June 2023
This past May, Rev. Kris Whitby, Assistant to the President, Mission and Ministry for the LCMS Northern Illinois District (NID), traveled to serve on a short-term mission trip in Belize. This trip follows the adoption of Belize as the Northern Illinois District’s international mission focus.
We asked Rev. Whitby why such trips are important to the mission of the NID and how they align with our work together. Here are his responses.
Why Belize? Why now?
It’s a joy to share the Gospel of Jesus “to the ends of the earth” as He promised would be done by His followers. Yet, many times, local congregations and their members may believe they’re unable to participate in such mission work. Belize offers a great opportunity to open the door for LCMS Northern Illinois District (NID) congregations, schools, and ministries to directly engage in bringing the Gospel internationally. Located in Latin America, Belize is a short flight from Chicago making short-term mission work relatively affordable. We have established mission partners there who can help determine how best to use our efforts to bring Christ to local communities. English is the official language of Belize, lowering the language challenge volunteers might face in other mission fields. Belize is even in the Central or Mountain time zone year-round, essentially eliminating jet lag.
But the best reason to have Belize as NID’s international mission focus is because there is abundant opportunity there to share the Good News of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is opening doors to do just that as our mission partners there work diligently to bring the lost the hope of Christ’s Life, Death, and Resurrection. Now is the time because our Lord has brought together people, resources, and opportunity for the sake of His Gospel in this place.
Can you share your understanding of the Belize Mission Society’s mission trips and why you believe they are important?
The Belize Mission Society has served to bring the touch of Christ’s compassion to the community in Saine Bight (in Southern Belize) since 2003! It started when a group of lay volunteers, hoping to bring the light of Christ to a hopeless community, conducted their first VBS program which introduced 180 children to the hope of Jesus. Now, over 100 mission trips later, the Belize Mission Society still has VBS programs as their cornerstone, but their work has expanded to include construction, home health visits, sports camps, youth and adult Bible studies, elementary school feeding and scholarship programs. Furthermore, the Belize Mission Society’s campus just opened their Mercy House for dental and medical visiting teams which was built through a generous grant from LWML! The Belize Mission Society is important to the NID’s mission efforts because they provide us a Christ-centered base of operations which is well-known and deeply appreciated in the Saine Bight community.
What personal qualities or skills do you think someone should possess to be effective on these mission trips?
The main quality for a potential short-term mission participant to have is a willingness to bring the love of Jesus to people in Belize. While certain trips that focus on things like healthcare or construction are blessed by people with experience or training in the area of focus, there are no special skill sets that are required to serve on a team. Even a trip that has something like construction as its focus will still need team members who do non-construction things in support of the mission. Belize can get powerfully warm, so a volunteer needs to consider their own health limitations, but each trip can utilize people with a variety of qualities and skills.
How do you believe going on a mission trip can be a blessing to one’s personal and spiritual growth and development?
I have always been blessed by our Lord in my own faith when serving on a short-term mission team. First, the preparation for a mission trip brings the opportunity to further engage in God’s Word and prayer. While on the trip, there is daily time of engaging with God’s Word and prayer with fellow team members and worship. Fellow team members bring their own encouraging witness of Christ’s work in their lives. The missionaries and indigenous fellow believers are a source of encouragement. Our Lord has also blessed me through my service on mission trips by giving me chances to see my faith in actions, serving in Christlike care for others, and at times, being honored to speak the Gospel to those served. I have always returned from mission trips tired from the mission, but with an enriched faith in Jesus and a renewed sense of hope in His work in the world!
Can you describe a situation where you have witnessed the impact of the Holy Spirit during a mission trip on a community or individual?
I had the blessing of working on a house-build project in Juarez with Ysleta Lutheran Mission in El Paso. The children of the family we served were new to our mission partners and unsure about our team as we helped build their home. They remained somber and kept their distance from our team members. The following year, we were in the same Juarez community on another build project. Now, the children from the first family would seek us out and were all smiles and hugs! It turns out the family had joined the local Lutheran Church and the children had come to know Jesus’ saving love. They also had come to know that our teams from the US were fellow followers of Jesus who were serving Him in their community. When we left from that second trip, the eldest daughter [around 10 years old] gave each of our team members one of her toys in thanks for our service to our Lord and her family. It’s one of my most treasured possessions to this day!
