I grew up kind of knowing about missions. My first real
understanding came when my parents decided to be the Forwarding Agents for some
of our family friends that were heading to Venezuela in the early 2000’s. We
had always been incredibly close to the Murphy family and it was really hard to
say goodbye to them knowing that they were moving so far away.
In
2003, at age 16 I had an opportunity to go on my first overseas mission trip to
Venezuela to visit and work with my dear friends. We took a team of 8 people
from my home church including my best friend Kelley and it was that trip where
God changed my heart and started forming it for missions.
I
fell in love with Venezuela. I fell in love with the people we were working
with and living with and praying with. I fell in love with the kids we did
Vacation Bible School for. It was an incredible trip, one that God used to
change my life.
Since that summer, missions has been in my blood. I had the
amazing opportunity to go back to the exact same place in Venezuela in 2005 and
see the same people and meet new believers as well. In 2006 I traveled with the
IWU softball team to the Dominican Republic and got to experience sports
ministry over there. I have traveled to Costa Rica twice, once with my senior
class from high school and once with a team from IWU where we built a bridge
and worked with kids.
the summer of 2008 I did an internship for a missions organization called
Experience Mission and I was sent with two other team members to the Navajo
Reservation in Arizona. We lived there and led short term trips that came to
the reservation. Every mission trip had been a step out of my comfort zone for
me. This internship was a leap. A big one. To put it plainly, it was the
hardest thing that I have ever done in my life so far. And yet, it was also one
of the best things that ever happened to me. I wouldn’t trade this experience
for anything and I also wouldn’t trade the incredible family that I made for
anything. I learned more than just missions in Arizona. God showed me a part of
myself that I had never seen before while I was there. Arizona was a turning
point for my life in all areas, especially regarding missions.
God has given me a heart to serve. It is no longer
mine. I love learning about other cultures and experiencing all that I can. And
it is only by his grace that I am here, that he has brought me this far and
that he is leading me into the next great adventure.
