Missions Trip: The Decision

SO, hello Wednesday.
Hello rain...

... and snow.

Basically, hello, Ohio. Good to see you're still doing wel-- just doing. Glad to see you're at least consistently indecisive.

Aaaaanyway...

Today is Day 8 of my 40-Day Lent Letter promise:

day 8!

I've officially been doing this for a full week now, every day, and want to again just take a quick sec to encourage everyone to try this. Maybe not for Lent, but perhaps your own list, for your own reason. I'm a huge fan of the old fashioned handwritten note and this one today reminded me that even when writing to the people closest and often times most obvious to us, there are somehow things I don't know that I've ever said to them.. or at least not recently enough.

It's only been 8 days. I am not expecting anything in return with these, but to know that I'm making one person [hopefully] smile with just a small but sincere note is a very humble reminder of the responsibility we have to be active contributors in our relationships.


reply from one recipient

reply from another recipient

Our impacts are only as big as we allow them to be, but I'm a firm believer that they more often start with those closest to us. That, of course, got me to thinking.

Really, I'm certain I'm being called to do something bigger than [and in addition to] this.

I've just stepped out of a weekend spent with some of the finest friends I have. As it happens, two of my greatest friends both recently returned from separate, unrelated trips of service and mission in other countries. Becky realized her long-time dream of Nepal earlier this year:

becky during the dedication of their
finished project [construction] in nepal



 .. And Marianne is still quite fresh on her return from a missions-based trip to Guatemala.

mare loving on those adorable kids!

It's not that I am jealous. I'm really not. Every service trip has its own purpose, its own timing and its own set of gratitudes to be earned. What I am, is more inspired than anything else. It's not that I don't want to go to follow either of their trips to Nepal or Guatemala, but I do know that we are called to reach our arms as far as we can, and wherever that is, is where I'll be.

My request now, friends, is this:

Please pray for me.

A trip like this isn't something you plan out in a week's time. It's not a weekend getaway or a vacation. It's something to which I must be connected on a raw, unfiltered level, purposed to serve not myself, but someone else. As an internationally-adopted child myself, the very thought of positioning myself to serve in an orphanage is exhilirating, humbling and frankly, a little terrifying. I would love to believe that I have the emotional stability to contain myself in the faces of children who are not in the least unlike I was once. I know though, that I want to, and will be loving with all I have on some people I've not yet met.

The praying [for this] starts now.

The research starts now.

The planning starts now.

2015.

I am only asking now for you to pray for me. Please pray that the direction I choose is a selfless endeavor to kneel at the feet of the Least of These and offer the best of what I've been given, and that by this time next year, I'll be in the final stages of preparation for a trip.

The I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
"Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"Isaiah 6:8 

.. And you are welcome to join. Serious inquiries, only. Let me know, and we can pray for this together.

To end the day, I received some rather EXCITING [though at this time, pre-emptive] news from one of these beautiful souls I call friends. I can't elaborate on it right now, but I will use it as a testament that we serve no small God. Hopefully I'll be able to share more about this later, in a couple days or so. Sorry for the teaser!

On that note, the here-and-now of this evening ends with Sydni on one side of me and Rob on the other. This is my family, and this is where I'm happiest. I'm in love with it. Sweet dreams!

xo | cmd