Think “youth mission trip,” and you usually picture suburban kids going to an inner-city community, or somewhere south of the border, to build houses or run a children’s day camp. Think “youth mission trip from Edina,” and you might imagine that it takes a pretty exotic location like New York City or Haiti to get kids to take a week out of their summers to serve and learn together.
But this year Edina Community Lutheran Church’s summer mission trip was to.. . .. Cottonwood County Minnesota.
There was worship, there were campfires and games and hard hours in the sun refurbishing a playground. But there was also a lot of learning and listening to people who, though they live not so far away, feel mostly ignored by folks in the Cities.
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There was not much exotic about this mission trip to Shalom Hill Farm, a rural ministry and education center near Windom. But for most of these suburban kids, standing in a milking barn, harvesting green beans from a large garden, and learning about the economics of farm life is every bit as much a cross-cultural experience as leaving the U.S. For five days they woke up earlier than they were accustomed to and visited people who make their living raising dairy cattle, selling vegetables at the farmers’ markets, or selling corn and soybeans. They met the human beings behind news stories about biodiesel, feedlots and windfarms. And they got their own dirty hands and sunburned necks working in the fields.
Edina Community Lutheran does a three-year rotation of rural, urban, and international mission trips. Yes, there will be other more “exotic” locations in store for the group next year. But the youth on this year’s trip say they will not forget this trip, because there will be reminders of the ir experience every time they go to the grocery store.
