Traveling is a big passion of mine. Showing the love of God is another. So last summer I decided to go on my first missions trip. This trip was to Cape Town, South Africa. I went as a leader on the trip, with the youth group I volunteer for. Not knowing what two weeks in Cape Town were going to hold for us stirred up excitement. The excitement kept me up on our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Then on our second flight my extreme love of talking and meeting new people kept me up. Almost all 11 hours. We finally landed and my mind was flooded with thoughts. The Lion King soundtrack was playing through my head as I took my first steps on African soil. I thought for sure that I would be the first one asleep that night, but the excitement kept me up.
The first couple of days were spent getting to know our missions host, and Cape Town. Those days were full of mountains, oceans, beauty, car sickness, weird but delicious flavored chips, and sharks…I mean surfers. It was all over whelming. I have never been that awestruck in my entire life. The sightseeing was incredible, but I was ready for ministry.
The first day of ministry my alarm went off at 5:45am. My room was NOT thrilled. I am extremely spontaneous, but also overly punctual. We were up and ready for God to use us.
Ministry was literally a hodgepodge of different opportunities. Each of the opportunities stretching me spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, but one in particular stood out to me. We were in Lavender Hill and told that we would be helping out in a soup kitchen. Honestly I was not looking forward to it. I can help out in soup kitchens back home, but I reminded myself it wasn’t about me. We walked a few blocks from the church where we were working. After 5 minutes we arrived. To my surprise this soup kitchen was just a house in the middle of the neighborhood. We arrived about an hour and a half before food distribution, which meant we could hang out with the people on the streets. During the time spent there I felt so much compassion and love. God was showing me something. That’s when I knew I was called to be on the missions field. I can’t explain it. Something in me clicked, and I just knew!
Once I got home I was overwhelmed and processing the whole experience. All I could think about was I need to be back out there. I need to be on the missions field, but logically it didn’t really make sense. Good thing I’m not a logical thinker.
A few weeks passed and I was confused. I didn’t even know how to get into the missions field. Thankfully our mission hosts from Africa were in town, and wanted to have meetings with all of us. I was very thankful for this opportunity. The guys talked with Tony and the girls with Julie. I had questions for her, but it didn’t go as planned. I was an emotional mess; Julie didn’t seem bothered by it. In fact the talk went a lot better than I could have planned it to go. I told her my heart. She started telling me about The World Race. Julie just recently just finished it herself. After talking and praying with Julie I immediately went onto the website. I knew I was supposed to apply. So that’s exactly what I did!
It’s all surreal, and exciting. Now I just have to get through the hardest part thus far, waiting to leave.
