Sleeping on the ground, getting bit by myterious bugs, eating food that you can't put a name on, wearing the same shirt for weeks…sounds like paradise, right??
The reality is that this lifestyle is not for everyone. I know many people who would cringe at the thought of what I am going to experience next year. But I guess it's all in how a person views it.
When I think about my future experience in The World Race, I have spent some time thinking about the things I just mentioned. But I have spent more time thinking about the things I have not mentioned. Focusing not on worldy possesions and instead on the things money can't buy, showing God's love to those who have never seen it, immersing myself in cultures unfamiliar to me…that is paradise.
A few years ago, the thought of doing mission work overseas was far from my radar. I had done youth mission trips in the United States, and the only time I had been out of the country was for a luxorious study abroad experience in Australia.
My family had been going on week-long trips in the Dominican Republic for a couple of years when I finally decided to go. In June 2011, I went on my first out-of-country mission trip… and it was awesome.
I didn't know what to expect, considering my only impression of a third world country was from the commercials I had seen on television. Although it was much like the pictures, when someone sees something like that for the first time, it's hard not to be affected. My emotions that week were always changing. When I first saw the starving people I was rushed with sadness, when I got to know the people it was happiness, when I had to say goodbye there was sadness again. But it was the emotion when I got back that hit my the hardest, anger. I thought my anger was because of the commercialism in the US. I was angry at people who blew through money buying things they didn't need. I was angry at the ignorance of poverty in our own country, and around the world, but then my anger towards others turned into anger towards myself.
I can try to persuade people they should be living a certain way, I can share the need in other countries, but that might not have an impact at all. I can't change others, I can only change myself. That is the moment I realized I wanted to do something more with my life than live a comfortable, wealthy, perdictable life.
I want to change the world. To change the world, I need to learn about the world. And that is why I am doing what I'm doing.
