Waiting On Peanut Sauce

I sat across the table from our two college student visitors. I want to call them interns because that's what they were last year, but this year as they came back for their second summer, their experience has been a little different. 

We sat under an open-air, thatched-roofed, concrete slab with two Sprites and a Fanta as we waited for our rice and peanut sauce to arrive. We watched the ladies out back spread their millet flour out in the sun to dry. Our server was not in any kind of hurry (I'm not sure hurry is even possible in Burkina Faso), so we passed the time talking with one another - something I'm afraid that the fast-paced American culture is losing or has already lost. 

"How is this year's experience different than last year, and what do you think is the main thing God is trying to teach you?" (These friends know me well enough to not expect a surface level question...) 

The two agreed that last year was more structured and planned, which is true. With their internship last summer, we planned a detailed schedule that gave the interns as many experiences as possible in every aspect of our mission and ministries. This year felt more laid-back and relaxed for them, "which is not necessarily a bad thing," I added. "It doesn't mean you have been placed on the back burner. I'm actually glad that you are now getting to experience normal life as a missionary." 

This is true, too. For those of you who go on short-term mission trips, know that we show you the best of the best and keep you active and engaged in every moment of your trip. That's because we want you to fall in love with the place we love and get to see everything that God is doing around us. But (news flash!) that is not normal missionary life. After you leave, we miss you terribly and then we sleep for two days straight and go back to normal life. 

"What God is teaching me in all this is that missions is about relationships." The two college students may not have done or accomplished as much as they did last year, but they did sit on the porch every day and play games and talk with Erneste, a young man around their age who is crippled and almost died from an infection had we not intervened with a life-saving operation in Ouaga. Erneste still asks about them and prays daily that God will bless them. 

They may not have worked in the village clinic like last year or seen a lot of surgeries and deliveries, but they did get to make a home visit to our team member, Valerie, and love on her and her newborn baby while she was still on maternity leave. 

They may not have installed new wells like last year, but they did get to go to a village to see a broken well repaired, and although it felt like they didn't "do much", they picked up gravel with the children, got their hands dirty digging with the adults, and took a tour trough the village neighborhood, walking the same paths as the women who collect water at the well every day. 

They may have done a big painting project or service project, but they did sit with the young scholars on a Saturday afternoon and speak to them from the Word of God, and they did have the opportunity to share a message at a village church one Sunday morning. 

They may not have been busy everyday with lots of activities, but they learned what I think is hands-down the most important thing a person can learn about missions, and the college students said it well: "It's all about relationships." 

People, not projects. Relationships, not work. Conversations, not accomplishments. Time, not tasks. This is the heart of missions, and this is what we talked about as we watched the people pass and the sun scoot across the sky. Then our peanut sauce arrived and we scarfed it down because we had waited so long for it. I don't know about them, but not only was my stomach filled, but my heart as well with the reminder of what really matters.