25 Lessons

I’ve been home for a couple weeks now, from my latest trip to Niños de Mexico and I have been processing not just my last visit, but the last ten years worth of trips. I have learned much from the trips themselves, but I have also learned valuable lessons in the months leading up to each trip as I have tried to prepare each team. Maybe, more importantly, I have learned a great deal from observing, talking to and working alongside the amazing people who make Niños de Mexico work. Their examples of servant leadership are sometimes a stark contrast to my own leadership and other forms of leadership that I have experienced in other areas of my life. 

The lists below is an attempt to chronicle a few of the lessons I have learned through these short term mission trips. Some of the lessons have been difficult to learn and others have been much easier thanks to the grace and love of great teammates. It is not an exhaustive list, by any means, but these are the things that have been rolling around in my head for the last two weeks. Hopefully you can relate to some and some will cause you to think about your own perspective on short term mission trips and/or leadership. If nothing else, I hope you will be reminded of that we can always learn something from our experiences if we are willing to let God open our eyes and we are willing to see and learn.

1. The more you expect to get from a short term mission trip the more likely you are to be disappointed. 
2. The more you focus on giving, without expecting anything in return, the more likely you will be blessed and satisfied.
3. Sometimes the greatest spiritual growth happens when you are least aware of it.
4. Sending lots of money to a mission does not necessarily make you a partner with the mission.
5. Building relationships is just as important as sending money, and that is difficult for many Americans to understand.
6. The children at Niños de México want to know their sponsors and want their sponsors to know them.
7. When you think you have no more energy, a child will help you find some reserve energy that you didn’t know you had.
8. Short term mission trips are not about going to “fix” something or to solve problems, they are about serving, submitting, learning and loving.
9. People in other countries are often smarter than us and we are usually not as smart as we think we are.
10. Independence and individualism is overrated.
11. Independence and individualism isn't even Biblical.
12. There is no correlation between the accumulation of stuff and the presence of joy.
13. Americans are, generally, overly dramatic about our hardships, struggles, and stresses.
14. Going on a short term mission trip doesn't automatically make you a better Christian, in fact, sometimes, it makes you worse. 
15. Not everyone should go on a short term mission trip, but everyone should want to.

Lessons on Leadership (that I am still learning):

1. The best leaders pray for God to work through their weakness rather than relying on their own skills and talents.
2. The best leaders are humble.
3. The best leaders serve.
4. The best leaders are not dramatic.
5. The best leaders are uncomfortable being referred to as leaders.
6. The best leaders like the spotlight most when it is shining on the people they are serving and leading.
7. Sometimes the best leadership comes by pushing from behind rather than pulling from the front.
8. A position or a title doesn't make you a leader, and if you think it does you are most likely not a very good leader.
9. Leaders who obsess with being a leader are usually not very good leaders.
10. Not everyone should try to be a leader, but everyone should aspire to have the qualities of a good leader (and, ironically, when they start developing the qualities of a good leader they will probably be one even if they are not aware of it).