Why People Went August 25, 2010

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Not everyone shared their motivation for taking this trip but I found this piece interesting from those who did.
For many participants, it was their first mission trip. They, like me, always wanted to try something like this.
For many others it was one of several. The group from Marietta, Georgia had been on many trips...for some kids starting in Middle School. Fr. Riley told us that their parish began offering domestic mission trips to the Middle School Youth Groups and the parish had done some interesting work in several US locations as well as Jamaica and Haitii. Pretty impressive outreach I think when service is a mainstay of any church community.

One man shared that his typical way of helping others was always "to write a check". When this opportunity presented itself for him, he felt it was time to give time. He saw it as an opportunity for himself and his son to experience something special together. He voiced that he knew it was a life changing experience for both of them son and that he had two more boys he needed to bring back.

One woman, who said she worked in the business world, expressed that her present work was no longer meaningful and that had become a real issue for her. She told us that when she started working she had a plan A and a plan B.... Plan A, which she was living, was empty and at the conclusion of our week she shared that this experience was the impetus for re-evaluation....she was re-considering full time missionary work. Somehow I perceived that outside influences played a role in her initial choice and she was tired of allowing those influences to rule the day.

One woman voiced that she had been struggling with the institutional church. Recent scandals and internal issues had tainted her experience of it, and she had trouble finding meaning there. This experience brought home once again that the church was the "people of God" and both the people we worked and lived with and the people we served had not changed. Service was still Christ's message and it would always be no matter what occurred on an institutional level.

My motivation was multi faceted. At age 58 (now 59!) doing a mission trip was on my "bucket list". I have taken a hiatus from nursing and I'm searching for the "what's next. Having stepped off the treadmill, I find myself scared to jump back on...not sure if its age or what, but there is a real temptation to seek out an insular lifestyle, and get comfy with being comfortable...not take risks. I saw this happening and I became worried. I don't want to become the person who will not take chances, or try something different. I don't want fear to rule my life or to live a parochial lifestyle. I've been in the process of considering Global Health Ministry (periodic 2 week mission trips to offer medical care) I thought this experience would help me put my toe in the water. Meeting the Engineers Without Borders here in El Salvadore has given me a boost in this direction.

This trip was also about my giving back and saying thank you for my daughter, adopted from Honduras twenty-four years ago. The people of Central America (Indiginous and Latino) have common concerns and needs despite their country of origin. I've wanted to return for a long time. Years ago, someone gave me their precious child and I will forever be grateful to this faceless woman. I have no real sense of what truly motivated that decision but the gift of her life can never to qualified. Everywhere I went I searched the faces of men and women looking for similarities to my daughter. I found many, but no one really close. These were the people she came from, and as I worked hard to serve them as a gesture of thanks (meaningful only to me), I wondered about what her life may have been and what our lives may have been had God not brought us together.

So all week it was about M for me. At the orphanage I did puzzles with the kids because our daughter loves puzzle, at the daycare center I taught the children to quilt, because I did the same with her. I brought crayons and markers she drew with to use with the children for arts and crafts. I made home visits with the nurse, visiting young mothers with three, four and five children...babies in arms, several moms close to her age (24) and as I did I really looked at the life that could have been hers. As I ate Salvadoran food I thought about how she may never have had a cheese steak and how she would have grown up on rice and beans. And, how as a college graduate with a responsible job, her life had taken a vastly different turn from her Latina peers. One of the places I visited was the nutrition center where malnourished sick babies came to be nursed back to health. I chose this assignment because help was needed to feed and stimulate the babies who were away from their families 2-3 months for recovery. This ministry was begun by a Texas couple 24 years ago and it had made a remarkable difference in El Salvador. I needed to come here because years ago, a foster mother cared for my child in such a way that when she arrived her eyes were bright, she was responsive and she was able to attach to her family. I wanted to do the same for someone else.

I spoke to the founder about the status of Salvadoran adoption because as an adoptive mom I was interested. In doing so I told him that our daughter was Honduran. At one point he said to me "Your daughter won the million dollar lottery". I found myself telling him "We both won",and I meant it. There is no way that eight days in Central America could ever repay the Comos for the gift of my child, but in some way, this trip, with its exhaustive demands of physical and emotional hard work, helped me think feel I came close.
Thanks for reading.

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