Volunteers

In the overseas ministry world, there is an on-going discussion about the role of short-term volunteers in the Task that God to His church.  I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of that multi-faceted, complex discussion , but one of the points that is often debated is the purpose of short-term trips.  Some people say that it doesn't really matter that much what exactly the volunteers accomplish while there are on-site; the main purpose of these short-term trips is for the volunteers to see what God is doing in that place and be encouraged in their spiritual journey to go deeper and get more involved in what God is doing at home and around the world.  Other people focus not on what God does IN the volunteers as a result of the trip; they focus on what God can do THROUGH the volunteers.  As a result, some do not want to give valuable ministry time to coordinating volunteer teams because they see it as a distraction from more effective ministry; after all, the volunteers don't speak the language or understand the culture, so they can't be as strategic as long-term personnel.  I could speak at length about our thoughts on this topic, but the bottom line is that we see both sides.  We agree that God works mightily IN volunteers when they take a short-term trip, but we also think that he can work mightily THROUGH volunteers -- provided that there is careful thought that goes in to how they can fit into the on-site strategy.  As a result, we are very picky about volunteer teams with whom we partner; they have to be willing to ask the question, "How can we fit in?"  and they need to have the attitude, "We are willing to do whatever you need, whatever is strategic for the ministry." Once we determine a strategic role for a volunteer team (what God can do THROUGH them), then we put them to work with the assumption that God will work IN them at the same time as He is working THROUGH them.  Consequently, we work our volunteer teams hard; we have specific objectives for them to accomplish!  Coordinating teams DOES take a lot of valuable time, and we want that time investment to pay big dividends not only in what God accomplishes IN their hearts but also THROUGH them in that place.

All that to say, our volunteer teams work hard!  We had 2 teams this summer, and the first one was with us for 11 days. 8 of those days were ministry days (plus a fair amount of travel); 3 of those days were solid travel of 10+ hours each (not counting the days of travel to the Philippines and back).  In the course of those 8 ministry days, they did 15 evangelistic presentations and 11 presentations to encourage believers.  So that's 26 presentations in the course of 8 days!  By God's grace, He did work IN them during this time, but He accomplished a lot THROUGH them too.

This first team came from my parents' church in central Missouri.  As soon as they arrived, we traveled down to Bicol to visit the Agta tribe and our Bugkalot tribal partners.

We utilized a variety of public transportation options to get from place to place, including van, jeepney, bus, trike, motor scooter and boat.

We also did a lot of hiking, which caused quite the scare with one of the members of the team (age 71) as the hiking and tropical heat ended up being too much, and we were literally afraid he might die on the trail in the middle of nowhere!  It was a scary time, but God carried him through.

God allowed us to see some wonderful people and share the Truth with them.

The team had a 3-time world champion archer, and it was such a great tool to draw a crowd since tribal people are very interested in archery.  As a result, we were able to share the Gospel with so many people!  

We did archery presentations in a variety of places:

In small villages...

...in open fields...

...on basketball courts...

...next to homes...

...and the banks of rivers.

Our Bugkalot partners traveled with us from place to place, and they were so excited by the impact that the team had in each place.  We were also able to spend some time with our partners at the training center, encouraging one another.

After a couple action-packed days in Bicol, we boarded the plane to fly back to Manila and then drove north up into Bugkalot territory. (Stories from that adventure will be in the next post).

It doesn't really fit into this post, but I just have to share this pic that one of the volunteers took of Mikayla in Bicol.  She often has a baby in her arms in the village. :)