My Hearts Call To Missions Work
Serving the Lord using His love and a compassion for others is something Christ placed on my heart during my first missions experienced, it was my junior year of high school on a weekend missions trip to Washington, DC. Prior to my first missions trip I had been to many retreats and church functions, I always left with a passion to serve the Lord, yet, in the end I always seemed to slip back to a lazy Christian life. Each time I slipped back I found that my passion and practice of giving the Lord my troubles dropped and my problems and pain soon began to fade. During my trip to Washington, DC, I found a passion for helping people, for serving the Lord by helping His children in need, it was the most gratifying thing I had ever done. I had a new found hunger to serve the Lord through serving his people and I realized he had given me a servant’s heart
Why I LOVE Missions Work gtfhu
If I have learned anything through my walk and previous experiences, it's that, it’s not up to me to create moments or situations to share the gospel or show great compassion.
The Lord has His own timeline and ability to create natural and real situations which tunnel far deeper into our hearts.
I can not fathom all that I will experience, I only know this will forever change my perspective and the desires of my heart.
The Casting Crowns song: If We Are the Body has always inspired me for missions and living the Gospel:
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
What I Hope For From This Trip
I am ready to be rocked!
Taken out of my comfort zone and made into a stronger,better, wiser me.
I am ready to be raw and broken.
I want the things in my life that hinder my walk with Christ to be exposed.
I know I am going to be forced to let go of my pride and I am excited to know I'm going to struggle like never before.
I try not to predict what I am going to experience, I know this is going to be a point in my life that I have to simply go-with-the-flow and except wherever the Lord takes me
Previous Mission Trips
Previous Mission Trips
WASHINGTON, DC
My first missions’ trip was my junior year of high school to Washington, DC. There the Lord lit within me a fire and passion for missions work.
I made breakfast for the homeless, talked to a man who had once lived the American dream but lost it all. I picked up beer bottles and drug paraphernalia from the fence line of an after-school program. It was during this work that I realized how easily we blind ourselves to the pain that is surrounding us.
The trip left me with a passion to continue letting others see the Lord's love through my actions.
TORONTO, CANADA
I was quick to sign up for my church’s trip to Toronto, Canada where I spent a week working with the homeless and experiencing the tragedy of hearing and meeting those who had lost all that the western world says is needed to be "successful".
I made beds at the homeless shelter, passed out sandwiches to those hungry on the streets, went to the aids memorial and cried over those lost, and played with children from the pprojects. It was this trip that revealed my hearts fullfilment when caring for others.
There is no greater pleasure than knowing an extra step of kindness can change someone’s day, it has the ability of healing pains.
Emotions are contagious, I truly believe that can be said for kindness and a happy disposition.
THE VIRGINIA HIGHLANDS
My senior year of high school my school planned a weekend missions trip to the Virginia Highlands. I met people from my home state who frequently did not have bathrooms in their homes, they used out-houses and had no running water. We learned that many of the children drop out of high school to help their family provide an income. It was hard to see that so close to my home were people my own age that had little –if any- of the things I considered “bare necessities”. This trip struck me hard because it was in my state, only a few hours from where I grew up..
NICARAGUA
My final mission’s trip prior to college was with my church to Nicaragua.
For ten days we stayed in an orphanage and fell in love with the children. We dug water wells, took the children to a water park, visited a sister orphanage, took the children out to dinner, went to a refugee camp, threw birthday parties , and distributed food to locals. Nicaragua was my first missions trip out of the country, it grew and tested my faith differently than I had inticipated.
I went to Nicaragua expecting to experience a spiritual revelation and feel closer than ever to the Lord. Once we arrived I watched as everyone seemed to be transformed by their experiences. Each night my teams testimonies told of their hearts epiphanies and I yearned for the same.
Just past the mid-trip mark I really felt broken, like my faith wasn’t good enough or I wasn’t kind enough to have a grand revelation and moment that would defined the trip for me.
On one of our last days we went to a sister orphanage and distributed the clothes and toys we brought from the States. As we unpacked I noticed a crib with two babies, since I had finished unpacking I picked up a baby and carried her for the next two and a half hours as the children came in and selected their new items. When it was time to leave I returned the baby to the crib, when I turned around one of the women who worked at the orphanage thanked me. She explained that the baby was 3yrs old and had been found suffering from malnutrition a month prior and would not live much longer. She stated that no one really had the time to hold her and she spent almost all her time in the crib.
That was it! I broke, my surroundings seemed to sink-in and I had my revelation with the Lord.
I had been looking for some sweet moment during a conversation with a child or on our trips into the city and the Lord had a very different plan. No words were needed and it was not the result of any great act, my moment of knowing I was acting as “the body” (His body) was in holding and loving a child, reaching out and simply loving the unloved.
