I just got back from a mission trip to Greece. Our team, nine of us in total,  worked and stayed in a small suburb of Athens, called Glyfada. We visited some Biblical historical landmarks as well as other landmarks that contributed to the current culture in Greece. We witnessed some of the most amazing sunsets painted by our Creator and were able to explore some of their beautiful country. We worked hard, played hard, and ate some delightful food! We made new friends, shared inside jokes and even became accustomed to Greek driving! 

While visiting our partner church in Glyfada we were able to not only participate in two of their church services but experience a different, more relational type of Sunday gathering. Hearing the heart behind meeting neighbors and those who don’t know Jesus or even understand their need for a relationship with Him was challenging and convicting. The ideas and passion centered on meeting your neighbors exactly where they are is something our team continues to process and think about as we think about how we do church here in the states. Maybe not all churches, but ours for sure is very much different. I’m not saying our church isn’t trying to reach our neighbors, because we are, only that the approaches are different. 

Life, outside of driving, seems to be lived at a much slower pace in Greece. No one is ever in a rush, they take time to greet and talk with everyone who enters their doors, they fellowship after each service with coffee and tasty treats, they hug, they kiss and they pray for one another. The country observes a quiet time every afternoon and very few stores are open on Sundays. Meal times are later and much slower, with dinner often lasting for two to three hours. Servers never rush you or try to turn the table. The dinners are the ones who ask for the check and pay when they are ready. Tipping is completely optional and not expected because employers pay good wages. Everything is fresh, very few preservatives. You can’t help but feel healthier and want to continue living in such a way. 

Coming home from any type of mission trip is hard! Reality begins to take over as we try to catch up on laundry, grocery shop, meal plan and return to work and the pace of life we are used to. But what if we didn’t? What if we purposefully started living at a slower and more purposeful pace? What if we didn’t rush to leave church but took the time to talk to those we see, what if we provided a space for members and visitors to gather and get acquainted with one another? What if we focused on relationships and people over programming and looking the part? 

So often we Americans go on mission trips for the wrong reasons. We go to help those we feel have less than we do and while that may in fact be true, we discount the lessons God might teach us as we go. Jesus Himself tells us to “go and make disciples of all nations”, but what if one of the biggest ways we fulfill that commission is by coming home well? What if we put into practice all that we saw, heard and experienced to make disciples right here in our own backyards, neighborhoods and churches? What if we truly lived differently because of our trips and refused to go back to our overly full schedules and hectic way of life. What if we set up better work/life balances that purposefully built in time for building relationships? 

Paul calls us to “live lives worthy of our calling” in Ephesians. What if one of the ways we do that is by actually choosing to live differently and implementing those things we’ve learned. Not caring what anyone but Jesus thinks?

So many scriptures come to mind as I continue to process and reflect on lessons learned during this trip. But perhaps Jeremiah 29:4-7 speaks loudest. Here we find the prophet Jeremiah delivering a message to God’s people after they’ve been deported to Babylon. He says “This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.” While we haven’t been deported, several of our team is struggling to find purpose and meaning in our “normal” lives here. But as the Holy Spirit reminded me as I read this passage today – God placed us exactly where and when we are for a reason and purpose! We cannot and should not discount that fact. 

Maybe we will go back to Greece, maybe He is or will in fact call some of our team to relocate there, but for right now each and every one of us has a purpose exactly where God has planted us.