Five Ways to Last As a Missionary

November 7, 2014

This past October we will celebrated five years on the mission field living in South Africa.

This is a momentous and special occasion for us and definitely something we celebrated.  Not because we are so special for lasting this long, but more because those we love and serve are so special for putting up with us so long!  No but seriously…

So it has me thinking of HOW DID WE MAKE IT THIS LONG??

In honor of our five year anniversary on the mission field here are:

FIVE WAYS TO LAST AS A MISSIONARY:

1. GIVE and RECEIVE .  Many missionaries come in to serve, help and love people.  This is based on the assumption that I have something and those I am coming to serve do not.  I am blessed.  I am whole.  I am healed.  I have resources.  I have and they do not.  Obviously most missionaries do not realize this is their thinking, but it’s an underlying assumption and it separates you from those you serve and can quickly create a ‘Messiah Complex.’  Urban Dictionary describes the Messiah Complex as “a state of mind in which an individual holds a belief they are, or are destined to become, a savior.  Jesus had a messianic complex.”  Umm yeah, Jesus had a messianic complex because HE WAS THE MESSIAH.  WE ARE NOT.  We need to know that while we have been blessed with some talents, gifts, finances, and training, there is SO MUCH that we can learn from those we serve and we always need to be open to what God wants to teach us.  Trust me, He has a LOT to teach you.  Be ready to teach and help but be open handed so you can also receive from those God puts you among.

2. CREATE COMMUNITY. Oh man you can’t do this journey alone.  We have had a few instances happen in our story here that FORCED us to create community (i.e. major burn accident and special needs diagnosis) but no matter the ease of life we always need to do this life together.  You need people to pray with you, laugh with you, cry with you, work beside you, and celebrate all the milestones of ministry on the mission field.  Bring people on the journey with you and it will be so much fuller.

3. Love SCANDALOUSLY.  When you go into the mission field I want to let you know one thing you will encounter that you won’t expect: BROKEN PEOPLE.  The people you will go to love will be pretty unlovable at times and it is hard to love broken people.  They don’t know how to receive love or give love.  People will hurt you and try to break you and manipulate you and turn their back on you.  When this happens… love anyways and love SCANDALOUSLY.  We are called in Philippians to have the humility of Christ who gave everything to love His people, and we must follow that example.  Don’t just love the ones who are easy to love, the ones who come to all your events, the ones who respond to your brilliant sermons and studies, but seek out the really broken and hurting.  They need it most and love even when it’s beyond reason and scandalous.

4. LIVE in Scripture.  As a pastor for many years, I have taught scripture, read scripture and studied scripture for my bachelors and Masters’ programs.  I KNOW much about scripture, but as a missionary I have learned that I have to LIVE in scripture.  I eat scripture and devour it like my life depends on it.  We have faced so many huge trials in our five years here and huge challenges we face in serving the people here in Africa.  Without scripture I honestly don’t think we could have made it through what we have faced.  God has been sovereign and allowed these things to happen in our lives, but learning to cling to HIM for power and strength in it all has changed our lives.  We find that strength, hope, guidance, and inspiration in God’s word.

5. Seek out REST.  This last one is the hardest for me.  Seems that my life trained me to be a ‘do-et’ and not a ‘rest-er’ but I have found that you desperately need to be both.  Our hearts, our health, our families, our entire lives desperately need both.  We know so many missionaries and pastors both near and far who struggle with finding rest as well and we are convinced that the only cycles and habits of rest and renewal will allow the spiritual worker to make it for the long haul.  Find out what gives you rest and renewal and put it on the schedule.  Be unapologetic and persistent about your rest.  Your life depends on it.

Now go and change the world!  Or rather, be changed by the world you SERVE!

It's Our Anniversary!

October 22, 2014

It’s anniversary time!  We are so happy to celebrate that we have been in SOUTH AFRICA serving for FIVE YEARS!  What the what?!?  But what we are most cheering about is that we have lived in the incredible Ocean View community for five years.

