Learning & Growing

One of my main focuses for this year is short-term medical teams. Youth World has a few ministries that work with short-term teams and they have done frankly a fantastic job at making sure we’re following best practices to create experiences that are positive, healthy, and sustainable for *everyone* involved. However, short-term medical teams come with a different level of risk than standard short-term teams and we haven’t previously had any health professionals on the team who could speak into that specific risk and create best practices to account for them.

 

There’s a Maya Angelou quote that I absolutely love and quote all the time which says, “Do your best until you know better, then do better.” I really believe this quote is true and I try hard to strive for that, but part of that process is realizing that what you did, while it may have been your best at the time, wasn’t the best and may have even been wrong or hurtful. And that is a tough realization. Especially in ministry there’s a great temptation to hide any hurts we cause and focus solely on the wins. But the truth is that's a temptation from the enemy. Yes, my newsletters curated because there’s only so much I can say in a quick email. But I hope that they’re always truthful. There is a huge difference between “editing for length and clarity” (as all the interviews say) and curating a story to hide from the truth.

 

So that brings us to now, with Youth World and short-term medical teams. Last month I went with a college team to a clinic to observe and share with our ministry running the team about what went well and what process we can/need to improve. It was a really sweet team full of young women who were excited and caring and honestly very capable for where they are at in their studies. However, there were some really concerning things happening at the clinic, too. One of our new Ecuadorian hosts was on the team and she said, “it feels like this is more about the students than the patients.” Ouch. There’s a big part of me that did *not* want to write that sentence. Because that is not what we’re about at Youth World. But we can’t learn and grow if we never face those criticisms. And I can’t lean on you all to hold me accountable if I’m not honest about both our failures and our successes.

Let’s be clear. Focusing more on the students than the patients is a failure on our part. But going back to that Maya Angelou quote, failure isn’t shameful. It’s an opportunity for growth and improvement. We’ve been doing short-term medical teams with the best of intentions, but sometimes those good intentions aren’t enough. Sometimes those good intentions can lead to actively harmful actions. So we seek out feedback and we apologize and we make changes for the future. Which is where we are now. I’m thankful to be part of a ministry and a team that values doing better once we know better. And I’m so thankful that our team actively seeks to learn what the best practices are. And now we start the hard and long work of doing better. Thank you for your support on that eternal journey.