Mission Minded

I was moved to go. Generally, I’m not an impulsive person, but I was moved.

Some indicators in life are so vague you’re not even sure they were indicators at all. Like when I moved to Florida almost 3 years ago. I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, if I should have stayed in Missouri instead, if God was intentionally being silent, or what. It wasn’t clear to me.

And then there are times when you just know its right. Like a month ago when I went to church and heard an announcement that there was a mission trip heading down to the Dominican Republic. I knew I had to go. On of the main reasons I felt this way is because I've been sponsoring a child there for almost 6 years. When they made the announcement that night I thought it would be a good chance to go down and meet him. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind. I picked up an application that night and by the end of the week had it turned in and was committed to the cause. I didn’t know a single person going on the trip. There was only a month to find funding. I hadn’t accumulated enough PDO to cover my time off work. There were a million other excuses I could have used to talk myself out of the mission trip. But God has plans bigger than our excuses.

As it turns out, we would be serving in the community around Santo Domingo. My sponsor child was in Santiago, 2.5 hours away. I didn’t end up going to see him on this trip. (It wasn’t right to detract from the purpose of the mission trip in order to fulfill my own desire.) But it’s interesting how God uses things that motivate us for the purpose of something larger than ourselves. I think if the group would have been going to any other country, I wouldn’t have gone or given it a second thought. (I already had plans to go to Russia and Africa later in the year.)

But we went to the Dominican Republic. We went to serve. We went to love.