stopover.ca

I recently came across an old CTV article that referenced an Australian government travel website. I googled the Aussie government site and read the warnings firsthand, some notable warnings are:

• We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in Canada because of the risk of terrorist attack.
• The wind-chill factor can also create dangerously cold outdoor conditions beyond the thermometer reading.
• The province of British Columbia in western Canada is in an active earthquake zone.
• Forest fires can occur in Canada.

Terrorism, cold weather, earthquakes and forest fires! These dangers place us on their watch list in terms of tourist security. At first the warnings seem laughable – as Canadians we know ourselves to be living in the safest place on earth … right!? It is too easy to poke fun at this seeming over-careful concern for personal security, and the readers comments after the article seem unanimous in their withering reply.

It would be easy to retaliate with the fact that seven out of the ten most venemous snakes in the world live in Australia, the vastness of the outback … or that Dingo’s Eat Babies! But now we are just getting silly. Fighting the argument at the same level at which it is made, validates it as an accurate argument.

As I smiled over the article, I suddenly remembered the many hundreds of people I have talked to over the years who have shared concerns very much along these lines when it comes to releasing their loved ones to participate in short term missions in other global ‘hotspots’. I think of it as the one Immutable and Infallible law of Short Term Mission; whenever someone decides to participate in mission, the news will quickly report of some significant danger around going to that specific place.

It happens everytime. Perhaps it is because we are simply paying attention and now listening for news on that region of the world, or because we have done a great job in sharing our mission with many others (who are all collectively paying attention to listening for news on that region of the world). Whatever the case, these new-found dangers sometimes have participants drop out due to their own fear, or the fear of friends and family.

Two thoughts jump out at me:

1. How much do we miss of what is actually happening in our world, simply because we are not listening (anyone remember this happening in the past? Rwandan genocide perhaps … or Sudan right now)
2. At a loss to first ourselves, how often does our fear keeps us from the adventure in front of us?

Of course everyone needs to make their own minds up whether or not they will go. I do not think that we are playing games here, and it is in no ones best interest to promote a naive bravado, or gung-ho cowboy attitude. A good friend took a team on his first trip overseas, and one of the team-members died after drowning in the sea during a day off. The fact that ‘it could have happened here’ is not too comforting to a grieving family, because it did not happen here, it happened in that vague space known as ‘over there’ – somewhere foreign. It is good to think through the ramifications of safety and security surrounding international travel. But … I do not believe that safety and security are the identifying reason why we do what we do.

If you would like my opinion on how to make a good decision on entering into insecure areas, check out this link to another article I had put together in April.

By the way, I promise I will blog details when the earthquake seperates us in BC from the rest of Canada, if you will let me know how the wind-chill and dangerously cold temperatures are working out for you.

Mark Crocker