Service: to be of service to, to serve, to provide with a service. 

In his speech, Illich describes why mission trips are so popular among Americans and why people formed the mission organization he is addressing. He declares, “A group like this could not have developed unless a mood in the United States had supported it – the belief that any true American must share God’s blessings with his poorer fellow men. The idea that every American has something to give, and at all times may, can, and should give it, explains why it occurred to students that they could help Mexican peasants ‘develop’ by spending a few months in their villages.” Illich disagrees with this rationale and proceeds to attack it during the rest of his speech. He himself does not feel that American missionaries are “being of service” or “providing a service” to the Mexicans, but as his quote indicates, the missionaries fervently do feel this way. They believe that they have “something to give.”