A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to El Salvador and shoot photos and video for O C N W T R, a nonprofit that provides clean drinking water out of the ocean to communities in need. And I had a really good time. I also went a few years ago and had a similar experience, which got me thinking about serving communities in need.
Growing up, I was involved in a lot of service projects, specifically in Tijuana, Mexico. I’d visit orphanages or help build homes for people who literally lived in the dump. But I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe it was because my dad forced me to go help. Whatever it was, it left a bad taste in my mouth for “missions trips” – what these types of service projects are called in the evangelical church.
In middle school, I decided I didn’t want to go to church anymore. So, for about 7 years I stopped going. Then when my parents broke up, my grandpa died, my girlfriend dumped me, and life just seemed completely upside down, I went back. I got involved in an evangelical church that was bent on “seeking and saving the lost.” I attended the School of Evangelism and took classes at a local bible college. I learned a lot about the bible through the lens of fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity. A lot of what I interpreted from what I learned was that I was bad and God was very moody and temperamental depending on how well I was performing as a Christian. A good Christian is never in their comfort zone, they are constantly “being stretched.” At the end of the School of Evangelism, we had a month-long practicum in Aguascalientes, Mexico where we were to put into practice all the evangelism techniques we learned in school.
For some reason, most of the “mission trips” I went on were focused on making the volunteers feel uncomfortable and guilty. I understand the logic behind it – get people out of their comfort zone and exposed to how other parts of the world live – shock them into wanting to do good. This might work for the groups that go on one trip a year, but for me, I was in Mexico a lot and exposed to a lot of poverty. I didn’t like going and honestly, to this day, I still don’t like going to Mexico to serve people. It’s nothing about the Mexican people – my mother is Mexican. It’s about the bad associations I have from being forced to do something I didn’t want to do as a child.
On one missions trip, someone who I respected dearly told me I stayed in the kitchen where it was safe, unlike him who was on the front lines, talking about Jesus and saving the lost. I’m an introvert. I’m a chef. I don’t have the gift of making people horrible about themselves so they turn to Christ for salvation; I have the gift of feeding people.
But what if people can go do good in the world and not feel guilty about using their gifts? What if they actually enjoyed themselves and helped people at the same time? What if I could also use my talents for photo and video and help spread the good work that O C N W T R is doing in El Salvador and around the world? What’s wrong with that?
O C N W T R chooses locations on beaches that have access to surf. They build rapport with the local surf community - surf with them, feed them, build churches, build skate ramps, provide clothing, give away surfboards and provide clean drinking water for free … and they enjoy doing that!
What I enjoyed about this trip is that everyone was on a different faith journey, yet everyone felt comfortable with each other. Some were pastors, others didn’t go to church, some were starting churches. But all were there to help with their specific skill set. Some spent two 9 hour-days in the sun building a roof for a palapa, others helped pick up trash, others chopped down shrub and hauled it away, others installed the desalination system and gave away free water to the locals and by the end of the trip, we were exhausted and satisfied.
I’m on my own faith journey now, trying to untangle the knot that was left by a certain flavor of Christianity. But I know that no matter what I believe or don’t believe or if my doctrinal thoughts are not 100% correct according to certain denominations, it’s always OK to help people and we shouldn’t feel guilty about doing that.
Since my last trip with O C N W T R a few years ago, it had probably been 18 years since I willingly went on a service trip. Maybe it’s taken me this long to learn that it’s ok to be who I am, that I don’t have to fit the mold of what other Christians thought I should be.
What if you could go do good for others and enjoy doing it? O C N W T R has found a niche and I’m glad to be a part of it.
Leave a comment if you’d like more information on how you can get involved.
www.ocnwtr.com
