White
Why we are Doing Mission Year
We are so excited to have been chosen to be a part of Mission Year for the 2009-2010 year. The best way to describe why I (Jamie) wanted to do this is probably best explained in one of my application essays:
4. Why do you want to be a Mission Year Team Member? What do you hope to gain from the experience?
My husband and I have known we are called to do some sort of mission work. From the time I was little, missionaries would come into church describing their work and I would tell my parents that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. They knew that I couldn’t stay in one place for too long, so I might as well go somewhere and do some good. As I grew older I realized the commitment and involvement that was involved, which scared me away. I figured I could settle for a trip to Africa for a week and that would do it for me. The problem with that, I realize, is that so many people do these short-term trips where they establish relationships with the people and then leave a few days later. I knew if I was to do something it would have to be a longer commitment.
During the time Dustin and I were engaged I had a dream of us somewhere working with kids. I really don’t remember much of the dream, except knowing that I woke up and told Dustin that we had to do some type of missions work. The more time that went on, it was shoved in the back of my mind that eventually I will go on a trip but for now I had to focus on school. Well, 3 years later I am still trucking along in school but realize that we need to do something instead of getting comfortable in the life we are living. So Dustin and I decided to look up different organizations. There are more options than we thought! We actually did not even hear of Mission Year until watching the DVD Ordinary Radicals. After looking it up, we both became very excited! This seemed like the perfect opportunity for us. We had recently been talking about living in a house with some friends trying to work on building a more community-based neighborhood and I believe Mission Year would be the best training for us to help organize these in the future.
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
White's Blog
Home from Guatemala... / Sep 18, 08:36 PM
What do you say when you experience something that you cannot comprehend? When words fail to articulate a story, how do you tell it? How does one go on living their “ordinary” life after a “burning bush” experience? We believe it will take a lifetime to process what we experienced while in Guatemala.
We struggled with the thought of even writing this, because these are just our feeble words.
Guatemala is a land of extremes, and we witnessed both on many occasions.
There is however, one particular experience that we will never be able to forget, the one whose story demands to be told, and an experience that the church needs to see and respond to. This happened while we were in Guatemala City.
We were on a tour of the cemetery. After driving past the slums we were surprised to see elegant mausoleums for the rich. We stopped at one massive mausoleum that towered over us. It was built like an Egyptian pyramid and adorned with gold and sphinx sculptures on all corners. We were told it belonged to the Castilla family. The Castilla’s not only own popular companies in Latin America, but also the entire water supply in Guatemala. They own the water. All of the water…is owned by one family. One could not help but draw biblical connotations with them in their pharoaic tomb and the story of the Exodus where the Hebrews were enslaved to the Egyptians. That while the Castilla’s, being backed by the U.S. and our western consumerism indulged in their riches while 80% of the people in Guatemala live on less than two dollars a day. We began to notice the injustice that the elite had bigger “homes” in death than the majority had in life.
We then walked to where commoners were buried. We saw simple crypts stacked on top of each other that are rented out by the families of the deceased. If the family cannot pay, the body is taken out and thrown into a gulch so the tombs can be leased to someone who can pay. Off in the distance we saw vultures circling and wondered if that was the aforementioned “valley of death.” As we proceeded on the tour, nothing could prepare us for what we saw in the valley under the sea of circling birds. Deep over the ravine was a massive garbage dump filled with multitudes of people desperately searching through the trash. Even high on the ridge the stench burned our eyes and churned our stomachs. We couldn’t help but gasp and watch with glassy eyes and open jaws. As a new garbage truck drove in, we witnessed hundreds of people clamoring around, hoping to be the first to dive into the “fresh” trash to find something to survive on. We saw first hand God’s children, human beings, people… being reduced to live a life like the vultures circling overhead.
We just sat there paralyzed by what was happening below us. The thought of, “This is not a movie. These are not actors, but REAL people…” raced through our minds.
As our group held hands and prayed on top of that ridge, some wept while others could not even speak.
Even still as we write this, we’re not sure that there is a “good” way to end this blog entry. Sure, we went and had a great trip. We were changed by the people we met, places we saw, and things we did. We got to return home feeling good about serving Christ and our brothers and sisters, and even being served in return. But even as this blog is being written and read, masses of people, moms and dads, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, and sons and daughters, are in that dump searching for life.
May we as Christ’s body embody that Life, and live with the purpose of giving hope.
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Here we go... / Jul 31, 12:05 PM
Wow. So we’re definitely in the home stretch now. For those who don’t know we’ll be spending our year with the folks at Alterna and we couldn’t be more excited!
If you’re not aware what’s going on (other than the whole MissionYear thing, duh) with Jamie and myself, we’ve written and illustrated our first book! It is a collection of paintings, short stories, Bible verses and quotes that paints a picture of the last few years we’ve spent working/living/loving/serving our brothers and sisters in poverty. The hope for the book is two-fold.
First, we hope and pray (literally) that it would serve as a catalyst to prompt folks to join in the fight to erradicate poverty. We believe that through Christ this book will humanize those who have been dehumanized.
Second, we are selling the book to raise funds. 50% of the money will go to MissionYear, the other 50% will go to the Refuge of Hope, a homeless shelter/poverty ministry that we volunteer at.
Somehow media sources have caught wind of the book and we’ve been doing tons of interviews lately which has provided opportunities to urge folks to get out there on the streets and start lovin on folks.
