Recently, when I have talked to others about my upcoming mission trip, I have had a surprising amount make comments implying that I am simply going on a vacation. They assume that I will be spending all of my time drinking tea and relaxing in a resort in India, going on safaris in Zambia, and relaxing on beautiful beaches in Ecuador. They seem to believe that I am raising $13,000 to follow my dreams of traveling the world rather than following God’s calling for me to live radically and change the world.
This blog post is for all of the people who think that; I need to set the record straight.
First and foremost, this trip is not about the experiences that I will have. While I will have countless unforgettable moments along the way, that is not why I’m going. It is about the millions of people who are suffering in the slums in India, living amongst trash and believing that they are not worthy of greater things. It is about the millions of orphans who feel unwanted and alone. It is about the people who are dying in hospitals or have spent their entire lives in pain, never knowing the comfort of having someone pray for them. It is about the hopeless, hardened women who were forced into sex slavery when they were merely children. They are the reason why I’m going.
I will be working with these people, seeing the immeasurable suffering that they are enduring, and will have to accept the fact that there’s nothing substantial that I can immediately do for them. I will need to eventually leave them, after building relationships and getting to know their personal struggles, and will need to trust that God will take care of them. I will need to look into their eyes, say goodbye, and know that I will probably never see them again. I don’t know about you, but just the thought of doing that breaks my heart. It will be heartbreaking, but the glimmer of hope in a sex trafficking victims eyes after speaking to me, or the laughter of an orphan who has spent his/her entire life feeling unloved, will make it all worth it.
It is not going to be a glamorous trip. There will be no beautiful resorts, and more often than not, I will be laying on the floor of a tent, hoping that the tickle on my leg is just my sweat and not a giant spider. The only belongings that I will have for the entirety of the 9 months will be whatever I can fit into a backpack. There will be times when for an entire month, my only shower will be one quick swim in a river. Being that my daily food budget will be small, I’ll have to be okay with sometimes not having bottled water, and simply purifying some water that I get from the local well. I’ll also have to be okay with that purification being insufficient sometimes, causing me to get sick. There will be parasites, illness, and injury, oftentimes without a hospital nearby. It will be extremely difficult and hugely different from the privileged life that I live in North America, but I am grateful to be able to put myself into the shoes of those who live that way daily, even though I can really only get a taste.
I’m not writing this to be praised for the difficult things that I will endure. It’s the least that I can do when there are billions of people living their entire lives in conditions infinitely worse than anything I will ever experience. I’m writing this so that people know that I’m not going solely for the adventures; while the adventures will be incredible, the World Race is not the right program if that is one’s only goal. It is a radical and intense program designed to help those who are in need, all while stretching followers of Christ beyond anything they can imagine.
My trip will be emotional, life-changing, and completely terrifying, and I thank God every day for blessing me with the opportunity to go. It will be absolutely amazing, but I assure you, it is not a vacation.
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