The summer I graduated high school I spent a week in Pine Ridge, South Dakota and another in Baja California, Mexico. Nothing, and I do mean that literally, will prepare you for these type of trips.

Five Lessons I Learned In The Sioux Indian Reservations

In a state only 14 hours from my home, I realized that this area is just as foreign as any other country and we choose to ignore it. On a reservation just a day's drive away, resources are depleted, tensions and violence run high and an entire town dies to the plague of alcohol violence and little help. But you know what? The people still lived and they chose to continue to build their homes around their culture and the life they knew.

1. We Are Selfish

I think we often run to the field thinking we can make some great big difference in the life of those we meet, and for all purposes I hope we are rocked backwards and knocked down with this belief. These trips are not about us, and they never will be. We think that by giving up our cellphones and Internet for a week, fixing a few walls, playing a few games, teaching some prayers and singing some songs that we can leave a happier and better-off place behind us. We are wrong. This is never about us. We are sent to love and we are sent to understand, and no matter how hard we try to change the circumstances of those we serve, that is not our calling. Our calling is to show up and to love, not to fix. Remember that.

2. Happiness Is A Choice

I have seen the true light of happiness in the face of a child who sleeps in dirt bedroom with his six family members, who doesn't know what it means to watch TV or surf social media, who doesn't care how old the shoes on his feet are and who simply wants to feel loved and fed and safe.

3. People Don't Need Pity

We can walk into any mission field, even the one in our very backyard, and expect to find people flocking to us and dropping to our feet to save them, but this is not the case. People do not need us to "ooh" and "ahh" at their mishaps and tragedies. They need us to see them and they simply need us to listen to them. This is not about making ourselves feel better by saving another life, this is about being one humanity trying to bring the Kingdom to Earth.

4. Listen To The Stories

I sat with a group of men and women on a Wednesday night as they taught us their trades of jewelry making, ministering to their own people and personal victories of surviving. It's amazing. It's amazing to be smacked in the face with all I thought I was coming for being tossed to the side and discovering that I was brought here for something more than to improve my own story. I was here to listen and I was here to see the truth in the world we live in. To see the ear-to-ear smile of a young girl and her pet donkey, of her family who lived in a worn-down house and the lack of help they sought from us. What did they seek? Our presence.

5. We Are Too Quick To Judge

You become quickly amazed out how differently other people live, especially by those who are both culturally and economically different from us. And too often we judge by their appearances, we assume they need our help based on such. We are wrong, so wrong. Do not judge those you meet, because I can guarantee that they see something more than you do.

Five Lessons I Learned Across The Border

This picture truly speaks a thousand words. I walked into this week truly prepared to be changed for the better, and walked away unsure if I was the same person when I started. We spent a week with an orphanage, La Estrella, and were partnered up with one or two little niñas aging from four to sixteen. We spent our days with Bible study, playing tiburón (shark) on the playground, visiting the beach and the park, soccer games, dancing and singing around the campfire and breaking all the barriers we were prepared to stop us.

1. We Are Beyond Selfish -- We Are Greedy

It was one thing to be without phone and Internet access while still standing on American soil, but it's an entirely different "sacrifice" to be standing on foreign soil and staring into the eyes of orphans whose simple joys cannot be measured by access to what they cannot see. Like the shoes on their feet, the teddy bear they choose to let you take home, the pictures you color together, the games you learn and the laughter that seems to echo for hours. That is the true measure of happiness, and unfortunately it takes us a little longer to learn that. They are not less because they have less, in fact they have something we forget about: true happiness in the eyes of the beholder.

2. Language and Cultural Barriers Are Not What You Think

While in Mexico there were a few older niña/os who spoke broken English, but for the most part (considering my very little Spanish vocal) we created bonds beyond speech. The simple acts of being present, playing games together, teaching each other songs, painting pictures, playing cards, spending days at the beach, the park, the golf course and so forth. Don't be discouraged by the barriers, because there is a difference between language and speech; language goes far beyond the words we can speak to each other.

3. Be Prepared To Be Changed

It's true, there is a "mission high" that you come away with, but more than that there will (hopefully) always be an aching ping in your heart for the time and memories this time brought. Cherish that, continually learn from it, be open to how it will change you in the years to come.

4. Be OK With Being Uncomfortable

Like showering in an outside shower at night when the water is actually freezing, or sleeping with two-day-old dirt caked on your skin and hair and just getting used to being extremely close and open with the people who are traveling with you.

5. We Can Change People With Our Small Acts

Here's the thing, the people we meet won't always remember the prayers and lessons we taught them, nor will they remember our names, but they will remember the mark we left on their lives by showing up. We will not be able to see that ripple effect in action, but it is present when we choose to show up.

The Other Side Of Missions

A few summers later I found myself spending two months volunteering in the same camp across the San Diego border, which surprisingly brought about some new lessons and challenges.

Sure, this time I was used to the freezing shower water and was even able to shower daily and spend the weekends off the ranch and inside a home, but the lessons I shared above were multiplied in the masses during these weeks.

It is so easy to lose track of why we are where we are, why we choose to touch foreign soil over the comfort of home. We lose sight of the faces and bodies standing before us in some great attempt to change ourselves and make ourselves feel better. We are constantly at a war with trying to one-up ourselves, that we lose track of the rest of humanity failing each other.

Do not go on a mission trip to better yourself, your resume or your college application. Do not stand in front of those you call "the least of these" without first understanding that you too are the least of these. Go, answer the call, but remember the truth behind why we are called in the first place -- to serve, not to be served. Step out of your comfort zone and find the true meaning of Kingdom on Earth in the community you serve and the relationships you form.

This post is not enough to express my heart about these mission trips, but I am truly grateful for the chance to share a piece.