This picture is one of my favorite random Jeff shots from the trip. I didn’t make the cut for my album, but I’m thinking of making a whole separate book of the hilarious Jeff pictures. In this one, Uncle Jacques is explaining the finer points of Ugandan coffee to me, while Eric is solemnly admiring a box of “Fruity Flakes”. Ah yes, a typical morning trip to the Kampala grocery store. Please notice the respective heights of all involved. The short, non-white man on the right is Jacques Masiko, the man I’ve mentioned in several previous posts as the father of our friend Peter, the director of Compassion International, and our host during out time in Uganda. I’ll set this one up with a brief background, because I can’t really remember what all I’ve said about Jacques in the previous posts.

Mr. Masiko was the first person we met after making it through customs at Entebbe the day we arrived. I don’t think we had any idea what we were in for, getting to spend three weeks with this great man of God. Just a side note here, imagine for a minute that you’re coming to L.A. for the first time ever, and it just so happens that your friend’s dad is John MacArthur. Even though you’ve never met him, not only do you get to stay at his house, but he’s taking time out of his day to pick you up from the airport at 6 in the morning. Wow, talk about humbling. Anyway, Jacques’ story in brief goes something like this: saved at a young age, then discipled by an American missionary as a youth. He has a huge heart for kids, so he goes to work for a somewhat small para-church ministry called Compassion International. After a short time Compassion asks Jacques to start a program in his home country of Uganda. This is 1980, so you have a frame of reference. Fast forward 26 years to last February, when Jacques “retired” as the country director. He’s now been asked to start a pilot program for Compassion where alumni (children who have gone through Compassion) form a network for for fellowship, outreach, and child sponsorship of their own. During that fastforwarded 26 years, over 40,000 children have gone through or are currently sponsored by Compassion International Uganda, and now call our friend “Uncle Jacques”. Stop and read that last sentence again. 40,000. That’s a big number. That’s a lot of lives changed. That’s a lot of children impacted for Christ.  I don’t ever want to imply that ministry is about numbers, but it is always amazing to me what God chooses to do with humble servants.

So now that you know who we’re talking about, I want to try to regurgitate some of the things he told us during our last few days with him. The day before we left he had a little talk with us, and he thanked us for coming. We were a little bit shocked and humbled that he would thank us, so when he told us that our trip had been a success we asked him why, from his point of view, we did well. He said basically two things if I remember correctly (Jeff and Eric, feel free to add and/or correct this in the comments).

1. “You weren’t tourists, you came here to do whatever you could to serve Christ” Now from my perspective, this was kind of surprising. Sure, that was our attitude going into the trip, but we didn’t set out with goals X,Y and Z in mind as far as how we were going to serve or projects we were going to accomplish. This was a lot different from our India trip, but the more I thought about it, the two trips had one big thing in common. Rice? Brown people? Yes, but that’s not what I’m thinking about. Flexibility. I think this was a major component in the success of both trips. Being able, and willing, to change plans on the spot to fit the needs of the people and/or the needs of the missionary is so important, especially on a short term trip. I always thought flexibility was important in missions, but on this trip I really saw HOW important and that it can really make or break an experience like this.

2. “You ate their food” This was another one that was pretty surprising to us. The Ugandan food was really good for the most part, and we really never gave it much of a second thought. I probably never would have considered it anything important had Jacques not said anything about it. Then he explained about how other groups had come, and they never wanted to eat with the people. That really got me thinking, by eating with the locals we really got to experience their culture. Not at an arms distance, but right along with them. We got to have some great conversations with people over meals, and according to Jacques it meant a lot more to them than we knew. So the big lesson I took away from this was really simple. So simple in fact, I think I’ve often overlooked it on other trips. Just love the people. Do what they do, eat what they eat, ride on the back of shady motorcycles just like they do. Don’t waste time worrying about little stuff that doesn’t matter.  You’ll stand out. Not because you’re the foreigner – there are plenty of those, but because you’re the foreigner that’s embracing them and their culture.

