That time I got Salmonella

The wife and I have had the distinct blessing of being able to go overseas on short term mission trips on multiple occasions across the last 8 years or so. I have seen God do a great deal of amazing things related to these trips. Each trip could easily make multiple blog posts and perhaps they shall in the future. 

On every trip I’ve eaten a lot of odds things.  The most popular food related question I get is “Did you eat dog? What did it taste like?” Yes, I did. It tastes like dry hamburger. Dog liver tastes like a mouth full of pasty pennies. Other odd foods I have eaten include goose, duck, fish head stew, and shredded pig face. After the first trip I quit asking what I was eating. I either ate it or didn’t eat it. It’s best not to know. I took the Apostle Paul’s advice on this. 

1 Cor 10:25 “Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience' sake;”

I have also spent a lot of time in foreign bathrooms thanks to the new temporary diet and on average I would lose about 10lbs while on a mission trip. Between the walking and the bathroom you can really lose some weight fast. This is why I pitch the mission trip diet for when you need to lose 10 lbs in 2 weeks or less! Last summer I went to the Philippines and they fed us extremely well and they fed us western food. Spaghetti, hotdogs, chicken nuggets, pizza, bacon, etc. I ate better there then I have at a lot of restaurants I have been to. I managed to gain 2 lbs while over there which is no small accomplishment for those that know my struggles to gain and maintain weight.  I also went the whole 2 weeks without anything wrecking my stomach which was exciting and new concept for being overseas. At least until our layover in Seoul on the way back home. 

We had a good 2-3 hour layover and it was roughly 3 in the morning for us after having been up for almost 24 hours at this point and the rest of my team took this opportunity to nap in the terminal. I took it to eat the KFC in the airport. This would prove to be a terrible terrible mistake. My half of a chicken sandwich and some fries gave me both Salmonella and Campylobacter. Gracefully I did not start feeling the effects of this until the ride home from RDU. I missed an additional week of work (after being gone for 2  weeks on the trip) and lost around 15 lbs of which I have gained about 10 back. The trip was totally worth it.  

With each trip I take I have run across people that object to the expense and effort to go overseas and help other people when there are so many needs to be met here. Now my response to those that ask me this question is usually something along these lines of “You’ll still be here.”  As typically the people that ask me these questions don’t do any kind of mission work here or there. 

Articles like this:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/thisisourcity/7thcity/rethinking-3000-missions-trip.html

Actually make some good points about the importance of the not neglecting the mission field in our own backyard. When we lived in Greensboro we went to a church that had a neat sign you saw as you exited the parking lot that read “You are now entering the mission field.”

The real question the article asks is how do we make the most out of our limited resources? 

Matthew 9:37 “Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly [is] plentiful, but the laborers [are] few”

That beloved is the true problem and to get caught up in an argument over whether local or foreign missions best serve God is to miss the point. The point is to have a mission/gospel oriented focus wherever God may send us. Whether that’s at work, school, church or a foreign country. 

Matthew 28: 18-20 "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen."

In the very unpopular great commission we are told in verse 19 to Go and make disciples of all the nations. Do you know what all the nations includes? All the nations! So guess what? Wherever you are at while physically reading this you are in part of all the nations. If you are interested in helping with some outreach in your area and aren’t sure where to start I suggest Radical Life Outreach Ministries.

http://radicallifeoutreach.blogspot.com/

This is run by my friends Dean and Melissa and they are all about the Great Commission in your backyard. Also, they will be extremely grateful for you help and you’ll get a taste of ministry outside of your comfort zone which is an important part of every believer’s walk with the Lord. The assumption is that we are going wherever we are going for the people we will help, for the benefit of man. Beloved that is a faulty assumption and a potentially dangerous one. It turns our focus from the Glory of God to the happiness of man. Happiness as we all know is a very fleeting thing.  God uses missions to make disciples of those that are sent just as much as He does those to whom He sends.

Paris Reidhead talked about his disillusionment with foreign missions while he was in Africa and how God used that time to disciple Him.

“They had no interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ, and they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to that place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery, and I had been sold a bill of goods! And I wanted to come home. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this, "I didn't send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen, I sent you to Africa for My sake. They deserved Hell! But I LOVE THEM!!! AND I ENDURED THE AGONIES OF HELL FOR THEM!!! I DIDN'T SEND YOU OUT THERE FOR THEM!!! I SENT YOU OUT THERE FOR ME! DO I NOT DESERVE THE REWARD OF MY SUFFERING? DON'T I DESERVE THOSE FOR WHOM I DIED?" I was there not for the sake of the heathen. I was there for the Savior who endured the agonies of Hell for me. But He deserved the heathen. Because He died for them. My eyes were opened” - Paris Reidhead.

Everyone is called to missions because God uses them to make us more like Him. To take the focus off of ourselves, and others and place the focus where it rightfully belongs, on Him. 

Glen