I’ve been on a lot of missions trips. But never one that was three dimensional before.
The three dimensions of the Haiti trip:
- Going and experiencing for myself.
- Using Twitter and Facebook to tell stories live, sharing pictures and videos with thousands around the world.
- Watching the experience change my friends while they participate in the trip from their living rooms, offices, and cars.
Here’s how this scenario played out over and over again.
We would load up the team van and head to a destination. Whether it was a meeting of pastors, a prayer meeting where thousands spontaneously had shown up, or walking around a devastated community and meeting people effected by the earthquake.
All of a sudden, my iPhone became a powerful ministry tool.
I would post on Twitter a simple message.
And instantly, my friends were engaged in what we were doing.
As free moments were available, often times while walking or driving from one place to another I was able to update my Facebook status or post a tweet so that people could continue to pray for what we were doing… and more importantly join in the story of what God was doing.
It’s important to note that this wasn’t a distraction from what I was doing on the ground. I was deeply engaged in the moment. But as free we walked from one place to the next or as we drove, I was able to utilize that otherwise down time as ministry time. Doing these things didn’t distract, they amplified what we were doing.
Thanks to the power of Twitter retweets and hastags, there were now hundreds of people engaged in our ministry, watching every step of our journey. People gave us advice. Sent us links. Added our efforts to databases and websites. Encouraged us. On and on. This was missions far different from what is documented in Acts, when reports from missionaries trickled in from letters!
As the need for more specific prayer arose, I was able to update these friends… who were now looking for ways to pray for our team.
Read the updates from bottom to top, in sequential order
At this point in our day, I was in hog heaven. This was the convergence of all of my favorite things. I was engaged in social action as we advocated for people. I was engaged in social media as my cloud community prayed and sought solutions for the problems I was experiencing on the ground. And I was engaged as a pastor as we prayed and worked with people in the camp.
And social media was also documenting a miracle. (and my getting punk’d by Marko!)
Little did I know that the three dimensional missions we were doing had taken on legs of its own. My friend Tash was updating her radio audience in Auckland, New Zealand with my Twitter updates so people could pray. Tons of people retweeted and added commentary . Literally, people around the world were following this story and about to see God do something amazing.
Using $2000 we had raised on Twitter the night before. We were able to go to the only supermarket in Port-au-Prince and buy nearly all of the rice, beans, and baby food they had. (The money was given one day, utilized the next!)
While hundreds of people back home participated in our journey, we were able to continue pressing into what God was doing.
I don’t think this is somehow the beginning of a new age of missions engagement, but I do know that for our team this was a powerful way to tell stories as we went and amplify/report on what God was doing.
As a fellow youth worker, I know thousands feel compelled to respond to the humanitarian need in Haiti. But the concerns of safety and appropriateness will over-power the prompting of the Holy Spirit to take a team for most. (This is a faith issue, but that’s another blog post.)
It’s my hope that this new variety of missions will embolden many more to pray for Haiti, give to NGOs doing good work on the ground, and go to Haiti to see for themselves what God is doing.
