So as many of you may or may not know, Summer 2012 God had called my family to go on a mission trip to Ecuador. Ecuador was where I fell deeply I fell in love with missions. I learned so much from that trip to Ecuador. I learned that even if we couldn’t speak the same language that Love is an international language. For the first time I got to feel what it was like to, run through a jungle, to take cold showers, to eat chicken foot soup and other weird foods, to be a little mommy and dry tears, sing bible school songs that I knew but in Spanish, to see the worlds largest rat, to have little kids hang onto you 24/7, but most of all I felt what it was like to leave your heart in another country.
After that trip I knew that it was only the beginning. I had hoped to return summer 2014 but things weren’t supposed to workout that way. God had other plans in laying a different country on my heart. I looked up mission trips and found the perfect one with the most amazing organization Adventures In Missions. I applied was accepted, and quickly raised all of the money in a short time.
I went to Guatemala and I enjoyed every bit of it. God did great thing not only in that country but also in my heart. I came back so not wanting to be home because I felt like why come back to a country that was so undeserving when I felt that I could be somewhere where the people are so hungry for the lord.
A few of my teammates had talked about a gap year. I thought about gap year and looked it up but didn’t think it was exactly for me. I put gap year aside and didn’t think about it much.
I had finally figured out what I was gonna do after high school. I was going to go to Sam Houston State here in Texas I was going to major in Criminal Justice. I said that I was going to go on a summer mission trip with ambassador again then leave off to college in August. It had felt good to finally have my mind made up. But really things still didn’t feel right. I had been praying but I began to pray harder that if there was something else for the lord to show me. Gap year popped in my head I began looking into it more, it became something that I couldn’t get out of my head. I began praying harder about it. I went to school day and I saw a kid in my first hour class that had a shirt on that said “feed the hungry” I thought about that being a sign but I really didn’t know. So I began to pray that God would show me a little more clear. One morning my dad sat me down and said ” as much as I am scared for you to go far from me and your mom, the Lord has shown us that you are suppose to go on this Gap year.” How much more clear can it get. That same day I went to school that same kid was wearing that same shirt and I knew that God had given me a sign through that kids shirt. God has a sense of humor.
I filled out my application/interview I anxiously awaited an answer when on Halloween I got the call that I would be a part of Gap year 2015. I feel so honored to be a called one of God. I had talked with a couple that are long term missionaries that had did something like this right out of high school like this also. When I told them what I was doing there words were so sweet ” God made you special, only a few are able to do something like. If God gives you the talent take advantage.” I love that out of everyone God had chose me. I know this isn’t going to be easy its going to be hard its going to be very hard, But as Christians are mission is to Go to all nations. After all we are created for his purpose.
Your sister in Christ,
Lexi
