Discerning a Mission Trip to El Hogar

- by The Reverend Thomas J. Brown

On a beautiful autumn Saturday morning Liz Kinchen and I were sitting in a workshop sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The workshop was about “Global Mission.” The presenters were speaking about the spiritual vitality that can ignite a congregation leading up to and following from a short-term mission trip. Many people in the room had a story (or two) about their congregation’s experience with mission trips, but some were in the room because their congregation had begun to think about a short term mission trip. One woman stood up to ask how her relatively small church could plan such a trip. At that point, one of the presenters said, “I suggest El Hogar,” and with that he pointed toward Liz, and continued speaking to say something like, “because they’re completely equipped for week-long teams.” 

The next Saturday morning Liz and I were once again together, but this time we were headed to Boston’s airport to fly to Tegucigalpa with twelve other adults from the Church of the Epiphany in Winchester, Massachusetts. The group had met several times before we left, worked together to raise money for our trip, and prayed together to form ourselves as a community. 

When we landed in Tegucigalpa we were met by Raul Castro, El Hogar’s Capital Projects Manager & Work Team Host, and also by the former Executive Director, the Reverend Richard Kunz, and his wife, Dr. Barbra McCune. From that moment until these same friends took us to the airport to fly home (a week later) our team was constantly supported and encouraged by the community of people--adults and children--who are El Hogar. I understood, almost instantly, why the global mission coordinator for the Diocese of Massachusetts would send people with limited time and limited experience to El Hogar. I found that El Hogar cares about hospitality, and they understand (extremely well) that mission trips are not only about getting some work accomplished, but also about listening for God, and developing friendships.

Yet there’s another dimension for those of us who are discerning whether to go to El Hogar. For clergy the question may center on whether it’s a good use of the parish’s resources, and the cleric’s time. For the lay person, regardless of her or his age, the time and expense can be prohibitive. Then there are the inevitable questions about the physical work, the ability to speak Spanish, and how one could possibly spend an entire week living in a small guest house with other parishioners. The plain truth is that while I wanted to go to El Hogar, I was also struggling to justify taking a week from the demands of my work. I’ve come to believe that many people preparing to go on a short-term mission trip feel ambivalence. And, I’ve come to believe also that feeling ambivalent may be the voice of God. It seems to me that we shouldn’t be entirely certain about short term mission trips. They’re risky business because lives are changed, and eyes and hearts are opened in unexpected ways. But there’s something larger at stake. If your congregation is talking about going to El Hogar, but you haven’t yet decided, please keep reading.

A short term mission trip can be the catalyst for transforming your congregation’s vocation to local mission. Three members of our team, because of their experience at El Hogar, now feel called to serve with other parishioners to volunteer at a local church’s food shelf. This past summer a group of high schoolers went to El Hogar, and two of them have changed their entire college plans based upon their experience at El Hogar; one of them said, “God changed me there.” When the youth trip got home nearly every kid’s parents reported something like, “They may not be in church every Sunday, but they can’t stop talking about going back to El Hogar.” At Epiphany in Winchester, mission trips to El Hogar have long ignited our commitment to serve in mission projects within our own diocese, and in our local town. The more we engage in global mission the more we hear the Gospel call to serve our neighbors here in New England.

If your congregation discerns that now is the time to visit El Hogar, I offer three suggestions for your group: 

1. Commit to daily prayer and check-in while you’re at El Hogar. The porch in the guest house is an ideal setting for this. When you’re organizing the group, identify the ones among you who will plan brief liturgies for morning and evening, and then get others to lead the worship. Provide time during these worship services for reflection and for people to speak about what they’re feeling, and about where they’re experiencing God’s presence. Why is this so important? The encounter at El Hogar--living in a foreign place, playing soccer with the children, making a home visit to the family of one of the children, eating a different diet, speaking a different language--all of these encounters challenge our convictions which can deepen our discipleship. Nonetheless the spiritual blessing is more easily identified and felt following intentional theological reflection. Avoid the pitfall of making the short-term mission trip solely about “getting some work done.” Make it count by praying and reflecting while you’re there, and after you get home.

2. Consider the fact that the people at El Hogar have things to teach you. Those of us who go to El Hogar from the United States are by no means the only ones on the “giving” side of the equation. Put another way, remember that you are a guest at the “home of love and hope.” Act like a guest, not an expert.

3. Consider leaving your privilege and education to fix things at El Hogar. There’s nothing about El Hogar that needs “fixing.” Concentrate on listening and praying, both of these actions tend to mitigate the impulse to fix things. For example, I’m privileged to serve a parish with many highly educated people, and in our culture we have been expertly trained to diagnose and to repair problems. We like to analyze, and we’re generally good at making things better. We’ve been taught to do that, and many of us do it very well. In another culture this approach is often offensive.  Another antidote to this pitfall is to structure your time at El Hogar so that everybody in your group has a chance to get acquainted with the boys and girls and the staff there. Developing friendships with the community there makes it easier to do things “their way” not yours.

Short-term mission projects aren’t for every congregation, but for those to whom God has given this call, it can be life-changing for your worship, for your formation, and for your congregation’s engagement with God’s mission. The only way to test the call is to try it. For more information about planning a trip to El Hogar contact Margo Mingay at mmingay@elhogar.org.


The Reverend Thomas J. Brown is the rector at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Winchester, Massachusetts. He is available at tbrown@3crowns.org.





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