My very first journey into missions started when I was just in elementary school. My dad had been organizing a yearly short-term missions trip to Belize, Central America for years and years. We finally got to tag along with him during the summer of 2000. It was an incredible journey! It changed my life at such a young age!
(That’s me on the left.) 
Thinking back on that trip, I realized why I was so drawn to the people there. I yearn for their passion. I yearn for their dedication. I yearn for their discipline. Their lack of materialistic wants, makes me wonder what I am living for in this life?
I remember a bus of orphans coming to our compound for a church service where we were supposed to teach them about Jesus. We were supposed to put on this VBS to show them their Father in heaven loves them. They soon began to teach us. They recited entire pages of the Gospel of John. They smiled. They laughed. They danced. They befriended me. I loved sitting in the middle of all of them. I was so naive in what they had been through and the times they were going to face.
The last time I went to Belize with my dad, I befriended the pastor’s daughter from a local church. She had such a servant’s heart and hungered to learn all she could. I remembered speaking to her a night or two before we left and she was so thankful for us coming, but then torn at the same time. I questioned her further on this and she said, that the teams would come down and see Belize and their hearts would turn and they would promise all these things, but then she would never see some of them again. I ensured her that wasn’t me. However, I have yet to return to her, or her church. I know she’s moved on, she’s come to the US and gotten an education so that her and her family will be set. But still. How would her trust have changed? in me? in Jesus?
It burns me that I made that promise so long ago. Why couldn’t I keep my promise? Or more so, why couldn’t anyone? These people are hurting from something that we see as good thing. It may be nice in the moment, but what happens after we leave?
This is one of the reasons why I want to go on the Race. I don’t want to give people hopeless hope. I don’t want to show them a temporary joy. I don’t want to teach them that this life is easy.
I want to show them the endless love of Jesus. I want to share with them the sacrifices He has made for them. I want to show them that their pain, their suffering, their hurt is not in vein. God has given us a tremendous power that looses all evil. That banishes all the powers of Hell.
I know I’m not meant for the life that I am living. I know I meant for a life of Him living through me. It’s all about Him.
It’s all about His people. If Jesus cares so much, why shouldn’t we?