If you’re at all interested in checking out our home made books, check out:
www.myspace.com/disguisedintheireyes
or our most recent newspaper interview is found here:
http://www.cantonrep.com/communities/canton/x540128358/Local-couple-compiles-a-look-at-area-s-homeless
Peace.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE / Jun 17, 01:46 PM
It is finally starting to sink in a bit that, wow…we’re actually going to do this. Some things have accelerated that realization. One of which is we’re moving out of our apartment. By the end of the month we’ll be out and back to staying with Jamie’s parents for about a month and a half until it is time to depart. Another is that we will (hopefully) be finding out our placement within the next few weeks. We have both prayed and feel very confident of where we believe God is leading us, yet we’re still very much looking forward to that confirmation from Mission Year. But now realizing that it’s only two months away, it’s starting to become more “real.” It was one thing to say back in the beginning of December, “Yep, in about 9 months we’re gonna be starting Mission Year.” It’s another thing when you are moving out of your place and trying to get everything in order in preparation for it.
Also, I’m not even sure if many, if any actually reads our blog here. I must admit, we haven’t been very faithful to it, so given the neglect, I can’t say I am suprise. BUT, in the event that someone does, THANK YOU! Thank you for you support, both in prayer and in finances. We are in need of both to ensure we can be effective! To help raise funds Jamie and I will be selling a book that we’re writing and illustrating. Everything from the writing, to the artwork, even the binding we will be doing ourselves. So, maybe that’d be a cool thing for you to check out? Yeah it probably would be, haha.
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An Unlikely Teacher / Apr 10, 10:28 AM
It never ceases to amaze me how God uses unlikely events, situations, and/or people to teach me things. It always seems to happen right when I think I’m in control and have things figured out, or assume that I have God pegged down. All of a sudden…BAM! Revelation comes. Often times I’m left with a wince as I realize how foolish I can be. One of the people God has used as a teacher to me is Tre.
Excuse me as I preface the story…
Our home church is fairly small. It is located just a few blocks down the street and is located in what most folks here consider the “bad” part of town. It’s the section of town where violence and poverty are at their highest. Yet, walking through the doors of our church, one cannot help but being overwhelmed by God’s presence and the outpouring of love from those who attend. Many of our brothers and sisters in our congregation come depending on the fellowship meals we share together after services.
Jamie and I are the youth leaders at the church. Despite the frustrations that come with trying to do youth work, we’re both very excited, humbled, and honored to do it. We have grown quite fond of the youth and have learned that though they have very similar backgrounds, they are all quite unique and extraordinary in their own ways. Amanda is the oldest and is always eager to learn. Dameeka is generally the ring leader and does a great job of helping control the chaos that usually ensues (often times yelling to ‘Sit down and shut up or I’ll make you!’). Lawrence has the childlike faith with loads of questions and is genuinely concerned as to if Lil Wayne will make it into Heaven. And then, there’s Tre…
One is generally thankful when he opts to sprawl out across the chairs to sleep during the message of activities because that tends to mean he isn’t causing disruptions. Elsewise a typical meeting would consist of blurting out profanities and derogatory remarks. Fighting both verbally and physically have become unfortunate familiarities. There was once even an instance of ripping off ten bucks from out of Jamie’s purse. It seemed like the more and more we’d invest into him, the more he would act out. We had a talk with him and the pastor after he was caught stealing. We expressed to him that we love him and deeply care about the decisions he makes. We urged him to be cautious of the circle of friends he runs around with. We encouraged him letting him know that there’s a better way through Jesus. He nodded silently while staring blankly at the floor. We began the lesson later that evening in hopes of a new Tre. Yet, five minutes in Tre was back at it again, yet worse than ever.
Frustrated, I drove home with rampant thoughts engulfing my mind.
“He’s only there for who knows why! Why does he even come if he has no intention of making an attempt?! How could anyone be THAT disrespectful, destructive, and disobedient? It’s hopeless,” I thought to myself. And then it hit me. I heard God nudge me and say “Dustin, that’s how are!” How dare I I am the selfish one! I’m disobedient to God. I struggle to love my neighbor as myself. Everything that Tre has done to me and those he’s around, I have done to God and in turn those around me. It was like God saying, “Now you know how it feels. Do you see my child what I feel like when you are like that?”
Immediately I sunk. Perhaps the worst sin of all would be for me to write Tre off as just some problem teen and adopt that mentality. To characterize his value as a person made in our holy Creator’s image, as sub-standard because of behavior that I myself possess.
Sisters and brothers, we are in this together bound by a love so profound that there’s no way to even grasp it. Let us learn and grow in Christ’s love.
Dustin's Introduction / Jan 12, 10:28 AM
Hello all.
I suppose I (Dustin) will write an entry in addition to what Jamie wrote in the previous post. We both are very excited about the upcoming year and our preparation for MissionYear. We are in this limbo period awaiting our departure as it is still seven months away, so it is somewhat frustrating, exciting, and scary all at once. But, as Jamie and I have been discussing we have to remind ourselves that God has been working in and through us all along, and will be during and after MissionYear. I get excited to see what He is doing now, and am excited to be a part of what God will continue to do!
I think it is fitting to end with John 15:12-17. This Scripture was read today in church and it is my hope that we would follow after what Jesus is describing in these verses.
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