"How was your trip?" ... a question I hear 100s of times in the days and weeks following a mission trip to Dulac. And after 6 trips there, I still don't know how to answer that question!
The thing is, a Dulac mission trip -- probably any mission trip -- is all about the stories.
It's about the stories of the people we served ...
... it's about the craziness of living with 11 or 34 or 46 people in a dorm ...
... it's about the stories of hurricane survivors telling you how they escaped, where they went, what they lost, who they lost, and how they rebuilt ...
... it's about making 8 trips to Hope Services throughout the week to show the kids (& adults) the alligator pond ... and about learning alligators like Peeps (candy) ...
... it's about music in the dorm at 10pm because we haven't yet practiced for worship tomorrow ...
... it's about learning new skills or doing something we know how to do but learning to do it with new tools / equipment ...
... it's about worshiping as a team, whatever the seasons, but especially powerful during Holy Week ... and it's about giving team members an opportunity to shine for God as they plan beautiful worship services for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday ...
... it's about 27 mosquito bites in 2 days and an empty bottle of After Bite ...
... it's about meeting new friends way down da bayou ...
... it's about having our heart break for little boys who need their daddy ... a daddy that left one morning and never came home, buried 4 days later ...
... it's about learning to be humble and do work that's set before that we would NEVER otherwise volunteer to do ...
... it's about enjoying Bosco's cooking at "The Road Kill Cafe" ... and praying for Bosco's healing through this gentle man's tough exterior ...
... it's about the grief experienced by so many of our Dulac friends ...
... it's about parenting each others kids, whether that be 1 or 14 of them! ...
... it's about letting the people give back to us -- crabs, wood carvings, love, shrimp, hugs, using their pool, sharing their crawfish on Good Friday ...
... it's about Easter Sunday with Pastor Kirby and his congregation at Clanton Chapel ... no new dresses, no candy-filled eggs, pure and simple worship declaring "He Is Risen! Hallelujah!" ...
... it's about using unique skills of team members in service to a community, like Bicycle Repairs ...
... it's about strangers becoming friends ...
... it's about taking the time to let kids help build a deck, knowing that a man would hammer that nail in with 3 swings, but a 6th grader might need 70 swings ... and being ok with that delay in "getting the work done" ... because what is the work that needs done anyway? building a deck or helping a kid learn how to help, how to work hard all day, how to line up the boards, how to be loved by somebody else's dad?
... it's about spending all morning making 52 sandwiches for 34 team members ...
... it's about making your 5th trip to Bayou Hardware for the day and getting to know the guys names there ...
... it's about quarantining a sick team member at a hotel for his rest and for our health ...
... it's about leaving a corner of a bedroom wall for a 4-year old to paint so that he can tell others he got to paint his own bedroom ... and then it's about cleaning up his paint mess later ...
... it's about those awkward first moments of knocking on someone's door for a visit, hoping they're home, hoping they receive this cold-call visit well, praying that the situation is safe for my family to go into ...
... it's about making trips up da bayou, down da bayou, back to the dorm, up da bayou, stop at Bayou Hardware, deliver lunch to 4 different homes, up da bayou, down da bayou, take this team member up da bayou, but his tools are at the dorm down da bayou ...
... it's about serving a dad who is heart-sick because his
wife left the country with their 9 year old son, and helping this dad
begin to remodel that boy's bedroom in hopes of his return ...
... it's about the late-night shenanigans of the teens ... er, the moms! ...
... it's about having our heart break for those things that break God's heart ... and knowing a broken heart draws us closer to the heart of Christ.
So, how was this trip? Blessed! Always blessed.
We see God's hand all over our experiences, our interactions, our joys, and our sadnesses.
When the team gathers in the evening for devotions and God sightings, asking "Where have you seen God at work today?", the discussions ALWAYS run late, the little kids ALWAYS get to bed too late, and the tears, both from laughter and from sadness ALWAYS flow.
There's no way to summarize a Dulac trip ... other than "blessed." So I guess that's my answer from now on.
BLESSED!
And now, after being home for 2 weeks, my body is recovered (late-night laughter with the moms = very little sleep) but my heart is still breaking. My heart went to Dulac 5 years ago this month and never came home. Dear God, keep breaking my heart for the things that break yours. Amen.
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