Missions!!!

“Here am I. Send me!” ~Isaiah 6:8b

So I know I’m already going to Spain this summer with the orchestra…and I know this is really sudden…but this is SO awesome! I think I’m going to go on a mission trip to Juarez, Mexico this summer to help at an orphanage!!!

Tonight at Bible study, my friend Julie announced that she is going to Mexico the first week in June to help with an orphanage and that any of us were invited to come if we wanted to. As soon as she said it, this spark of excitement went through me, and I REALLY wanted to go! It’s very cool for me because I’ve never felt called to go on a mission trip before. I’ve been on two mission trips, but they both were not really my decision to go and I definitely didn’t feel called like I’m feeling right now. Plus the fact that it falls right in the middle of the free part of my summer (between the trip to Spain and teaching at the summer camps)! That in itself is amazing!

I went on my first mission trip when I was 13. We went to Sanders, Arizona to do a Vacation Bible School with the Indian kids there and help at this church there. It was a family mission trip, so whole families from my church went. My family went, so I went along. I had a lot of fun, but looking back, I feel like I went more just to have fun and I didn’t really feel like I was going for the right reasons.

The second mission trip I went on 2 years ago, right after I graduated from high school. We went to San Francisco to help at YWAM (Youth with a mission), but it wasn’t really my choice to go because I kind of just went because my best friend was going. So I never really felt excited about it or anything. I did learn a lot, but I still feel like I didn’t learn as much as I could have if I had really wanted to go.

Sometimes I’ve wondered why I’ve never felt called to go on a mission trip or anything. I’ve seen other people get so excited about going to so many places on mission trips, and really when I’ve heard about ones that I could go on, I feel guilty because I don’t want to go. This year has been totally AWESOME as far as my spiritual life! I’ve grown more than I think I ever have, and I’ve been excited about so many things that God is teaching me.

It’s really cool because just last week I was telling my friend Sarah that if I ever went on a mission trip in the future (and I seriously wasn’t thinking THIS SUMMER), I would want to go help at an orphanage somewhere! So when Julie mentioned that tonight, I got SO excited because that was the one type of mission work I was thinking that I would enjoy! This whole thing just totally amazes me! I can’t stop talking about it and thinking about it! (Just ask my roommates :)).

I have always been interested in orphanages. When I was younger, I remember always wanting to watch the news whenever they had stuff about the orphanages in Romania. I don’t even remember why they were talking about it on the news, but I LOVED seeing the children in Romania. And then last Christmas break, I started thinking that I might want to be a foster parent someday in the future. That’s another thing that just excites me. I mean, kids excite me in general, but I just feel like that’s something I would really like to do someday. So this is AWESOME that I can maybe (I haven’t talked to my parents yet…) go help with an orphanage because I might get an idea of what it’s like to serve and help children who are in need of love.

Of course over the next couple of months I will need a lot of prayer and I will need to prepare myself for this, but I feel SO refreshed and excited, it’s unbelievable! Man, if you EVER feel like this, it’s AWESOME! :) Praise God!