Life-long bonds

So there’s something I’ve learned from short-term mission trips: they’re great at creating life-long bonds of friendship amongst the team members.

And friendship is incredibly Biblical. There’s truth in the Ecclesiastes passage that says:

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

In my experience, there are two places that three-strand cords are most easily created/observable: (1) small groups and (2) mission trips. And these cords are held together through Christ-centered bonds.

I still remember my very first short-term mission trip to Carlsbad, New Mexico when I was 12 years old. The two leaders on our trip were named Natalie and Mark, but their nicknames for the week were Xena (Princess Warrior) and Wally. The majority of us young junior high kids then proceeded to take on our own new identities (mine was Big Willy) and we created the Xwenas (pronounced as if it were a “z” in front).

The vast majority of the Xwenas stayed in touch until high school graduation, and there were many many more mission trips and youth retreats that included at least 5 members of the Xwenas. It was a group that grew very close together, and I’m certain that it was mostly because of our bond in the Lord.

Over the course of the next 11 years of my life, I had numerous more experiences with life-long bonds that were created on mission trips in the States, to Mexico, and to Bolivia.

Now I see trips come to Costa Rica and I see the same thing happening all over again. And it’s beautiful. I can get into a whole discussion on the benefit of short-term mission trips, but one that is undeniably true, time and time again, is the love that is shared amongst mission trip team members.

From adults to youth to college kids, I’ve witnessed bonds grow that would have never been possible otherwise. People from completely different walks of life, different backgrounds, different lifestyles, different faith histories, and different personalities . . . bonded together forever because of their experiences in missions. That’s the beauty of Christ.

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

. . . God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”

As it says in 1 Corinthians, we’re all one body, made of many different parts. I love watching the body come together on mission trips, especially here in Costa Rica.