AIM has a campaign going for the month a February. Adventures in Love, basically everyone posts about their time on the field, loving the people they were with, telling their stories.
This is Mine.
March 31-April 7, 2007.
Nicaragua.
I was 15 when I stepped off the plane in Nicaragua with my church. The youngest on the team, my birthday in 2 days. I went on the trip thinking I would help these people, change their lives- I left changed more than I imagined, knowing I would be back. The people of Nicaragua captivated me. The culture. The language. Everything. I was in LOVE and I had only been there a short time. But ask anyone who has been on a mission trip and there is almost always one that truly captures your heart. Mine was Isac. A little boy about 3 years old. The first day we were there I found him and instantly was in love. Everyday we went back to Milagro and Isac would find me. We played. We laughed. I could have squeezed him forever. He showered me with kisses. I couldn’t tell you what it was exactly that captured me but it’s something I’ll never forget. And his mother, oh his mother, a beautiful soul. We had very basic conversations. All in Spanish. But the day we left, she looked at me with tears in her eyes as I tearfully handed her sweet little boy back to her and said in perfect English, “thank you, thank you. I love you, goodbye”. It took all I had not to stay. I got on the bus and sobbed. I had fallen in love.
God stirred something in me that week that only intensifies as time goes on. I returned to Nicaragua in 2009 and that trip only solidified what I had discovered 2 years earlier. I was in love. I would be back. And it would be permanent. The trip in 2009 involved a lot of walking. We were canvassing different villages in the morning and having VBS in the afternoon. These walks were beautiful. Were we filthy, yes. But they were beautiful. We walked hand in hand with the people of these villages and I fell in love all over again.
I got home from the trip in 2009 and haven’t been back. I have backed out of two trips. Two of the hardest decisions I have ever made.
Since that last trip, two words have resonated with me over and over. Walk. and Love.
Love Walks. The phrase not make sense to anyone but me. However, these two words, this phrase is my mission statement. It’s why I’m going on the Race. It’s why after the Race my missions journey doesn’t end. Because Love Walks. In Ephesians, Paul tells us to be imitators of Christ and walk in love. Jesus tells us that our greatest commandment is to love others as He loves us on countless occasions. Love Walks.
Love Walks means to walk with others in life, share life with them, love them, show them that Christ loves them. Love Walks doesn’t have to mean big things, Love Walks is a series of small things adding up to great love.
Nicaragua changed my life. Nicaragua taught me that Love Walks.
This is my Adventures in Love story.
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Much Love & Thanks,
Kayla