This is getting long (and you wonder why my posts are so infrequent) but I want to share one final thought from our time with Jacques. As he prayed for us before we left, he said something that still makes me tear up when I think about it. He said, “Don’t let this trip be a great experience, let it be the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Uganda”. Wow. So that has been my prayer ever since that day. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like in the years ahead, but I hope that the Lord allows me to be involved some way in His work in that great country far into the future.

So I’d love to hear any responses to this, and here’s the question I pose to you all out there in blog-o-land: what makes a short-term mission trip successful? I know there are plenty of books on the subject, but I’d love to know what my friends and family think.

P.S. – Let’s all remember to be in prayer for our lone international reader, one Scott Zeller, as he preaches in Asia these next few weeks.

The title of this post is also the title of one of my favorite books by one John Piper. I re-read this book on my trip to Uganda, and was once again impacted and convicted about how I often view my life incorrectly, and because of that how ineffective I am most of the time. One of the really cool things about the Uganda trip was that we got to meet a lot of people who aren’t “wasting their lives”, but are sold out for God’s glory in a real and tangible way every day.

A missionary we met named Dick fell into this category, and some of what he said related really well to the book. We only got to spend a few hours with Dick, but the wisdom he passed on to us in that short time was invaluable. Just a side note on Dick before I get to the main point of this post – he was Jacques Masiko’s youth leader years ago. It must be crazy to look back over your life and see someone you discipled go on to reach 40,000 young people. I hope some day I can look back at my group of Jr highers and see men that have influenced their world for Christ in such an amazing way. Anyway, on to the point…

On our drive up to Gulu, we asked Dick a lot of questions about life as a missionary and about living in Uganda. We asked him what the advantages were to living life on the mission field versus back here in the States. Here’s my best attempt at paraphrasing what he said: by living life on the mission field you are saved from three things.

1. You are saved from yourself. When you’re living life as a missionary it is nearly impossible to be focused on yourself. When you are living in a culture full of need, and filling your time ministering to people in need, you don’t spend your time thinking about what YOU want and how to get it. You don’t think about your comfort and you don’t think about how people have wronged you. You don’t think about how you deserve this or that.

2 You are saved from your culture. There are mountains of books written on this, but in short, I don’t think anyone would disagree that we as Americans are extremely materialistic. You can try really hard to resist this, but in a culture as ingrained as ours it is nearly impossible to escape. Dick will be retiring soon after over 30 years of service in Uganda, and he told us that no matter how hard he and his wife try, after six months back in the American culture they’ll be assimilated again. He said it’s happened to them every time they’ve come back for furlough, and as hard as they fight, the culture eventually wins. I don’t think he’s really talking about the big time materialism of the world here, as in the “I need the biggest house on the block and I need a Hummer in my garage” type mentality. Instead it’s the “I like to be comfortable, and I like to have nice things” type of subtle materialism that is so hard to confront even for those in the church.

3. You are saved from a life of insignificance. Life lived on the mission field is a life of significance, or as Piper would say, a life not wasted. When on a day-by-day basis you are bringing glory to God by meeting peoples’ needs, both spiritually and physically, you will have a life that matters. You will one day be able to look back and see a life of impact, lived by the power of the Spirit, and have full confidence that you will hear the phrase “well done” when you see the face of your Father. Just one simple illustration of this is Dick’s ministry to Jacques that I mentioned above. This is not to say that one cannot have a life of significance living here in the States, but for the most part it’s much more acceptable to be insignificant. Just think of the “American Dream” – to work your way up in your career, then retire early to enjoy relaxing vacations and nice hobbies.

So what do you all think? Is life lived in another country in service to the Lord superior to a life here in the U.S.?

For those following the situation in Northern Uganda, big news continues to unfold. According to a senior officer, Kony has accepted an amnesty offer by the government of Uganda, and is looking forward to the peace talks starting this Wednesday. There is still the matter of the International Criminal Court indictment to be resolved, but I think we all need to pray for peace and for the salvation of Kony. This next week is now said to be the greatest chance for peace for the Acholi people since the war began 20 years ago.