Day 8 - Going Home

People sometimes say they wish there were more hours in a day. We had 28 hours in this one due to the time zone changes. It was great. The plane ride was longer than the first, but even more enjoyable, as I wasn't completely sleep deprived. We got out of the airport and into the van relatively fast, rode another 3 or 4 hours back to campus. I ate dinner in KB's apartment that night. That was awesome. I also got to talk to Megan Clapp about how her service trip went, and that night, Ian, Amanda, Molly, and I drove back to my house to talk about their service trip with the homeless in Syracuse and we drank tea and went to Providence in the morning.

So far, I have neglected to do a lot of commentating on the trip to Northern Ireland. I wanted to get out all of the things we actually did before I forgot (seeing as there was no internet connection where we were). I will commentate now.

When people ask me how my trip went, I don't know what to tell them. Do they want the 2-second, 2-minute, or 2-hour summary? We all know that short term missions is a touchy topic. Are they effective? Are they just an excuse to feel better about ourselves and remain detached from the actual people? Are they financially legitimate? Are they glorified vacations?

Messiah's goal with their short term trips is to have ongoing trips. The Agape Center is about the relationships between Messiah and people. One great thing that came out of this year's trip to Northern Ireland is that we are now developing the technology to have ongoing dialogue and online webcam meetings between Messiah College, The Church of the Nazarene, and schools local to Lurgan/Craigavon.

If nothing else, I am so glad that I met those who went on the trip with me. All of them are so different than myself. We have different worldviews, different backgrounds, different lifestyles. I was glad to be not only unique, but challenged to have nobody like me around.

It was also great to recognize my friendship with Messiah staff. Chad is a professor, the director of Messiah's service center, a guy I interviewed for a Swinging bridge article by sitting down at the Falcon Express, a guy at who's house I performed a song while opening for a touring musician, and just a good friend in general. He pushes me to think critically and differently. And he's not the only person on staff that I can have a down-to-earth conversation with.

It was also good to have great guys to hang around. Let's face it, I don't typically like guys because they cover up their insecurities by putting up this tough-guy front. I'd rather live on a girls floor, even if they want to be dramatic and gossip all of the time. I just hang out with girls more. I don't like being around fake guys. But Jason and Quinn were incredible role models to me. Their passions and mindsets and actions were something that I could consistent feed off of.

The mix of personalities among the girls was awesome. I think this is one of the reasons that Gary told us this was one of the best groups of Americans that his town had experienced throughout the years. They were leaders in their own way, and as guys, we were not aggressive. In fact, it was beautiful how we did not let gender roles interrupt our ministry to the community. Meghan's testimony and passive way of getting us to collaborate were essentials to our week. Jo and Genna's portrayal of selfless friendship was effective to our group and to kids. Kate and KB's control and service to the kids were so strong. I'm not just rubbing egos.

For me, I did not think that I would want to return home. However, I have a new love for America. Mind you, my love is not for it's dream, it's arrogance, or it's selfishness, but for it's opportunity, diversity, and beauty.

I figured out why I'm in cross-cultural ministry and not youth ministry. I really like to push the minds of others. I love to get them to think outside the box, and while I think I got some kids to do that, I was more passionate about studying the culture and "why's" of the Northern Ireland society than I was in engaging the youth. I would've loved to work more with teachers to help empower their ministries. It doesn't always feel good to come to a realization that you aren't as passionate for something as you'd like to be. But still, I think I was able to maintain a conviction and attitude of humility toward loving on who Christ refers to as "the least of these." And I hope that I was a backbone and support to the leaders in our group that were super thrilled about working with kids.

I highly recommend this trip for Messiah students. Although the point isn't necessarily to have a blast, I definitely did. I will probably visit the country again some day. Especially since I saw a few traveling hitchhikers on some of the roads....you know by that that the country is hospitable and there are significant resources for vagabonds....