Expectations of my Mission Trip

                  Expectations of my Mission Trip 

            

    I go back and forth of what my expectations are, if I should have any at all and if so then to what degree to I hold them to. A year ago I could never of told you I would be preparing to leave on an 11 country, 11 month missions trip. I am floored at where God has brought me when it comes to missions and just the maturity my faith has reached at this season of my life. I am excited, nervous, scared, happy, joyful, curious the list could go on.  I was the very first person to sign up for the January 2010 team and I remember being on there by myself for a good 4 weeks and thinking who will I meet on this trip? Will I have enough time to raise support? Will I be able to handle living out of a backpack and traveling in close community for almost a year? Being that it’s mothers day tomorrow I stood in the kitchen writing in the card, and then it hit me. This is my last Mothers day with my Mom until 2011. I stopped writing and stood there motionless. I began to think how surreal this trip really is, and how long a year …… really is.  I will miss birthdays, holidays, intimate moments with friends, miss out on jokes, I will be absent from being a part of people’s lives whom I love and care about. I will come back in November 2010 having missed out on a lot, I will come back and try to re-connect with people and have the catch me up on an entire year of their lives and yet I will do the same for them knowing that it will be hard having either of us not been in the others shoes for the past 11 months.  It’s a very new feeling but I weigh all of that versus what God will do with me over the course of this trip. 

      I know God will bring me back to the states a changed man. Actually I take it back, if it is His will I will come back a changed man. See over the course of 2009 I have realized something, that in the midst of traveling to 11 countries sharing your faith even though things are planned out, you always take a risk don’t you? I mean there is a certain element of risk of the unknown, the unforeseen things that could happen and how quickly do we assume we will come back safe and sound. I know I do, maybe more often than I should. I have made it my hearts prayer that should something happen to me on this trip I will gladly lay my life down if it meant my family coming to know and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That is a prayer that has been on my heart and lifted up to God for over 12 years now. I have come to a point in my life and faith where losing my life in order to gain it means everything to me, even if it means in the physical sense I am willing if it means a family member or a person who doesn’t yet know God coming into a relationship with Him.  So if my team could pray for the salvation of my family and close friends that would be huge.  Also please pray God would continue to use me here in Orlando in a big way for the remainder of 2009. Pray He would continue working on my heart, molding my character and continually show me the next step to take in my faith so I can be more and love more like His Son Jesus. The only thing that can keep me from reaching my full potential on this team is……. me.  I pray I would decrease so that He may increase. 

       I wish to see God move on this trip in ways I have never experienced before. Being raised Catholic, transferring to a Christian school accepting Christ at the age of 15yrs old, attending a baptist church, a missionary alliance church, and a non-denominational church I have never experienced seeing God heal anyone before my eyes. I have heard of it happening, I have seen it on TV which leaves much to debate, but I genuinely believe God does heal people using His people. I have lived in Florida for most of my life and not traveled too much. I have a very limited world view and I want to see and experience what God is doing all over the world. As I am out there in the field serving people, I also wish to see God move in a big way in my own life. I hope to come back from this trip having learned a lot about myself, who God’s called me to be and what I feel called to do with my life after the trip. I want to come back a changed person who is more sensitive to the issues of injustice and suffering that plague the world around us.  I want to just be the hands and feet of Jesus on this trip, have Him create in me a stronger heart for those around me and come back ready to pursue His calling with everything I’ve got.