On a mission

Last week I went on college mission. Before I say anything of substance, can I just point out how horrific it is that this verb gets used as a noun. Or perhaps that's not the thing that troubles me - perhaps it's that the noun doesn't receive an article. Why do we say "I went on mission" when it should be "I went on a/the mission"?? This is the same sort of ugliness as when people ask "Where do you church?". Ew.

Anyway 'mission' was awesome. My group went to St Peters Anglican, just south of Newtown. I was hoping to learn how an inner city church can connect with the mass of disenchanted people, and to acquire the courage and skills to talk to scary homeless people. Here's some of the things I learned:

• It's tough. People are disinterested or hostile and they don't respond well to mass evangelism/marketing. But they do value relationships, and if over time you can win peoples' trust, well, then you've won their trust and they will listen charitably to your invitations to church or whatever. In each person's life there are plenty of opportunities to engage with the people around - your friends, the parents of your kids' friends, your hairdresser etc. You just have to be a friendly person who takes an interest in these people, and commit to getting to know them, little by little. It's that simple and that tough.
• I'm interested in people. Well I already knew that, but it was good for me to realise that, as long as I set out with the right attitude, I do have the courage to talk to homeless people.
• It's okay to be introverted and to get overwhelmed and drained by interacting with lots of people. It doesn't mean that I should give up on connecting with people - just that I should limit it to, y'know, one local supermarket owner, cafe, hairdresser, pharmacy, neighbour. And if I need time to myself, well then I can shop elsewhere and not interact.