The Team
28 parts of 1 body
Goals
This section will talk about the experience and growth of the missions team, the group of 28 people that experienced life together on this trip.
All of us were either CMU students or recently graduated CMU alumni. We came together from different fellowships on campus and about half of the group came on the trip last year. It was the case for most of us that we knew some people much more than others going into the trip.
In terms of growth as a team, our goals were to work together effectively, create relationships across fellowships, and above all to display unity in serving Jesus Christ. Our team this year was much larger than previous years, which allowed us to complete larger tasks more quickly, but also posed challenges for us in achieving these goals. To achieve these goals, every one of had to play a role, and between all of us many of our roles were very different.
To look back at this, I will divide this section into 2 main parts of the time we spent together. The first part will be about ‘Working Together’, referring to the time the team spent explicitly serving the mission through labor: cleaning the church, running VBS, and doing street outreach. The second part will be about ‘Living Together’, referring to the time the team spent outside of these things, including our time of debrief each night and the way we spent our downtime. Through these sections I’ll attempt to give a brief summary of different aspects of the trip as well as some observations or thoughts I had, and at the end come to a conclusion about how well the team was able to fulfill these goals.
Working Together
Some of us came with our own expectations for the work we’d do on this trip: the role we would play and the things we would say to the kids at VBS or the adults on the street make an impact on Kensington. For many, the experience was completely different from their expectations. For some, they tried not to have any expectations to compare to.
The team had talked about being humble servants of the Lord, mainly in reference to serving the church that was hosting us and serving Kensington. The team also needed to be humble servants to each other, which would involve both giving directions gracefully and receiving instructions gracefully.
Cleaning Together
In the mornings throughout the week, the team spent time together cleaning around the church.
We would split up into a few smaller groups assigned to different tasks. The work involved sweeping and mopping many hard floors, vacuuming carpeted floors, rearranging cluttered supply closets, cleaning the church nursery, painting the nursery, helped in the kitchen, moving scaffolding up the stairs the church would use for renovation. Some of us would also prepare for the things we would need to do later in the day, like VBS. The most memorable part of cleaning for me was rearranging the supply closet and bringing things to the basement, which was through a door in the corner of the closet. The basement was dark and unfinished with earthy ground instead of floor and a low ceiling, it felt like being a mine for Tolkien’s dwarves.
One of the blessings of having a larger group of 28 was being able to see a lot of things get done. It didn’t take too long for five to ten people to sweep and mop the big main room where we would have meals and run VBS, although it was hard to have people not walk through the just-mopped floors. And while this was happening, a second group would be doing the same thing upstairs, a third would be cleaning/painting the nursery and a fourth would be in the kitchen. The trip leaders, Andrew and Mon, would often delegate someone to take charge and be responsible for each group. Sometimes this would also happen naturally, whether someone decided to take initiative or the other members of the group deferred to someone for direction. It did seem like the whole team was willing to listen to each other’s instructions.
Teaching or Painting Together
In the afternoons after lunch, the team ran VBS for kids in the neighborhood.
Prior to the trip, the team spent time preparing skits and bible lessons for each day of the week. VBS was the one of main focal points of our pre-trip preparation, and originally the whole team was meant to be involved. Many had shared that VBS was an important reason they came on this trip, and wanted to establish a meaningful relationship with the children in Kensington. However, after the first couple days of VBS, it was clear that the team greatly outnumbered the children. The team decided that only part of the team would be involved with VBS every day and assigned more people to paint the nursery, separate from VBS. Some other factors the team had to consider was the children might be uncomfortable surrounded by too many older people and not all of us could be useful in VBS since we were too many, but also we wanted to keep relationships with the children that were established on the first days. The children did notice when people they knew were missing.
Before VBS started, some of us would go out on the streets with signs telling kids and their parents about the program, and others would drive to Franklin street, a street with kids who had been to VBS before and pick them up. Trying to ‘recruit’ kids on the street felt uncomfortable and even inappropriate, especially if they weren’t with their parents. Giving car rides at Franklin street seemed more successful, as there was already a relationship some members of the team had established with those children. One thing we could look into would be to spread awareness of the program prior to our arrival on the trip, instead of walking around on the streets asking children to come to a program.
Kids would trickle in sporadically in the beginning, and we would spend time either helping them with homework or coloring with them. Then when most of the kids were there we would gather them all, sit them down, and begin with worship and bible lessons. We would have a few people on the stage ‘lead’ the song: they would show the dance moves and sing along with the song as the music played. Other team members held posters with the lyrics on them, and others would sit next to the kids and dance. We hoped that dancing with them would encourage the kids to dance. Some kids, especially smaller ones, were very energetic and engaged while others were more hesitant and some stood or sat still with their arms folded.
After the worship, the bible lessons would start with a skit to teach a biblical lesson in simple and memorable (funny) ways, like the idea that lying is bad and the idea that God is a shepherd that won’t leave his sheep. The skit I was involved in had the ‘good shepherd’ (Jesus) defeating a big bad wolf in a dance battle to reclaim his lost sheep. We would use the skit to drive the bible lesson, asking the children questions to see if they understood the message of the skit and explaining things when they were confused. The team also chose a memory verse for the week, and during the lesson time we tried to have the kids memorize this.
VBS time ended with games or arts and crafts, which was a sort of free time for them. Some activities we had were an easter egg hunt and making small water bottles into sheep using pipe cleaners and cotton balls. This was the most important time for the kids to have fun playing, and for team members to talk personally to them. I saw many team members make relationships in different ways: talking and laughing with them, drawing and crafting with them, or even playing basketball outside with them. The most memorable parts of VBS for me were quietly drawing next to a little girl as she read her magazine, and being told one day later in the week that a kid had wanted to see me (I stayed away from VBS that day because I felt unwell).
While VBS was happening, the rest of the team was painting the nursery. This was a very large time commitment, and some other members of the team expressed concern that this work might be mundane for the painters and would keep them from making relationships with the kids in VBS, which might be more interesting or meaningful. I personally did not spend any time painting. However, the painters seemed willing and happy to do their job, and some expressed gratitude for the things they were learning in this unexpected experience, and being able to relax through working for many hours, whether in conversation or in silence.
Street Outreach
The team prepared PBJ sandwiches for bringing to people on the street. We were able to work together, settling on a sort of assembly line system, and made a lot of sandwiches in a much shorter time than in previous years because of the size of our team.
At night we gathered at a street corner and set up a table where we would serve food. We would also each take sandwiches individually, and use these to approaches strangers, offering food and conversation if they were willing. We would offer a sandwich and start a conversation, and if they were willing we’d also ask if they’d like prayer. Some people would take a sandwich and leave, but still many others were willing to share their stories and to be prayed for.
The team would also sing songs on the street, as many team members belonged to the same a capella group, although others joined in too. We wanted to offer joy to the people on the street and let them hear music, and sometimes people from the street would also join in.
I was able to see the whole team prepare food together, different members of the team serve food to people, speak to people through words or through song, or to spend time — sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a couple hours — listening to people share their stories, people who had been accustomed to no one caring about them.
Living Together
Most of our time and much of our growth was spent working together through UWC, VBS and Outreach, but the time outside of these things is just as — or perhaps, even more — important in terms of growing as a team. The 28 of us were a mix of people who knew each other well and didn’t know each other well, that would be living intimately together for a week.
In addition to being a mix of close friendships and not, it was also a mix of different personalities and visions of how things should be. I’m glad to say that not every frustration was kept invisible, which I think was a very important step towards the goal of unity.
Meals
The whole team would gather for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For each meal, one car of people would be assigned to help in the kitchen and serve the meal to the rest of the team (we would rotate through the 7 cars we came in). Sometimes the meal prep group would be shorthanded, whether due to illness or being busy with other important tasks, but others were willing to pitch in when they were needed.
During the meal, the team sat in a long rectangle of tables put together. We would eat together and talk together. I noticed that some did tend to stick close to people in their fellowship. This was not necessarily a bad thing, because while creating relationships between fellowships was important, every relationship has potential for growth and sense of personal comfort to an extent is also important. Still, there were definitely plenty of conversations that built new relationships between people of different fellowships, or even people in the same fellowship that didn’t know each other as well.
One thing I’ve thought about was the layout of the tables, and how it was one strip of seats across the whole room- it was impossible to speak to people that weren’t within a couple seats of you. I think it might be helpful in the future to rearrange the tables so that people don’t have to be so far apart, although this might be difficult because of the pillars that were in the room.
Downtime
The trip was very busy, but there were pockets of free time outside of meals when no one was rushing to get things done. These included brief periods throughout the day between tasks, usually some time before and after meals, and time late at night after debrief when the team could spend time resting alone or talking to one another.
We had the most free time on the first day when we arrived. I remember that night the team was very energetic and had an impromptu jam session, with many people playing (or playing around with) instruments. The worship team started with singing, guitar and drums and others would come in on the piano or the bongos or trying their hands at guitar or drums. While this music/commotion was happening, there were also people talking to each other and to the church leaders, or practicing dance routines.
Many people spent a lot of their downtime writing spur notes. These ‘spur notes’ were notes of encouragement directed specifically from one person to another, that would be placed in a jar and distributed each night during debrief. They were a way to affirm someone personally to provide encouragement. Some people did feel pressured to write a lot of spur notes, although I don’t believe that should have been the case. The team also did a good job of explicitly affirming each other in person, whether during the day or during debrief. I know some members of the team prefer to say things in person rather written notes in general, but I would like to acknowledge the value of having something physical in writing to remember things by.
