Dr. Don McVicker
Dr. Sasser (left) and Dr. McVicker (right) in Honduras.
My ideas about mission trips can be summed up by these (seemingly) odd combinations of words: “Come Go” and “When and Then.”
Soon after I returned home from my first mission trip with Water Missions International in 2003, the compelling images in my mind of the Honduran children rummaging through refuse at the garbage dumpsite began to fade. Why? Probably because I quickly resumed my old patterns of a busy work schedule (that’s code for making money), hectic family commitments, and also because there was a disconnect from the trip and life back home. There was no support group ready to help fan the still warm embers of my experience. No place to plug into.
For years, my good friend and colleague, Bill Sasser, extended dozens of invitations for me to join him on mission trips. “"Come Go with me," he’d say when our lunchtime conversation topic invariably drifted to the mission field. An inviting double command! Southerners have a real gift for combining incongruous words in the same sentence, sometimes even placing them side-by-side for a compelling yet, comfortable effect. After years of this pestering, I finally relented and joined Bill and eight Chapel Hill dental students on a Latin American dental mission trip in 2007. Since then, Bill and I have been on numerous trips together, usually with dental students in tow.
The students and I have been blessed to see in “Dr. Bill” a man with a true servant’s heart and, we can now share our experiences together and with others here at home through the framework of the Dental Community Fellowship (started by Dr. Sasser in 2001).
In his book, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren states, “If you only serve when it is convenient for you, you’re not a real servant.” That sentence pierces my own heart because I am simply not there yet.
Prior to that 2007 trip, my thoughts about going on a mission trip were based on the conditional "when and then" theory. You know! When this happens, then I will _________. My list of “whens” included and, to a degree, still include:
“When my children are grown, …”
"When I am more financially secure …”
“When I reach the right season in my life …”
“When I acquire the right skill-set …,”
The simple fact is that the conditions to go on a mission trip will never be perfect. Ecclesiastes 11:4 provides a scriptural affirmation: “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.” So, my challenge to you is this. If you really want to know about whom Jesus was talking when he made references in the Bible to “your neighbor,” then Come Go on a trip with DCF. And, it’s OK to go if you are simply curious. I did. God promises that He will meet you, wherever you are in your walk.
Don McVicker, DMD
