Unexpected, Unconventional, and Understanding...

Hello to all!

My name is Ali Sevlie. I’m one half of the leader duo for the South Africa team. Our team’s first trip this year was to Spirit Lake. Located on the Fort Totten Reservation, we stayed primarily at the local Baptist Church. Our goal that week was to brainstorm, create, and act in an escape room which in the end, we would be able to share the gospel with the locals who went through. So we settled in and with our air mattresses covering every inch of the rooms, the kitchen brimming with ready-to-go snacks and a never-ending supply of caffeine, and excited laughter filling the air. I looked around, took a sigh of relief thinking, “Yes, now this is missions”. 

My missional experience is far from extensive, but this I know for sure. Short term missions may get a couple scoffs in the Christian community, but God moves in lives whether we commit years or merely a couple of days to His plan. Short term missions doesn’t always mean getting to personally watch the gospel instantly transform a life. Sometimes, it means saying the same lines from a book that walks someone through the gospel hundreds of times, only to have one act of repentance. It means driving many hours, to sit in a room and pray and brainstorm from dawn until dusk. It means staying up late into the wee hours of the night setting up an escape room, only to wake up a couple hours later to cook and eat, and start again. It means reading the same script over and over and OVER again so the 150 people who came to our outreach would truly feel our emotions we tried portraying. Short term missions remind me time and time again, we must never forget that God works in mysterious ways. Especially on trips like this one. And by being willing to walk into that mystery, trust in the unseen seeds that we have sown, and walk away, that is where God seems to do some of His greatest work. 

Here’s what some of our students wanted to share about this trip:

“There were a lot of scenes on the reservation that weren’t too happy looking… I really do think that the church could be the answer to all the depression in this community. This church is a great example of what ministry can bring to the table. The thing about it that made me the most happy was being able to give both the kids and the adults a reason to smile.” -Levi

“The reservation trip to Fort Totten could be summarized in these few words: unexpected, unconventional, and understanding... The activity is what made this trip seem unconventional. Typical missions trips that I’ve been involved with focus on some sort of community service more so than a community outreach. Whether it was cleaning up a community garden, cleaning a school or church, or serving food all of them were forms of community service. Instead, during the reservation trip, we constructed an escape room from scratch. The team needed to either make the props or gather them. We needed to build the physical rooms and the puzzles. We even had to create some general lines to say to guide, counsel, or preach to the people who were participating in the event.”- Rachel

“Going to the reservation at Fort Totten as our first missions trip was nothing like I imagined it.  We didn’t have a whole lot of one on one time with the community members, but we did help the full time missionaries there create a better relationship with them, and that’s all that really matters. By Thursday, we were finally able to see the final product coming together and it was so satisfying. I was so excited for the escape room to start that night! We had two paths in the escape room, a school shooting and a bomb shelter, I was one of the guides through the bomb shelter. I thought that I was going to be very anxious taking groups through all by myself, but I had such a good time. Even though I’ve had a serious problem with anxiety in the past, I could feel God’s hand on me throughout the whole night.” - Acacia

“One of my favorite elements about mission trips is how each one has its own unique and impactful experiences. Our trip to Spirit Lake Indian Reservation was my seventh mission trip, and I was able to do so many incredible things and serve in ways I never have before. What surprised me most was how much thought went into planning an escape room, and also how close our group grew together throughout the week. I learned that speaking about the gospel doesn’t have to be this big, scary idea, but instead is a way for God to use our talents to share His love with others. Whenever I look back on this week, I will always remember how moving it was to be the “counselor” in one of the final rooms and being able to use my gift of talking with children while also sharing the gospel. I also saw God in some of the most mundane experiences that I had, such as talking with an older girl while sitting at the sign-in table or gathering everything together that we would need for the escape rooms. Although we may not always realize it at the time, God is working in and through us in so many ways every day.” -Abi

We will never forget our time at Spirit Lake, and I pray God continues humbling each one of us in remembering His plans continue, even if we may not.