The nighttime was also a time of vulnerability and sharing within the team. I could see meaningful conversations and prayers happening around me. I think the spirit of vulnerability and sharing was greatly helped by the willingness of some team members to share difficult and personal things during the time of worship and debrief.
Worship & Debrief
Each night after going out to outreach, the team came back to the church and sat in a circle. We would sing a few songs of worship, distribute spur notes going around giving affirmations, and then share thoughts about the day. This time of gathering for worship and debrief was the most obvious display of physical unity, although sometimes the team had different visions of spiritual unity.
After singing worship, we would pass out spur notes from the day. Then, we would have a time for affirmations. This meant that anyone in the circle could speak up and call out another one in the group to say something nice, affirming them for something they did during the day. I found these to be very encouraging when I received them, although I had felt a craving after attention and approval, especially during affirmations, and others have expressed the same sentiments too. I do greatly value the ability to still read the spur notes I received from the trip today and into the future.
A time of sharing followed this. It was interesting how people in the same physical place could have very different experiences. A lot of the sharing involved outreach, since that was what we had just come back from each night, but people also shared about their thoughts and feelings from earlier in the day too. Some sharings were joyful and thankful for the gifts and blessings the day had helped them to see, others were about the people they had met at street outreach and more questioning, and some were very heavy. I remember one or two people being particularly vulnerable, sharing deep doubts and insecurities. While this may have been discouraging for many during the moment, I think it was a good and brave thing to do that encouraged others to similarly share and lead to stronger relationships in the team.
The debrief on Thursday night was a difficult one, where the team addressed some issues that had been building throughout the weak. The team was tired, and most had been sleeping very little throughout the week. Also, there was frustration about miscommunications between the team and UWC and Carmen, the one ultimately in control of this trip and who we would listen to. On Thursday night, Andrew & Mon told the team that there was another miscommunication and we would be performing at a concert for Carmen’s church on the day we were leaving. This was unexpected, and added on upon the fatigue the team felt and the frustrations some members felt in relation to a theme miscommunications or the personalities of UWC, which were more forceful may have clashed with some of ours.
During the Thursday night debrief, a lot of honest frustration came out. Some harsh messages were spoken, about how some team members felt about the trip, dissatisfaction about the unexpected concert, and anger about how much of the trip was at controlled by the people UWC even though they might not realize it, instead of being driven by the team members themselves. Some of the leaders had shared about struggling very hard with everything going into planning the trip and running the trip, and some members expressed that there could be more delegation, as the 2 trip leaders shouldn’t feel the need or desire to have the entire trip of 28 people depend on just them.
I think all of us who came on the trip had same idea to come on a mission to serve God, but a lot of our issues stemmed from the differences in our personal ideas of what that meant. Specifically, some seemed to treat this missions trip to serve God as bending over backwards for specific people without complaining, while others were very frustrated that the team was not being firm or communicating nearly as much as they could have at all. I think there was definitely a disconnect between the relationship of the trip leaders to the leaders of UWC and the relationship the rest of the team had with the leaders of UWC.
Harsh messages were spoken, but it was done without lashing out. Everything someone had to say in the group was listened to and not dismissed. There was discussion that didn’t devolve into bickering. After the debrief ended, some people apologized for what they said if they thought their message was too harsh or could be taken the wrong way.
Unity on earth doesn’t mean avoiding conflict or being completely perfect, but rather fighting through it with understanding and graciousness. I doubt anything anyone said was perfect in wording or motivation, but I think we were able to move closer to some picture of unity by struggling through problems rather than simmering with unspoken frustrations.
Conclusion
Through the trip, we wanted for the team to work together effectively, create relationships across fellowships, and demonstrate unity in the mission. I can only provide a general picture and speak from one perspective, but I think the team was able to achieve these goals, although there were definitely many issues we had to work through in areas that could be better planned for in future trips. In the future, it could be useful to have more explicit leadership positions for larger teams established before the trip. Although there was delegation during the trip, much of the pre-trip preparation in some of the subteams was reliant on individuals deciding to take initiative, which happened at the last minute. It could also be good to establish a clearer vision about serving, and who we were there to serve.
Still, there was definitely a lot of growth that I witnessed. The 28 people on the trip came to know each other more thoroughly, through laboring during the day or just talking at night. There were relationships formed between different of people that were not there before. Everyone was able to play a role, whether it was in planning and organizing the entire trip, taking charge during physical work, sweeping floors or painting walls, dancing with the dancing kids, spending time with the shy kids, singing on the streets, playing music for worship or anything else. The 28 of us had many different personalities and feelings that sometimes led to conflict, but we were willing to try and talk through them with love and honesty to pursue the goal of unity.
