The hassle of accommodation, food, and transport, the cost of traveling thousands of miles—is it really worth it, for a team from another culture who cannot speak the language and will only be there a few weeks?
I have to answer this question to myself and others at least once a week. Here is my latest answer:
Teams fit directly with iThemba’s passion to link communities. The overseas communities in the UK, USA and Denmark help us by their financial gifts, inspire the Mpumuza community through their partnerships in practical work and encourage us with their enthusiasm, reminding us how amazing our jobs really are!
We help them by giving them a vision of healthy community engagement, educating them on how to best use their resources in South African development work, giving them opportunities to serve, and hopefully creating a space for God to directly speak to them and challenge them on issues related to service, justice, mercy and compassion.
We strive for these trips to be more than just 2 weeks of poverty tourism. We want them to be 2 weeks that start a life-time of service to the global body of Christ.
(and after a vacation and a week of sick leave, I’m back at work. This blog won’t be so silent anymore!) 🙂
Stephanie Ebert 