More complicated than just swinging a hammer

After several weeks of waiting, we finally got the good news. Our youth group has a spot in the Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge program this summer. We are headed to Kentucky for a week of building houses.

I like to think that we did not just dive headfirst into this service trip. Our group was intentional about assessing why we serve, hearing stories from former long-term volunteers in our congregation, considering where we might go, and what impact location would have on the effectiveness of our trip.

We finally settled on teaming up with Habitat in Morehead, Ky., more than 400 miles from Chicago. The trip fit two of the criteria that our group sought — the work is hands-on and happens somewhere new, and kind of far away.

However, those elements we wished for present some of the biggest problems. None of us are experienced at building homes. Any experience we do have likely comes from previous service trips. This makes us not terribly effective builders. Add to this that we will be doing this building in a culture with which we are not necessarily familiar. And we’ll spend a considerable amount of time, money and fuel to get to this new place.

In light of these realities, is our service trip pointless? It is worthwhile to spend all this money to go somewhere and do work that we are not really qualified to do? Wouldn’t it be better for us to just send all that money to a professional in the area, who could do the job much more efficiently?

This service trip exposes some of our privilege — the funds to take a trip and the ability to take a week off from our normal lives. The service portion comes from good intentions, but can also act as a means of appeasing any guilt we might have about being in the position to take such a trip.

However, I have hope that there will be more to this trip than just a chance to travel. That after our group has taken the time (and gas) to drive across the country and encounter real people, from a different culture and circumstances than us, we will return changed to our lives of comfort. I hope that we can be intentional about recognizing our privilege and considering how we should, or should not live with it.

That is work that will take much longer than a week. That is work that is much more difficult than swinging a hammer or painting a house, even in the heat of a Kentucky summer.