Mary sent me a message asking me to write a blog. She said that it could be about anything so I thought about the Parent Vision Trip (PVT) that I had just gotten back from. I have never written a blog before so after some prayer, I wanted to write to the future PVT parents.
This is for all the non-adventurous parents out there. The ones who have never been out of the states, never been on a mission trip or a faraway country. The parent who gets anxious at the thought of foreign airports and foreign customs agents and traveling alone.
Do not allow your fears keep you from attending a PVT. If you do, you will be denying yourself such a wonderful gift from God.
First, pray. Lay out your fears before God. If there is what seems to be an insurmountable barrier to going on the trip, pray about it. Along with a fear of traveling alone, money was my biggest barrier, but God overcame that barrier in the most unexpected way I never could have imagined.
As for my fear of traveling alone, I was so stressed out before going on that trip. My anxiety level was through the roof, and I am not an anxious person. I speak no foreign language and when I try it is a disaster. Just ask Mary. I have no sense of direction and am always getting lost. I knew nothing of international travel and lack of knowledge stresses me out.
I am always the calm in the eye of the storm but with this trip I was not only humbled, I had to allow myself to be vulnerable and ask for prayer from others. I asked Mary for prayers and she turned to her team to pray together. I turned to my prayer partners and asked for prayers. I prayed continuously, a couple of times a little hysterically, and the Lord calmed me down.
I dealt with cancelled flights, delayed flights, hives, a migraine headache, taxi drivers who got lost in a foreign city, lost luggage and more. I did not always deal with these challenges with grace, but I did get through them with the help of people who God put in my path. I was able to face all the challenges put before me with the help of prayer.
And those “church people” you may feel intimated by – forget about it. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and open your heart. You will find some of them are as vulnerable as you, or more so. They will lift you up and show you kindness and love, they will tolerate your snoring, they will laugh with you and cry with you and share their own stories about their journeys of faith.
Then there are the Racers, those young adults your child has been spending the past several months with. They are so filled with the love of the Holy Spirit, so generous and gracious even to the least of these. Replying kindly to a beggar’s request on the street. Not ignoring them but giving them the dignity of a kind no thank you and a smile. They have no money to give but they give them respect. Young people who love others just as they are, without judgement, and demonstrate the love of Jesus in how they conduct their lives and treat their fellow human beings. You will come away with renewed hope for our tomorrows and the knowledge that God is still at work in this world through His people.
Lastly, but certainly most important, there is your own Racer, your child now an adult, filled with a new confidence of how to move about in this world we live in. Meeting them and spending time with them is the focus of this trip. Have no expectations and put no expectations on them. Just listen to them, they will have so much to tell you and in the listening you will begin to see and understand the work God has been doing in their lives these past months. You will see a new light, a light given to them by the Lord to shine and spread wherever they go.
If you did not already know, you will come to understand that this child of God, given to you to love and cherish, is destined for the extraordinary. Now you get to witness the transformation He is creating and the fruits that are yet to come. And if you have been hesitant to let your Racer go, to perhaps accept that they will not be living the life you may have expected, you will realize that the life God has planned is far more magnificent than any you could have ever imagined for them.
So, when you receive that invitation from your Racer to attend the PVT, do not let fear stop you from experiencing this incredible gift from God. If it is His will that you attend, barriers will be overcome. I know for some parents it just is not possible to go, for a multitude of reasons, and you should not feel guilty in these circumstances for not attending. But do not let fear be the reason you do not attend.
Allow yourself to be vulnerable, to ask for prayer, and trust in the Lord. For each roadblock He will send help. He will send kind strangers who will help you. He will bring solutions to problems in the most unexpected ways. And you will come away from the experience with a confidence that yes you can do all things through God.
You will also come away with a knowledge that there are so many people in this big beautiful world with love to give. There is great hope and joy for tomorrow because God is at work in and through His people today, tomorrow and always.
