When He Calls...

Last summer I had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala for a mission trip that centered around schools and orphanages (don't think it could have been more "up my alley!"). It was a wonderful trip where we were able to serve hundreds of kids and caretakers. On a mission trip it has been my experience that God uses these times to really speak to me about the direction He wants me to go. While we were there I kept feeling Him pushing me, calling me to lead a trip. When I got back I shared this feeling with Justin and kept finding myself on the Seacoast site, looking at the trips, thinking about what God might have been pushing me towards. None of the trips were really speaking to me (not that they aren't amazing trips, just wasn't feeling called for any of them). I decided to step back and see if something else came up. Meanwhile, I have been mentioning to Justin for quite awhile that I wished Seacoast did a trip to Ethiopia and wondered if I could get one started. I began to do a little research on other organizations that traveled to Ethiopia but, again, wasn't finding anything that really spoke to me.

Fast forward to January-ish because I must admit between the months of November and February, I was busy preparing for Olivia's arrival :) AWAA (our international adoption agency) sent out an email sharing that they were going to be sending out teams to various countries to work in orphanages and they were looking for leaders. Since our daughter was due in less than a month, I read the email, flagged it to return to, and got busy with more baby stuff. I tucked that thought in my "to do" file in my brain but things were such a whirlwind, I really wasn't giving it the prayer and thought it deserved. Fast forward to the end of February... We had just returned from Pennsylvania and Olivia was about 3 weeks old when I received a text from a dear friend. The text asked if I had seen the email about the trips and was thinking about going. I knew it then. It was like this flood of relief came over me as I began typing my response "I did see that. I was thinking about applying to lead the December trip." Nope, hadn't really talked it all through with Justin a whole lot during the crazy month. Yep, I was holding our three week old daughter as I was typing. But what do you do when God calls? You answer, you respond. We happened to be out with our friends from our Togo teams and I mentioned the trip and the interest in leading to them, they were amazingly supportive and my excitement grew. Less than 3 weeks later I had sent in all my stuff to apply for the leadership spot and soon heard that they had selected me.

There are so many reasons you can come up with to not go on an international mission trip- cost, fear of travel, fear of tough accommodations, timing, fear of leaving your family, fear that you aren't "Christian" enough, just fear in general. In the past 5 years of my life, God has called me to take leaps of faith, to trust Him in ways I  never dreamed He would ask. Every single one of those leaps has resulted in the best experiences that I can't imagine having missed. Jeremiah 29:11 (For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope) became one of my life verses. No matter what He is calling you to do, no matter how scary, unexpected, or "out there" it seems, go for it. Respond. Follow. Be Obedient.

Mark 16:15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

So here's my plug...
If you feel Him calling you to do mission work, to go and love on kids that have no families, that feel as though they have been lost and forgotten- GO! There are over a dozen trips to orphanages around the world in the next year through AWAA alone. Nope, you don't have to want to adopt to go. You just have to love the Lord and love kids. I would love to have you on my team if you feel like Ethiopia is where you are supposed to go but if not, let me know how I can help you go where you are called. I promise you won't regret it.

www.awaa.org/act

John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."