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Post Mission Trip Blues

2009 Cambodia Mission Trip

It is natural to come back from a vacation and feel a little sad about missing the people and places you experienced while away from home. However, the feelings are magnified when the time away was spent on a mission trip filled with spiritual highs!  The 2009 ASAP Mission Trip to Cambodia was no relaxing vacation.  Nearly every moment was spent working for God ministering to others or visiting places and projects that show the great needs of the people.  That sense of being continually on God’s schedule was both exhausting and energizing.  It was an experience unmatched in our lives so far—and we are missing it.  We’ve got the Post Mission Trip Blues!

When my wife Sherri and I first arrived home, we began immersing ourselves in viewing the hundreds of photos and video clips from our trip, stopping only long enough to use the restroom (with a renewed appreciation for its flush toilet and running water).  We are addicted to the spiritual high of our first mission trip and are reluctant to come down off the mountain.  It helps to be able to communicate via email with some of our mission trip team members and new friends in Cambodia. The jet lag has finally worn off, but whenever I check the time, I can't help but think of what time it is in Cambodia and recall what we were doing there at that moment. Whether we were praying with the mission team at six o’clock in the morning, rushing out the door in fire drill fashion, teaching an outreach class in bare feet, or witnessing the mass baptism, a deep sense of privilege and responsibility encompassed Sherri and me for having this amazing opportunity to serve God in Cambodia. Critical to the success of every aspect of our service, was the team of translators who worked just as hard as the missionaries in hot and humid conditions. Indeed, the translators became some of our dearest new brothers and sisters in Christ and we deeply miss them. Instead of images on a mission story video, our family of God across the globe became real to us. 

Working for the LORD means no time for worrying about the stock market or missing your favorite TV show. These are the things of the earth that grow strangely dim in the light of God’s glory and grace.  When you work hard for the LORD, you also appreciate sleep like never before.  Oh, but how wonderful is that sleep and we experienced firsthand what Solomon meant in Ecclesiastes 5:12: “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.”

Fortunately God is merciful and the activities of normal life here in America require our attention.  As we resume some of our regular activities, the sadness begins to fade to thankfulness. There is now a deep appreciation for the blessings of friends made and a hope that God will bring us together again someday. Our journey off the mountain and into the valley need not be sad because God is with us in both places.  And we know He will take us back up the mountain again someday!