We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip.
Here is my story…
God began pulling at my heart even before I was a Christian. I knew in the back of my mind that I had always wanted to travel. In fact, I found a journal very recently that I had written in when I was seven. It said, “When I grow up, I want to travel the entire world – even Antarctica!”. This is still my plan today. God brought this desire out of me in late 2004. After a long talk with a German roommate, I had made up my mind and made a promise to him that I would come visit after I graduated college as part of a backpacking trip to Europe in 2005.
I stayed true to my word and left for Europe on May 16th of 2005. It had not been 24 hours before I was laying in the grass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin feeling lost, broken, and completely homesick. I was a baby Christian at the time, and it was at that exact moment that I could feel God reaching down and taking my hand. Once I was by His side, travel became fully alive to me and I have never looked back. Now, if I am not traveling somewhere, I am planning my next trip so that I can see more of the world that God has so graciously given us. Oh, for the record – I did meet up with my friend in London and we spent a few days seeing the city.
There is no doubt in my mind that God has placed travel deep into the depths of my heart, but that’s not all that He has done for me. You see, I had always believed in God but it wasn’t until early 2005 that I met my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that I came to know all that He has done for me. Jesus looked down on me with love nearly 2000 years ago and saw that I was a prisoner to sin. He knew that, because of this sin, I would die and forever be in the pit of Hell, separated from God and all of His goodness. Jesus, however, was looking down at me through time from a cross, where he lay dying. He had made the decision as God to take the sin of the entire world onto Himself and die so that, if we only believe in Him, that we can all be with Him in heaven when we leave this earth. I am forgiven by the blood of Christ and I owe my life and everything I do to Him.
Jesus, after He was resurrected from the dead, appeared to His disciples and gave this command:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
– Matthew 28:18-20
Knowing all of this as I do now, how can I not give the life that was given to me back to the one who saved me? With my love for Christ and my love for travel, God has made it clear to me that I am to be a missionary. I am to follow the command of Jesus and show people around the world what it is that Jesus has done for them. Jesus didn’t just die for me, Jesus died for everyone: past, present, and future. The entire world needs to know that they have the love of Jesus, and I will be one of many to deliver the Good News.
