Honey, did you pack the gun?

I'd just come back home from one of my frequent trips abroad, and as usual, there were plenty of emails and phone calls to catch up on from being gone.  As I was combing through them, a few stuck out to me, so I addressed them first.

The first phone call I needed to return was from a person that was very interested in serving in a Latin American country that shall remain nameless.  I'll just tell you that this country is south of the USA and north of Argentina.  Anyway, the person's primary discussion point is the danger that exists in the country they feel called to serve.

The discussion ensued like this:

Person:  "We've seen the travel warnings, and we really feel called to serve in ______, but what I really need to know is this: what are your plans for when they attack you?"

Me: "For when they attack us?"

Person: "Yes.  What's your contingency plan for that?"

Me: "For when they attack us."

Person: "Yes."

Me: "For when who attacks us?"

Person: "The locals.  We know there's a lot of Americans being attacked down there.  That's why there are travel warnings telling us not to go. Are we going to be armed?  I know a lot of American people and companies that travel around in armored vehicles."

Me: "Ah, yes.  For when they attack us.  You're wondering if our christian mission team is going to be armed for when the locals attack us.  The short answer is no, we're not armed, but I think this could lead to a much larger discussion."

After working through the logical reasons we're not armed, including the fact that none of PPM's thousands of people serving with us have ever been harmed, and that our friendships and parnerships with the local communities actually put us in a position where the local community is looking out for us rather than trying to attack us, the person was satisfied with why we are not packing heat on our mission trips.

This is just one of many examples we come across of people driven by a real fear of the unknown and it certainly ties to a lack of overall experience in knowing and understanding people from other parts of the world.  That's the part of it that I have no problem with at all, because that's what we feel called to do at PPM:  Be the bridge between cultures.  Break down barriers.  Cut through the perception until we reach reality.

Here's the problem I have with questions and scenarios such as this:

Exactly where did we get the idea that power through physical strength and potential for violence is part of God's plan for loving people into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ?

If we agree that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, and He is the ultimate example of how to live a life dedicated to our creator, then he's the ultimate example of how to live our lives.

In example after example of dealing with people, Christ simply pointed out truth and loved.... and if people didn't listen, then he moved on.  And the crowds and the followers multiplied like crazy.  It wasn't because he forced his will on people or protected himself with weapons.  Quite the contrary.  In fact, as many of us know, the night he was betrayed, Peter cut off a man's ear in defense of Jesus, and Jesus reprimanded Peter and put the man's ear back on his head (John 18:11).

All this to say, the question of "will we be armed when the locals attack us" presents a much larger opportunity for discussion to me.  I believe that many of us are programmed in our own minds to operate out of self-preservation, which is ultimately fear.  But that's another blog for another day.

We have over a thousand of people serving all over Central America and the Caribbean this month.  Please keep them in your prayers as they boldly go and serve where God has called them.

(follow our current teams here: http://www.prayingpelicanmissions.org/journals.cfm)

And remember, all our mission teams are weapon free.

PPM'ers in Haiti with bricks, not guns