So in honour of our FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY here are my FIVE FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT OCEAN VIEW:

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1. The noises.  There is always something happening.  Always someone in conversation.  Always a dog barking.  Always music playing.  Always someone sharing in someone else’s life.  I love that.  If I need to go write a sermon or focus on something I like to sit in a crowded coffee shop with lots of noises and action.  I dig lots of stuff going on and I dig Ocean View.

2. The food.  My people know how to eat and value food.  It is awesome.  It has always reminded me of my Mexican heritage (my Mom is Mexican-American) because people in Ocean View love to gather and share food together.  Another great thing about Ocean View is that while food is a value, there are many who do not have a meal to eat some days, including many vulnerable children.  What I see is that those who have are ALWAYS sharing with those who don’t and making sure children go to bed with a meal.  My friends are always sharing with those who are in need.  In addition, when there is something to celebrate it is done with FOOD.  People love to have gatherings for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, accomplishments, holidays and anything else in between.

3. The laughter.  You know the Prince’s love some laughing and this is something that is really valued in the community of Ocean View.  Come to any meeting, dinner, gathering or even tea and you will eventually hear laughter.  Laugher is LOUD and done with the entire body.  I remember vividly seeing a stand-up comic we love named Trevor Noah with a group of friends and our friend Treswill was laughing so hard that he unintentionally was hitting the seat in front of his with his knees.  He didn’t even notice but the people in front of him did and kept looking back at him hoping he would stop.  I told him of his kicks and he changed his sitting position but continued to laugh WITH HIS ENTIRE BODY.  It was awesome.  And it’s normal.

4. THE COMPASSION.  You guys.  In Ocean View you SEE IT ALL.  Pain, suffering, abuse, gangsterism, addiction and just HURT.  You would think people would be so use to it that they don’t even notice it happening, and unfortunately that does happen at times.  But the norm in Ocean View is COMPASSION and response to those who are hurting and in pain.  I am frequently humbled when I hear about how my friends in Ocean View respond to hungry children at their doorstep or people who need to borrow money… again.  Compassion is deeply woven into the fabric of hearts here and it challenges me to be God’s compassionate hands and feet even more in this community I love.

  5. The LOVE.  People in Ocean View love FIERCELY.  They take care of their own family and they love really deeply.  The love of the people here in Ocean View has spilled into our lives and we will never be the same.  We see it most vividly in the way people here love our children.  They hug and kiss them spoil them beyond anything they deserve.  Even with Keller who struggles to interact with anyone because of his autism, he has LEARNED how to love people because of those who have loved him in Ocean View.  That is profound and true.  We are loved beyond our failures and weaknesses here and seen just as we are.  That is true love and we are so blessed to experience the love of Ocean View.

Happy anniversary Ocean View!  To MANY MORE!!

After the Mission Trip

September 8, 2014

Living in Ocean View allows us to be here before the missionaries come and long after they leave.

I do understand that I too am a missionary, but as the days, months, and years go on, Ocean View has become home to us and we consider ourselves a part of the community.  By God’s grace others do too!

A few months ago a missions team came to work with us and took over the church and its grounds for two weeks transforming everything they could get their hands on.  They did big projects, connected with our people, played with the kids and even ate in the homes of some of our church members.  It was a life-changing experience for the missionaries and impacted many of our church members.

But now it’s months later and we are still here in Ocean View with no one to rally the community with projects and outreaches.

So what does it look like AFTER THE MISSION TRIP?

Sometimes, unfortunately it doesn’t look good.  One thing that hurts my heart is when I see people I know here in Ocean View, mostly children, act a certain way around the missionaries who come to visit and then act another way after they have left.  One day while the missionaries were here, a boy who I know really well was walking through the church grounds (and didn’t notice me).  However he obviously saw the missionaries and had been hanging out with them for days.  He was trying to seem as if he was just casually and normally walking through the church grounds but he was LOUDLY singing a Christian worship song.  Suddenly as he came close to me I said hello to him and he met my eyes and laughed.  I have honestly never heard this boy sing a worship song in my life and I don’t think it was an accident that he was singing it in front of the missionaries.  Sometimes those we go to serve play roles towards us as we play roles towards them.  This hurts me because Jesus wants us JUST AS WE ARE.  We come to Him just as we are, broken and messed up, and we need those we serve with and alongside to meet us as their true selves.