How would you prepare yourself mentally, spiritually, and emotionally for the challenges and experiences you might encounter on a mission trip?
The Word of our Lord is always a good start for preparation for a mission trip. I am especially blessed by reading passages where Jesus reminds His disciples to not worry … about the needs of their temporal lives as our Lord provides … about pre-planning what they will say in a witnessing opportunity because the Spirit will give us the right words to say … but also the encouragement to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ. I also surround the trip in prayer, for the missionaries who serve full time, for the mission team, for the project itself, for those whom we will serve, for my family while I’m away, for myself. I’d encourage anyone preparing for a trip to read everything your sending agency has prepared for your journey and follow through on all their directives, attend all the preparation meetings and take the time to get to know your leaders and fellow team members, and visit our Synod’s website to read up on what our church is and has been doing in that mission field.
What specific goals or objectives do you hope to achieve by going on a mission trip?
My main goal in any mission trip is always to bring a faithful witness of Christ to everyone I encounter through my Christlike thoughts, words, and actions, all the while clinging to His forgiving grace for the times I fall short. I hope to support the local missionaries in whatever way would best help them in their service to God, even if that means the mission trips’ objectives might change with short notice. I also ask our Lord to provide me opportunities to specifically share the Good News of the Gospel with those I serve and those I serve with on the trip.
How do you demonstrate cultural sensitivity or an ability to adapt to new environments? Is that important?
I believe it is important to serve in ways that honor the people our Lord sends us to serve as He has created and redeemed them in love just as He has me. Part of that honoring is not to be dismissive of our cultural differences, but to be respectful and grow in what our Lord offers us through the people we encounter from other cultures. I find a great way to do this is to humbly ask lots of questions. I enjoy asking the people I serve to tell me about themselves, their family, their country, customs, music, etc. I also do my best not to pretend to know why things may be the way they are; but rather, when ignorant, to share that I don’t understand something and ask people we encounter on the mission field to educate me on local customs and practices. This often opens us both up to a closer relationship which leads to speaking about Jesus.
How do you envision the role of the NID in supporting and empowering the local community during these mission trips?
I believe the NID has the God-given chance to bring resources [spiritual, material, and people] in support of the work being done by our partner agencies like the Belize Mission Society and the Lutheran Church of Belize itself. I pray that we can also bring our leadership and experience as followers of Christ to bear on the greater goal of equipping Belize Lutherans to one day lead the Lutheran Church of Belize in the cause of the Gospel of Christ.
What do you think will be the most significant takeaway or lesson you will gain from going on a mission trip, and how do you plan to apply it to your faith life?
The Gospel is effective by the work of the Spirit! The Good News of Jesus’ Life, Death, and Resurrection is the gift of salvation that transcends languages, cultures, and circumstances in this sin-fallen world to bring eternal life to all peoples! That’s the joyful truth in Belize. That’s the joyful truth in our communities in the NID. It’s my hope to help people who come to Belize witness that truth on their missions and then bring that encouragement to their home congregations, schools, and ministries, all to the glory of Christ!
How/why would you encourage others in the NID to participate in a mission trip?
Lift up our service in Belize in your prayers. Ask your pastor how your congregation might become partners with the NID in Belize, becoming prayer partners, resource providers, and/or short-term trip participants. Engaging in our international focus in Belize is a chance to witness our Lord’s hope-filled work in action both there and among the ministries who get the chance to serve!
What do future mission trips look like?
We seek to have trips that are determined by the needs and opportunities identified by our partner agencies and the full-time missionaries in Belize. As those trip projects come into focus, we’ll seek to proactively inform our NID churches, schools, and ministries so that anyone who so desires might partner with us in what our Lord gives us to do in bringing His Gospel to the people of Belize!
WITNESS: Encouraging personal witnessing, congregational engagement with their community, support of our NID partnerships and missions and sharing in a world mission field together.