Confronted by Poverty on a 1st Mission Trip

By Maxwell R Watson

What began as a simple Mission trip, became a watershed moment for my life, when In 2001 I set out to visit my first undeveloped (third world) country. I had made friends with some guys from PNG and I really wanted to visit them. Well I was so confronted by the poverty and the struggle of daily life I became determined that I was going to help somehow, I had absolutely no idea of how just that I had to do something. The starkness of their lives compared with mine just a few hours away by plane was so different, yet the reality was in time to become even more stark.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maxwell R Watson
• Release date: Feb 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465819949

Maxwell R Watson

I am now retired. I spent 20 years as a Pastor and then worked in International Humanitarian Aide work. In 2004 I survived a massive stroke and like to encourage people to not give up in their life circumstances.

Book preview

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Confronted

by Poverty

on a

1st Mission Trip

by

Max Watson

Published by Max Watson at Smashwords

Copyright 2002 by Max Watson (the author)

ISBN: 9781465819949

Discover other titles by Max Watson at Smashwords.com

So You’ve Had a Stroke http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131782

This book is a compilation of a transcription for my journal, photos I have personally taken and the story of what happened following my first missions’ trip. The purpose of this is simply as an encouragement to those, like me, who have been putting off going on a short-term missions trip.

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Acknowledgements

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I would like to give my sincere thanks to my dear brother in the Lord Pastor Sugam Koma, from Waigani Foursquare Gospel Church, who always accepts and loves me just how he finds me, even though I am fat. Sincere appreciation also needs to go to Pastors Bill and Corrie Page, from Living Light foursquare Gospel Church, who opened their home and their lives to me. They have continued to be a source of love and encouragement to me as I have struggled with serving God to my fullest potential.

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Introduction

When I was a teenager in the late 1960’s and early 70’s, I was exposed to my fair share of missionaries. It seemed that with repeated frequency a variety of missionaries were taking furloughs and I was being tortured by the event known as a missionary slide night.

While this may seem to be unkind I do not mean it to be, it is simply a recollection of how they appeared to me as a teenager at the time. Seemingly endless, often poorly taken slides, spoken about in great length in a rather dull monotone voice, or in a voice so excited that it didn’t bear listening to at all. That’s how I saw it at the time.

I was never interested in missionary service. Apart from the whole idea being rather scary to me I already had my calling, or at least did have when I was 16. The very night that I gave my life to the Lord my call to serve the church became so very clear. With time, testing and affirmation that call, I believe, is to those who are already Christians. But does that rule out missionary service?

Now I am in my late 40’s and for quite a long time I have wanted to make short-term missions trips overseas, but like many people, lacked both the financial means and the fortitude to actually do so. Oh, I’d been a supporter of such ventures and had helped raise funds for others to make such trips. I had even been instrumental in getting one young person sponsored to go on a mission trip, but not me. That kind of thing was always for other people.

Like most people I have some fears of the unknown and I like my creature comforts. Having suffered a major motorcycle accident and subsequently lived many years with chronic pain in various parts of my body have the lingering concern that I am unable to cope with physical conditions that prior to my accident wouldn’t have been a bother to me.

Financially I have always struggled a bit. What with a wife and four school-aged children I always managed to find an excuse why I couldn’t participate in such expensive adventures. Consequentially I became very adept at rationalising off any feelings of wanting to embark on a short-term mission trip.

Then April 2001 came around.

During April 2001 I attended the annual convention of Foursquare Gospel Churches. Nothing particular to get excited about really, with the exception that I became overwhelmingly convicted that God was calling me to make a missions trip to Papua New Guinea. I had been dwelling on this for some time. About 18 months prior to this my wife and I