You just have to be there!

A mission worker I know recently commented on Facebook –

I’ve often been a little shame-faced that frequently my main contribution to whatever I’m doing is not necessarily my skill at the task, but the fact that I’m doing it enthusiastically.

Sometimes I tell people the story of the time I was taken by a mission worker in Mozambique to a rebel camp to ask for permission to run a food-for-work programme in the area.  While we were visiting, they brought us a boy who had been accidentally shot and asked if we could help.  Using our Land Rover we drove, very slowly, the 25 miles along bush tracks to the nearest Red Cross field hospital.

They were unable to help, as the bullet was too deeply embedded for them to operate.  So they cleaned the wound and sent us away.  As we were leaving, we happened on a UN peacekeeping convey and our intrepid mission worker flagged them down and asked for help.  They told us to take the boy to their own hospital, with modern facilities not normally available in Mozambique.  They radioed ahead to the hospital and by the time we got there the doctors were ready to operate.  They saved the boy’s life.

I tell this story because to me it demonstrates that you don’t need a lot of skills – you just have to be there and be willing.  OK, we had a car, and one of us could speak Portuguese, but a lot of unskilled people made a difference to that boy.

Of course, ‘just being there’ can result in a lot of ignorant, short-term amateurs running around doing their own thing, and sometimes that can do more harm than good.  But in an era when many mission agencies advertise specific roles for Bible translators, water engineers, agricultural advisers and accountants, it can seem rather exclusive and overlook the very valuable character qualities of the willing enthusiast, who may not bring skills, but brings good attitude.  While we have a desperate need for highly-skilled professionals in certain roles, this can also lead to a comment I often hear at mission events: “I don’t think you want me.  I haven’t got any skills.”

Which of course is not true, and I’ve helped people analyse their social, academic and workplace history to help them see that they have a number of portable skills which could translate into a role in mission.  But there is still a role for willing volunteers who don’t bring specific skills with them.

My discouraged Facebook friend closed her comment positively with this quote from Ann Voskamp:

Enthusiasm always blazes within the best life — because enthusiasm comes from entheos — which literally means “God within”.

Let’s recruit a few more enthusiasts!