A Hodgepodge

This week I’m in Les Cayes, Haiti working alongside Praying Pelican Missions, a local church, and three North American churches– one from South Carolina, one from Connecticut, and the other from Windsor, Ontario.

I was walking with Caroline, the trip leader, earlier this morning and we described this as a “hodgepodge group.”

There’s not a consistent theme among them. About half have never been to Haiti while the other half have not only been to Haiti, but to this specific ministry. Some are teenagers while most are adults. They come from different types of churches, different ethnic backgrounds, on and on.

Outside of this week this group of people would never be put together… except maybe on a reality show.

As you’d expect with 3 different groups they all kind of kept to themselves in the first day or so of this trip. But, as the days progress… the group is kind of gelling into a unit. They know one another’s names, they know a little of one another’s stories, and as they sweat together today you start to get glimpses into what’s to come.

The first time I went to Ireland I remember being told, “If someone teases you it means they like you.” Well, give it another 24 hours and we’ll be an Irish Hodgepodge Soup! Even as the first full ministry day of this trip is still underway I’m starting to hear the good natured teasing that comes with every (mostly) healthy group.

Here’s my point… it’s easy to point to big groups from big churches on international mission trips and say, “That’s the example. Do that.” But the reality is that there are far more smaller churches and ministries who don’t have enough positive missions experience to get a group of 10-15-25 people to go on a big trip. In those cases… it’s pretty fun to see that you can take a hodgepodge of Jesus followers who would otherwise never meet, toss them together, and they’d become a unit working together to minister among a community.

Don’t be afraid of the hodgepodge. Even if you have a small group, you can join with others for a common purpose and it’ll be awesome.

And who knows? By the end of the week you might have teenagers who have a Canadian, Northeast, southern accent… y’all, eh… 

Note: I’m having a hard time getting images to upload to my blog. If you want to see photos of what I’m up to, head over to Instagram.

Learn More

This week I’m in Les Cayes, Haiti sharing stories from a mission trip. Want to learn more about Praying Pelican Missions’ work in Haiti or explore bringing a group? Fill out the form below.