Last week I took a trip that absolutely changed my life. It was the first mission trip I've been on in maybe 3 or 4 years, and it was amazing. Lemme tell you about it.
Last week the Southern Miss FCA went to the Dominican Republic. We went with an organization called Global Effect (which is lead by the dad of one of the volleyball girls that is part of FCA (actually she's the new president!)), and they're main ministry is handing out water filters to the underprivileged communities in the Dominican. The filters can be drilled into any 5 gallon bucket and can filter even the most disgusting water for up to 10 years. It's pretty incredible. (This is their website if you wanna check it out! http://www.globaleffect.org/). We gave out filters to tons of people and shared the Gospel with each filter! One day I got to play with a bunch of Dominican kids at a local Christian school. I will just say.. They are better than me at basketball. Infinitely better. The only thing I had going for me was that I was double their height, so I snagged some nice rebounds. But that was it. Not my finest hour. Our translators names were Johanna and Moreno (spelling?). Johanna is a trauma doctor at the local hospital and Moreno is a former professional basketball player in the Dominican. Each one of them has not only accomplished a ton by any human's standards, but has an amazing heart for God and for their country. And probably the best two translators we ever could've asked for.
I really felt like this helped me prepare for the Race! It was foreign mission work, of course it was gonna help. Going into the trip the only thing I was thinking about was the physical aspects of how I was going to prepare myself. Living out of a backpack, crazy weather, language barriers, etc. However, God had some other more important things for me to learn.
I knew something special was gonna happen for 2 reasons as we went into the trip. First, I learned I was going to get to go 1 week before we left. So…. That was stressful. Due to the EXTREME generosity from someone I consider to be a mentor of mine and an amazing friend, I was able to go at the last second. I had gone ahead and resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't gonna go. It just seemed like I needed to focus on the Race and many other excuses. But God made a way, so to the Dominican I went. Second, I began reading a book that was suggested by my wonderful mobilizer Kacie. Love Does, by Bob Goff. I'm a little over halfway through, but it's great. It gave me a different perspective on the concept of unconditional love and pretty much life in general. With these two events at my back, it was time to do some missions in the Dominican.
God wrecked me on two main things. I could talk for days about all the things I saw that happened to my team and I. I could probably spend at least one of those days talking about how proud of the group I was. We all matured in Christ and bonded together. Some of them hadn't even done mission work before, but by the end of the week they could do anything! I'm proud of them. But I digress. The first thing God taught me was born of frustration. I led 4 ladies to Christ last week. It was pretty cool. They understood what I meant, who Jesus is, everything. So it wasn't like they were just nodding to whatever I said. After we prayed the prayer they looked at me blank faced and then pretty much got back on with their lives. Not gonna lie, this irked me.
YOU JUST ACCEPTED JESUS CHRIST INTO YOUR LIFE!!! SHOW SOME DAGGUM EXCITEMENT!!! I DUNNO, DO SOMETHING!!! That's how I felt. I told the team my frustrations and I prayed about it and God let me know what was wrong with my thinking. What I was doing was planting seeds. I expected to throw the whole tree in the ground and see it in all its splendor. But when has anything ever worked like that? Someone who has just accepted Christ does not understand their place in the world. Heck, they probably don't even know what's going on with their life anymore at all. Planting seeds is important. It allows the people already rooted in their lives to come behind the planters and grow the plants. This was a good lesson to learn right before the Race, because I imagine we'll be doing a great deal of planting.
The second thing God showed me is a bit more abstract, and kind of hard to explain. On the last day we came to a group of around 15 people who wanted water filters. We had 4. So we gave out what we had when our leader (and one of the heads of Global Effect) lead the group through the gospel. You could tell he's done this many, many times. As he got done he asked if he could pray for the group. Before he could a woman went got another younger woman from one of the "houses" (fairly loose term in this instance) and brought her back to be prayed over. This woman had some sort of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to some horrific storms that came through several years ago. She was the picture of someone who had quite literally lost her mind. She was responsive, but covered in sores and kept sticking her fingers down her throat. She sat down and we began to pray in a huge group, the local pastor translating for Scott. I got into this prayer. Big time. I started praying hard for these people as Scott prayed. But I prayed most of all for this woman. The whole situation brought me to silent tears. This poor woman, a victim of circumstances, was hurt. In pain. She needed help, and I couldn't help but cry a bit for her. It was then that the whole weight of the Race, what Goff was talking about, and everything else hit me like a train. This is why I'm going on the Race. It isn't for a resume. It isn't for a vacation. It isn't to meet cool people. It isn't to waste time before my "real life" starts. It's for people. It's for THESE PEOPLE. These people who need help. It doesn't matter why they need help, or what kind of help they need. They need help. And God has called me and many, many others to help them. This is why I'm going on the Race. These amazing people. Who are so happy and have so little. Who are so joyful when their house is flooding. Who care for a woman who has clearly lost her mind because she belongs to their community. It all just made sense.
I am going on this ridiculous journey to love these people and show God's love to them. To plant seeds, to mend fences, to pray, to do whatever God wants me to do when I show up. It doesn't matter what it is. I'm gonna do it. God loves these people just as much as you and I, and I'm pretty sure He's sending me to go make sure they know it. I don't nearly have all the money or gear I need to leave for the World Race. I haven't even been trained. But I'm pretty sure I could leave tomorrow. And I'm almost positive it would all work out.
I hope everyone is having the most incredible week. Sorry for the long post, but I needed to say it all. Until the next post m'friends!!
