We break up when we get back.
Why does it happen? Why do we do this?
I have a few ideas:
Your relationship back home doesn’t stand a chance.
When you go on a mission trip and leave your boyfriend at home, you’ll start to see Mark, that awkward but kind of cute guy on the trip, in a whole new light. It’s a light called, “Look at Mark feed hungry children in Africa while my boyfriend plays Xbox back in Ohio.” The person back home is instantly eclipsed.
I don’t care how great they are — they’re not on the mission trip helping people. Caring about people, being a servant of the Lord in a tangible, visible way. Doing things that aren’t selfish or self-centered.
“And come to think of it, my boyfriend and I don’t even like the same music. And I love that you like weird ethnic food, too, and helping people. Can you hold on for a minute? I need to go see if there’s a phone in this village. I have to break up with someone.”
You get this weird common language with fellow mission trippers.
“Hey, remember that time when we all hiked up that little river in the jungle and there was that crazy orange lizard? And for the rest of the trip, we called anything that was crazy an ‘orange lizard situation’? That was hilarious. And then that time Frank said, ‘Bring your Bobbles to church,’ instead of ‘Bring your Bibles?’ That was so funny! Nobody gets those stories like you. Let’s fall in love on the last day of the trip and then break up when we get dropped off back at the church parking lot. I mission trip love you!”
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Excerpt from Stuff Christians Like (Zondervan).
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