This post was written by the wonderful Katie Card before she went on her first mission trip (Boston). Incite will keep you posted if there’s a follow up.

How far does love go? When we go to a foreign country in order to give aid, is it enough to show up? Is there more we could/should be doing?

I don’t know if you’ve ever been on foreign mission, and I don’t know if you’ve ever asked yourself these questions. I have not been on a mission trip, but with my first one coming up, I found myself in a conversation with a friend. She’s a veteran of missions, and we were talking about the attitudes that go into a mission trip.

After all, everyone who’s been on a launch or a mission trip has had their first mission once. You feel God pulling on your heart, and you start the (sometimes laborious) process of praying, and finding funds, and thinking about packing. And your world narrows very quickly to one goal: getting yourself to the location you’re dreaming of with everything you need.

Unfortunately this idea can easily suck you away from the most important part of missions: nothing you’re bringing is for yourself. When CCW goes to foreign countries, we pack our suitcases full of the things that another country needs: clothing, band aids, pens, pencils, batteries, and whatever else we can provide. Often, the clothes we wear while we’re in that country stay there after we leave. The things we pack are not for us.

Our minds aren’t for us either. We tend to go on mission excited to see what God is going to reveal to us while we’re there: I know I am! But I also know that when I get there, my mind will be chock full of new opportunities to serve the kingdom. God isn’t going to send me away from my home just to benefit me. He’s called me to another people, another situation, and he wants me to bring everything I have with me: excitement, hope, a servant’s heart, and occasionally, some righteous indignation. He wants me to turn towards his people and be his hands. His feet. He has sent me out for that. He has enabled all of CCW for that purpose.

When you leave your trip, I am praying that you will leave with an empty suitcase. But more than that, I pray that you yourself will also be empty. Empty of regret, empty of unfulfilled expectations, empty of biases and feelings of self-importance. I pray that you, like that suitcase, will instead be full of God’s promises fulfilled for his people. That is his purpose for our mission.