Some random thoughts and feelings after PNG trip

I went on a short mission trip with Wycliffe this summer and was asked to write a blog on how it feels adjusting to life back home after being away for a month and living in places so different from what I’m used to. But there are so many things I could write about that hopefully I can keep it all on track and not let it get too confusing! First let me tell you a little about my trip. I went on a GET Global trip to Papua New Guinea with eight other high-school and college age students. The focus of the trip was a 10-day stay in the village where our trip leaders had worked for 20-plus years translating the New Testament into the local language. During our stay we participated in the village culture, language, day-to-day activities, and just generally got to know the village people. After our time in the village, we spent a few days of debrief time in Australia and then flew home.

For me, I guess the weird feelings started when we had to say goodbye to our native friends from the village. I had no idea how hard it would be to leave them! I don’t usually get quickly attached to people, but it was difficult to think that I may never see these folks again who had been so kind and accepting of us white people! They really had taken our whole group in as family and served us all constantly the whole time we stayed with them. But our trip wasn’t over yet when we left the village, so I didn’t have time to think about leaving them too much. We had a great time in Australia talking about our experiences and preparing how to share what we had learned with everyone back home.

However, the time came all too quickly to part ways with the team and go home for good. As I was on the flight home and actually by myself for the first time in nearly a month, I really thought about how much of a family my team had become. We didn’t know each other before we met, but after going through so many new experiences and being together constantly, these basically total strangers had now become like a second family to me. Needless to say, I was rather lonely during that flight and still miss everyone on my team to this day!

Now that I have been home for a few weeks, I’ve had some time to share with others about the trip and reflect back on the many things I learned. But I have to say that I’m still processing all the many experiences, lessons, and feelings the trip showed me all in one short month. Okay so maybe you're wondering what I’m talking about by having to “process” stuff... let me try to explain.

While I was living in the village among the native people, I experienced first-hand what little they have to live on. From primitive bush houses (basically a hut), to no electric and very little water, these people use natural resources to survive. The strange part about it is that they seem to be happier and more content than we Americans who have really everything a person could want. And if that isn’t enough to give you some serious things to think about, they also cooked for us and shared their food constantly, gave us gifts, and welcomed us as they would their own family. This is just one example of many similar experiences that caused me to think deeply about my priorities and what I consider to be important in life.

Even now as I’m back into the routine of life in America, I’m always thinking about how life is over in PNG, and how basic things like clean water, hot meals, and washing clothes takes a lot of work. For some reason, all the “important” things that keep me busy here in the U.S. seem to be less significant now as I think about people halfway across the world that have to work just to survive. We all take so many things for granted in the States that most Americans can’t even imagine what it would be like having to walk for over a mile just to get clean water for the day. I know that might sound a little cliché and we hear missionaries say things like that all the time, but it really is totally different to see for yourself how people live that way.

The trip certainly answered questions I had about missionary life and the various duties of those on a mission field. But it has also raised many more questions for me about what my responsibility and participation should be in fulfilling the Great Commission. How does God want me to reach the lost? What is the next step for me? Do I really feel called to full-time missionary work? These and other questions continually circle through my mind. However, this trip did do more for me than just make and answer questions. It fueled a passion within me to help reach people in foreign countries who have never heard the Gospel in their own language. And although I am not fully certain about what the future holds right now, I know God will lead me in the direction He wants for me in His time.