As Feelings Fade: March 2015

In one hour I will embark on a medical mission trip to Guatemala! It’s the trip that the five-year-old me could only dream about, and the trip that my 20-year-old-self can’t believe that they are letting me go. (I mean, I can do vitals and change bed sheets- yay!)

So, why am I embarking on my tenth mission trip? It’s been a question that has been plaguing me for months, because I feared that the answer might never come. But, the truth is that I go on another mission trip because the Lord has asked me to. Not because He needs me, but because I so desperately need Him and I need the plan that He has for my life.

Very simply put, I believe that a mission trip is simply a tool that we use to bring the message of love to people all around the world. First and foremost, God has called us into one of the most simple, yet most beautiful missions in the whole world- he has called us to follow Him. As we walk with him as our foundation in our lives, we seek to share His freedom and His love with others. We seek out our neighbors, both locally and abroad, and we seek to care for them to our greatest capacity.

Our love is not blind, and the Lord does not leave us unequipped. He places ideas, dreams, and visions into so many heads, so that specific journeys turn into specific missions. It is here that short-term missions play a part.

In one class, a professor said something to the effect of “Short term missions is only effective when nested inside the purpose of a long term mission and when the needs of the community are constantly being reevaluated.” Short-term mission trips are dangerous in that they can be rendered ineffective when approached with the wrong intentions (a lengthy conversation for another day), and yet they hold the potential to encourage and to continue on the work of the Lord in places all around the world.

It’s the purpose of mission trips- Worth. Sure, we build houses, feed children, heal the sick, and teach in schools, but at the end of the day all of those things have one united purpose- to communicate the message of Jesus’s love and worth to people around the world. We bring a message of love and of worth to those who are already believers and those who are not.

Mission trips often find me on my knees, tears streaming, and mind racing. Why? Because I am made so apparently aware of my sinfulness that I come face to face with the raw reality that I need Jesus, so much more than He needs me. With this in mind and with His continued faithfulness and His steadfast lovingkindness, I head off to Guatemala.

Here's a picture from each trip I've ever been on! Each trip taught me so much about life, love, and Jesus!