I am a member of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. Our church urges and enables its members to reach out and serve people in need, both locally and globally. Annually, several hundred members take advantage of some 20-30 short term mission trips that the church arranges and makes available for us. Foundation for His Ministry’s (FFHM) mission in Vicente Guerrero, Baja, Mexico was one of the first organizations that the church partnered with to do mission trips more than 20 years ago. So there has been an ongoing relationship in place for some time. The church typically offers two trips per year to this FFHM mission.
I looked into this after hearing about short term mission trips at one of our services and from a friend who had participated in one of these trips to the Dominican Republic. Since I speak Spanish, a trip to a Latin American country was of particular interest to me. I enjoy working with children and this opportunity clearly offered a chance to do that. The cost was reasonable and there were people on our team who had been to this mission before, so it was easy for a first-timer like me to have confidence in this new journey.
Breakfast begins at 7AM every morning. Most everyone eats together – visitors, volunteers, children and staff. After finishing, volunteers typically have 30-40 minutes of free time before going to morning devotional referred to as “Sala”; which is the “living room” in which it is held.
On Monday, volunteers spend the morning in an orientation that provides them with background and history of the mission as well as a walking tour of the site and the numerous services and facilities. Lunchtime is 1PM; following lunch afternoon work assignments are given out in front of the Visitor’s Center.
Many of the volunteer assignments focus on supporting paid and long term volunteer mission staff so they can be dedicated to the operations of the mission and serving the children and clients. Clean up, gardening and maintenance projects are common opportunities for unskilled volunteers. A popular activity is working at “The Nuthouse”, which is a facility that processes the macademia nuts that are grown on the grounds of the mission. Volunteers with medical backgrounds can serve in the clinic, which provides health services to the mission and the surrounding community of Vicente Guerrero.
Those with talents in the trades can assist with maintaining, upgrading or adding to existing mission infrastructure. In my second trip to the mission, I sought and received approval to deliver IMPULSA (Junior Achievement) lessons to the children in grades 1-6 at the Instituto Oasis school on the mission grounds.
In addition to volunteer “work” there are several support activities that volunteers engage in during the week from Monday night babysitting to picking up the mission's garbage and taking it to the city dump.
Volunteers are urged to sign up to join mission staff on afternoon outreach trips to towns and villages nearby on Tuesday – Thursday afternoons. These typically include 2-5 volunteers joining with two mission staff to deliver what is similar to a “Sunday school” class to 40-60 local children. Volunteers help set up, can play games, and serve milk and peanut butter that is provided by the mission to help boost the children’s diet and nutrition.
On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, all volunteers join staff at the mission to bring Adult Bible Outreach programs to local communities and migrant worker camps. As many as 200-400 people come to these. Volunteers also play with children here, occasionally food is served too. At sundown, an animated Bible movie is presented, followed by a brief sermon to adults. Bible and other literature are distributed and those who wish to follow Christ are shown the way by the mission team.
On Friday afternoon, teams typically spend some free time going to the beach or mountains.
