A short term missions trip can be a life changing experience. When you take the time to immerse yourself in a completely new and unfamiliar culture, you’ll receive a certain perspective that will forever alter how you look at life and those around you. You’ll even begin to see and notice things within your own culture that you take for granted and perhaps some elements that need to be changed. Your world-view shapes who you are in every way. Hopefully your time abroad will expand that view into one that is more internationally informed and spiritually focused. 

“People are starving in Africa.” How many times have you heard this from your mom or dad when you were younger as they tried to persuade you to take just one more bite of that broccoli casserole? Your parent’s reasoning was that you should finish all the food on your plate because so many go daily without anything. We were told that countless Africans would love to get their hands on our leftover carrots and peas. So, we reluctantly swallowed our vegetables, all the while, developing a mindset that there must be some pretty hungry people on the dark continent. 

She got up from her woven bamboo chair when I approached her property, two toddlers in tow, and joined me on the ground. As I reclined on one of the rough beams supporting this woman’s thatch-roof shelter, I could only understand a phrase here and there that she spoke. The laughter in her eyes when I said a few words indicated the language barrier went both ways! We chatted, pointed, shrugged, and smiled while enjoying the breeze that easily flowed through, since her shelter had no walls. Her son eventually retrieved a bowl of freshly harvested peanuts from their home and placed it on the ground between us. As she shelled a handful and handed the nuts into my little ones’ eager, dimpled hands, I was so impressed by her hospitality.