As I'm sure you know, it is very easy to become overwhelmed by the needs around the world. There are a lot of people on this planet. There are a lot of people in trouble on this planet, facing poverty, disaster, disease, hunger. There are a lot of people who have never had a chance to hear about the Hope that comes through knowing the only man who has defeated the cause of every trouble. And just as it is easy to become overwhelmed by the myriad needs, it is also easy to become overwhelmed by the thousands of different ways of meeting them, the staggering amount of different approaches and organizations that are addressing needs.
In the face of all that, I want to tell you why I choose to send my support to an organization called Youth Missions International (YMI). I'll be frank, YMI would never have reached my radar except that a close friend of mine joined their work this year. The stories I hear every day of the work she is doing with YMI give me so much hope. But it's not just the good work of my friend that gives me hope, it is the way YMI runs.
Youth Missions International was founded in 2007. From my estimation, that makes them a very young ministry. Their mission, obviously, revolves around sending Youth. on Missions. Internationally. Very simple mission. Very simple strategy. This is one of the things I love about them. The simplicity of YMI's stance means that they can craft trips for many age groups, many schedules, many passions, on many continents. It also means that they unite people who do not always have the easiest time finding things in common.
As with all cross cultural missions, YMI trips introduce people of very different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs, and grant them common ground. It is very hard to leave an experience like that without a greater appreciation and understanding of other people's perspectives and situations. Something I don't see in every cross cultural missions organizations is this appreciation beginning long before anyone steps on a plane. YMI prepares their students to relate to and love people not only of different cultures, not only of the people they are sent to, but of people in their own community. The training, the trips, and the impact, are not left as a one-time really special experience. Instead, they equip and invite students to apply these skills and experiences everywhere for the rest of their lives.
I think the thing I love most about YMI is that they give people the confidence to talk about what is most important to them. Allow me to expand on that (I promise I'll be done soon, stick with me). There are a lot of things I wish I had learned when I was younger. I often wish I had stuck with my piano lessons--or learned to play any instrument--because if I had learned then, now I would know how to play an instrument, maybe even well. I wish I had played a sport. Any sport. Anything athletic at all, ever. Then I would have at least one thing to say to my athletic friends besides "go team!", and hopefully wouldn't feel such a sense of dread when people invited me to participate. And most important, I wish I had learned, and practiced, telling people about what is most important to me when I was younger. Just like with music and sports, I have a sense of dread that often makes me afraid to talk to people about Jesus. I have so little practice with talking about it that I have come to think of it as a deeply personal thing, like talking about my personal weaknesses and strengths, instead of thinking of it as something that is much bigger than this little Caroline that actually applies to everyone, should they choose to hear it. I wish that I had begun the learning and the practice of this conversation a lot earlier, so that I would be confident in it by now. And that is what YMI does. They give youth the tools, training, and support to talk about what is most important to them, and they give them the opportunities to practice that skill. Just like practicing a sport, an instrument, or public speaking, people touched by this organization get to practice telling a really, really good story, and not just for two weeks on their trip, but for years to come.
And I think that's really cool.
(My information comes from http://www.ymimissions.org/ if you want to know any more).
