Can't you just see me in an Indiana Jones hat?

I wanted to trek through jungles sporting an Indiana Jones-ish hat.  Or maybe climb mountains to reach remote villages, returning home with a Jillian Michaels body.   Oh, the difficult decisions when researching Brook Hills mission trip offerings last year; how would I decide which country I wanted to see the most?

Was it possible my motives were not ideal?

So, I didn’t go on a trip last year.  And may not have gone on one this year if I had not read this post on my friend Jenny’s blog.  So I did what she did; I asked the church what trips needed people the most instead of asking myself where I wanted to go.  I got an email back saying we need people on a trip to India, and by the way, would you lead it?  You would just need to be very organized, reliable, and make sure everything runs smoothly during the trip.

Flash back to the fall of 2010.  To help my friend, Dave, who’s leading the mission trip to Cuba I’m on, I have offered to keep up with all the money, receipts, and monetary transactions.  We have a layover in Mexico, and I’m enjoying a great quiet time on the terrace outside the hotel.  A little later we are gathered in Dave’s room for a team devotional.  Someone is sharing verses on worry.  I think smugly, I’m not one of those anxious travelers.  I’m easy-going and flexible!  I’m not worried about customs, flying, or being questioned as we enter Cuba; I’m not worried about anything!

Oh crap.  Where’s the money?  Where is my adorable Kavu purse that makes me look young and hip?  Where’s my adorable Kavu purse that has ALL THE MONEY FOR OUR TRIP IN IT?  It’s on the terrace of a slightly sketchy hotel in Mexico.  That’s where it is.  Ok, if I run out of the room right now I’ll have to confess my egregious mistake to Dave, and he will a) retract my money handling duties, thus adding more stress to his life or b) he will want to retain his faith in me but will worry the entire time about my reliability.  I sit on the bed, cold sweat pouring down my back, feeling sick with…worry. Yes, I am WORRIED. We finally finish the longest prayer in the history of prayers, and I make a mad dash to the lobby of the hotel.  I am waved down by a hotel attendant who is holding my purse. With all of the money intact, not to mention my passport.  And Dave remains confident in my ability to assist him. 

No, maybe I’m not the best person to lead a trip to India.  So, like the responsible person I am, I ignore the email.  Because although I do believe I could keep up with the trip money (I never, ever took that purse off except right before I slipped under the covers at night. And I put it back on when I sat up in bed the next morning), leading a trip scared me.  But after a few weeks, I do email back and find that the trip is already full.  In fact, the Brook Hills website has no more open trips for 2012. Well, maybe next year.

Then I get an email asking if I’m interested in a trip to East Asia over Christmas. It’s a very small team, and the purpose is to support a university teacher there who is a believer.  She hosts gatherings in her home for students who are atheists, Muslim, and Buddhist, where the students practice their English, socialize and study the Bible. The students are very interested in American culture, and she has requested that a team come over during Christmas to have Christmas parties, with the goal of sharing the Gospel as the team talks about American holiday traditions.

From what I understand, most of the students in this culture give little thought to what happens after they die, and the Gospel is a foreign concept to them. The team will help the partner strengthen relationships with the students she is investing her life in.

I’ll leave the process of how I came to say yes to the trip for my next post.  In the meantime, if you would like to support me, I have to come up with $2500 for airfare, housing, and food, with $2000 of it due October 21^st.  Yep, that’s a lot. Yep, that’s soon.  If you were even thinking about getting me a Christmas present, please feel free to donate that money early to my trip!  The donation will:

·         Increase your tax return.

·         Give you warm fuzzy feelings inside knowing you are helping in the spread of the Gospel to college students who have never heard* of Jesus.

·         Give you permission to ask me (after November, please) to buy junk stuff that your kids are selling at school.

·         Make you more invested in the trip, thus causing you to pray more for me. Because if you are going to give me your hard earned dollars, then you are going to want to make SURE God does something great with our team and those students, right?

*Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”  Romans 10:13-15

See the sidebar about how to donate.  And stayed tuned for the next post; I’m back!