Sometimes after the mission trip something changes for the better and it makes an impact far beyond the beginning project.  The church that visited us helped to start a garden and greenhouse and planted many of the plants while we were still in the cold winter months.  When they left they greenhouse was up but other than that all that sat there was a big square of dirt.

Here is what I love.  The American mission group didn’t leave a finished project tied in a bow, they left an undone project that needed nurturing, care and teamwork.  This is PERFECT.  This unfinished and baby garden has needed a LOT of work over the past months and there are no short-cuts in gardening.  Over the past months the women and men of this church have spent hours nurturing and watering the garden and now it is OVERFLOWING with greenery and life.

 This garden is growing and flourishing and beginning to provide for our community.

It is a beautiful thing.

PLANTING is a beautiful thing and GROWTH is a beautiful thing.

To me, this is a beautiful metaphor for what it should look like AFTER THE MISSION TRIP.

A mission team needs to know that they aren’t there to save the day or change the world.  We have one savior and it is JESUS.  But a mission team can PLANT SEEDS that can only grow and flourish after the team is long gone.  The missionaries were blessed and provided all that was needed to start this garden… and then they left.  Now those in the community have had to COME TOGETHER to make something beautiful grow.  These projects will only be fully brought to completion when those in our community work TOGETHER.  This is so good.

I am very proud of what it looks like at Ocean View Methodist AFTER the mission trip.

The WORST Missionaries

August 28, 2014

In my recent trip to the United States it became glaringly clear that the Prince family are LITERALLY the WORST MISSIONARIES in the world.  We are starting a list to document it because it is just comical.

We take simple tasks and make them difficult.  We are embarrassingly complicated and disastrous.  We are late, disorganized, and clumsily stumble into every situation on our path.

FOR EXAMPLE.  In July Kieren and I went to the USA to speak at two weeks of a youth camp and we almost DIDN’T MAKE IT THERE because we never thought to CHECK THE EXPIRATION OF KIEREN’S PASSPORT.  We showed up at the airport like a group of dopes and couldn’t board the plane because of her.  Sweet faced little Kieren just sat there innocently and completely oblivious as we discussed her fate.  Luckily the American Embassy in South Africa was super gracious to us the next day and quickly made us an emergency passport for us and MANY MANY dollars later we had new plane tickets and were on our way.  MANY DOLLARS and MANY TEARS later.  WHY??  Normal people would have checked her passport for the date of its expiration.  Normal MISSIONARIES (who often *travel*) would have checked her passport for the date of its expiration.  BUT NO.  WE are the WORST MISSIONARIES possible and so we didn’t check and almost didn’t make it out of Africa…

We made it to camp but that story is a perfect illustration for our entire lives as missionaries.  We get by, but it’s clumsy and disorganized and a bit disastrous.  it’s by the skin of our teeth.  EVERY TIME.

We are seriously the WORRSSTT…

We sing it all the time to ourselves like this:

I didn’t know missionaries growing up so I had no idea what this life would look like, but I definitely didn’t think it would be this… ummm… chaotic??

We are seriously the most incompetent missionaries to walk into South Africa and this is a humbling truth that God reminds us of daily.  I honestly have NO IDEA how we make this life work, and some days it is miraculous that we get out of the house at all.  However, we are here not for our own glory but for the GLORY OF GOD and so we live through Him completely.

“God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.  As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” -1 Corinthians 1:28-29

Somehow in the midst of our inadequacy God continues to show up because we SHOW UP and He uses us.  He uses us, He blesses us, He speaks through us, and He does a work IN us.  It’s crazy and I only believe it because I am living it.

God uses us ALL for His glory, even the WORST of us.  Maybe that is partly the point.  He uses the bottom of the barrel to prove to the world that the miracles we see have NOTHING to do with us and EVERYTHING to do with Him.