A short time ago I got an email from Kathe Peterson, one of the staff people in our Northeastern Minnesota synod office. She was inviting me to sign up for a mission trip to Honduras. I didn't give it much consideration, I thought it was something that went out to all the people on the synod email list.

A few days later, Kathe called me on the phone. She asked me if I had decided yet. "Decided what?" I replied. She said, "Didn't you get my email?" I had just about forgotten the email completely by then.

Actually she had not sent the email to the entire synod email list. She was more selective than that. She was looking for people to go to a remote location in Honduras and rebuild some things that had been destroyed by hurricane Mitch.

Kathe has made a number of these trips and is enthusiastic about making more. She wants pastors to go on mission trips with the idea that the trip will infect them with enthusiasm the way her trips have infected her. She wants me to come back and invite members and friends of St. Mark's to get involved in some trips and spread the disease even further.

We discussed the mission trip at our last church council meeting. I wasn't convinced that it was something I should do. I said that my most compelling reason for doing it would be to learn the ropes in order to organize a future trip for a group from St. Mark's.

The church council thought the trip was a good idea and the day after the meeting I called the synod office and reserved the last remaining opening for the trip. It will be a one-week trip starting on February 13, 2003. I'm in the process of applying for a passport now.

The logical side of my mind questions the wisdom of this trip. It says, "instead of buying a plane ticked and going to Honduras for a week, why don't you send the money there and let the people use it to hire a local person to do the work you would do?" It's very likely that more work would get done that way.

The other side of my mind says that we need to go there in order to connect with the people. If we don't go there, we won't care about them enough to send them money either.

So, I plan to go to Honduras. I'll probably get less work done than a local person would do for the price of my plane ticket. Hopefully I will make connections with the people there. Hopefully, seeing them and the conditions in which they live will make me care about them more than I care about them now.

If I am infected with this mission work disease the way Kathe Peterson is infected, it will just be a matter of time before some of you are packing your bags to join me in a mission trip.

That is the chance you take when you serve Jesus Christ. Jesus told us to love the Lord your God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, and then He said that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. I'll be meeting some new neighbors in Honduras in just a few months. When I return, I'll tell you all about them.

May God bless each and every one of you.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk