I just returned from a nine-day mission trip to Mexico with eight other adults. This happens to be the same trip my son made with our church’s youth group 18 years ago. My contribution for his trip was to write a check. When I heard about this opportunity, my first thought was to write another check. But after a little more thought, my wife and I decided to go in person, which turned out to be a rewarding decision.
The Christian Daycare we would help refurbish was a mere 900-mile drive from our house. Our main tasks on the trip were to tear down, rebuild and stain several fences; tear off and replace all the siding and trim then paint one side of the main building; and remove and replace a utility room floor and joists that got wet and rotted away. Anything else we did would be bonus. We brought with us a good portion of the building materials and all the tools we would need.
It turned out that in addition to completing those three projects we also repaired and painted a wooden stairway railing and support post, put siding on a deck, replaced a stair rail, pressure washed, primed and painted a small house, including painting the trim and replacing some of its rotted trim, repaired a toilet, finished installing a shower, jacked up a deck and replaced one of its supports, painted a deck, took the best boards from tearing down the old fences and used them to repair an additional fence, paint all the trim along the roof on the main building, cleaned up the neighbors garbage that had blown onto the property, and did some general cleaning, weeding and cutting back of brush as well as falling a few small trees. A few of us also went into the local community and provided food baskets to those in need.
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As the week unfolded, the missionaries who ran the daycare were amazed at how much was accomplished in such a short time. I was exhausted, as I am not accustomed to putting in several back-to-back eight-hour days of manual labor. I was surprised by what I discovered about the process of giving back, and my improved understanding that there is so much more to giving than writing a check. Following are a few of the lessons I learned.
The need is great.
Life is a lot different for the underprivileged people in America compared to those in Mexico. Their people’s needs are far greater than ours. Just like internship year, this cannot be adequately portrayed by any words I might write. It must be experienced. It is easy to see why so many Mexicans want to move to the United States where they can pull their family out of poverty.
You lift their spirit.
There is a big difference between sending money, the easy way to help, and going in person. The missionaries we helped seemed to be rejuvenated by our presence. When we show up, they get the feeling that others care about them and what they are doing. Someone else is on their side. They see our presence, shake our hands, work beside us, eat meals with us, and develop a relationship in a way that never happens when they open an envelope and discover a check. Yes, a check does help, but a warm body provides even more. We could all see the enthusiasm increase throughout the week. By the time we left they had a spring in their step, and big smiles on their faces.
It feels good.
I never imagined how good it could feel to build a fence. I recently had my fence replaced and I had no interest in doing the work myself. I wrote the check and let someone else do the work. Knowing I was building the fence to protect the mission’s property made the work seem different. What would have been a chore in my yard seemed like a blessing in theirs. Yet, it was the same work. Doing good for others blesses both the giver and the receiver.
This feeling was the same type of thing that happened when I became debt free. Not owing money to anyone felt even better than I imagined it would. There was way more benefit than the math predicted.
Many hands make light work.
It really amazed me how fast we were able to tear down and rebuild those fences. The effect of nine people working together on the same task in theory seems like a linear effect, but in practice it produced exponential results. Working as a team with each person fulfilling a different role, was like a human assembly line. By the end of the day, I felt closer to those I worked with and the pain I had all over my body didn’t feel like a burden, it felt like I had earned a merit badge. It was a happy pain.
We became a catalyst.
There were so many things needing attention at the daycare that the missionaries felt overwhelmed. As we fixed things on their to do list, they had a renewed desire to fix other things. One example was a toilet that didn’t work. There were only two restrooms for the kids to use, but unfortunately one was locked. With 60 kids using the facilities, a 50% decrease in toilets is a big deal. I asked why the bathroom door was locked and was told the toilet didn’t work. I know I can fix anything that could be wrong with a toilet, so I asked what the problem was. The missionary said he didn’t know. But after having only one toilet to use for so long, and seeing my desire to help, he was inspired to find out what was wrong with the toilet. He unlocked the door and it turned out to be a worn-out flapper valve. A super easy and cheap fix, but since he was overwhelmed, he had never investigated the problem. It just went onto the list of things that needed to be fixed.
At that point, he began to jump into action. He made several runs to the store to get parts for things we could fix. He could see so much more possibility of accomplishment once we got the ball rolling. All it took was our presence and willingness to help him make things better. Incidentally, I was not the person who ended up fixing the toilet, but my inquiry became the catalyst to get it done.
Refreshing change of pace.
Even though I was very tired at night and stiff in the morning, this experience was a very refreshing change of pace. I was a different person on the ride home than I was on the ride there.
At one point, one of my fellow workers commented that they had never seen me so relaxed and easy going, almost mellow. As a surgeon, with a stereotypical surgeon’s personality, I’m frequently in high production mode. I’m also a perfectionist; a trait most people want their surgeon to have. Outside of the operating room, those traits are not revered.
I noticed my attitude change as well. On the first day I became uptight when anything was not the way I thought it should be. After a while I found it easy to just go with the flow and do what we could to complete the project. This experience changed my state of mind and others noticed it before I did.
Team building.
Many businesses send their employees to team building events. I have never regarded team building to be of great benefit, until this week. The people who went on this trip with me were not close friends, they were acquaintances from church. But while we were on the trip the relationship between each of us changed. We worked together to accomplish tasks, we ate every meal together, we prayed together, and we got covered in paint together. Some of us (me) more than others. And our bond grew.
It’s no longer about us.
Many things we do in our normal routine are to benefit us or our family. We prepare food so we can eat, we fix something of ours that brakes, we build something we need, and we clean up our own messes (except most husbands). But on this trip, almost nothing we did was for our own benefit. Working on someone else’s behalf for several days in a row is not only refreshing, by changes how we think.
It is no longer about what I want, what I think is the right way of fixing something, or how I want it done. Working for others is about what they want and need. It was a lot like working as a surgeon again.
Although my wife and I work together on projects around the house, I especially liked the opportunity to work together on a project for someone else. It was very rewarding to cuddle up in bed at night and look back at what we did together to help someone else.
Summary
If presented with an opportunity to go on a mission trip, or help out in a third world country, or help the less fortunate in our own country, jump on the chance. There are far more opportunities to help others outside the practice of medicine than there are using our medical skills. As a surgeon, there are many things that needed to line up for me to be able to take my surgical skills to another country. But in a non-medical setting, many more opportunities can be found. Don’t limit yourself to medical missions. Yes, those skills are in high demand, but so are the other skills you have. Don’t forget you can use them also.