In less than eight hours I am due to stand in line at airport security to board a flight to Seattle. I’ve packed up my room, stuffed my next 4 months into a backpack, said my goodbyes, and gotten as many last minute errands done as the snow/ice extravaganza could allow. And now I sit in the space between this life and work and people I’ve grown accustomed to, and a new, radical way of living. And in this in-between state, I pause to reflect and I’m blown away by God’s goodness to me.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately, in preparation for this trip, how much I ask of other people. See, I like to think of myself as “strong, independent woman.” But truthfully, I know I can’t do this alone. This trip, this Christianity thing. None of it. I HAVE to rely on other people – I have to ASK for financial support; I have to ASK for prayer; etc – which to be honest is quite humbling. I feel like a mooch. I feel unqualified. I feel like I SHOULD be able to pay the money, do the work, and be a successful anti-trafficking crusader.
But that’s not how God works.
The Triune God we serve is all about relationship. Community. Working together. The best and hardest part of going on this human trafficking trip is getting to live out being the body of Christ, as I will being living, breathing, eating, working, playing, etc with 6 other people – people who I don’t know and I didn’t get to choose. 24/7. Its an amazing thing to live out, to “do life together,” but at times, it is definitely going to be the hardest.
But I also get to experience community in all of the preparations that have gone into this trip. In asking for financial support, I got to ask what felt like hundreds of people to donate their hard-earned money to a cause I am so passionate about. And those who have donated already or are committed to donating monthly get to be in community not only with me, but with each person I will meet on the mission field. You will get to be part of a person’s story – part of their freedom and healing from being trafficked – and you will probably never even meet them. In asking for prayer from everyone I meet and from my incredible prayer team, I get to share some the most intimate details of what is going on in my heart and in the lives of my teammates and those we will meet, and I know that I have people halfway across the world praying and encouraging me, lifting me up to press on to the work God has called me to.
This past Sunday was my last Sunday church service at Good Shepherd until the end of May. And at the end of the service, just after singing “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, the entire church gathered around me to lay hands and pray for me and for this trip. I struggled through the entire prayer to hold back tears – tears that were in part because I will miss such a supportive community, but more because I am so incredibly blessed to have such amazing friends, family, and church body in my life to lift me up and send me on this journey.
And so as I revisit the idea of asking for help, in whatever form it may be, I begin to see that it is not a sign of weakness, but an invitation into the work that God is doing in the world. I get the privilege of getting to GO. But you get an invitation to be the reason I get to go and do the work. And if we ASK of God, we both get changed in the process!
