The journey

Well…it’s finally here. The moment I’ve been waiting half my life for. I am en route to my very first mission trip. I can’t believe it’s actually happening I have no doubt that it is going to be worth the wait, but this journey didn’t start at the Jacksonville airport. It started years and years ago.

As a teenager I dreamed of going on a mission trip. We had friends from our church that went regularly to the Philippines and I always wanted to go. I would have gone anywhere, but it was the only place I really knew of at the time. Admittedly, my mom was too prideful to ask for donations and my parents definitely didn’t have the money to foot the bill. I don’t know why God never allowed it back then, but I’ve learned over the years that some answers He gives, and some He doesn’t.

Fast forward to about 6 years ago; God had gotten ahold of me and had turned me from the awful path I was on. I began living for Christ again and part of that was my desire to go somewhere and do mission work. The problem was at the time I didn’t have a husband who was ready to let me go. I asked numerous times if I could go and every time he told me no. Again, I questioned why God was not allowing this desire to be fulfilled. There were tangible reasons I believe the answer was no, such as me getting pregnant or my mother becoming very sick and needing me. But I also believe some of the reason was because my heart wasn’t 100% genuine. Yes, I wanted to go and serve Him, but I think it was a pride thing as well to an extent.

Then in 2011 one of the coolest parts of God saying “no” to this desire happened. The church had a team doing mission work in China, a trip I desperately wanted to go on.  It was a Wednesday and I had been talking to my mom about the frustration I was feeling about not getting the chance to go on this (or any) trip. Literally a few hours later my pastor posted a FB status that said something like “if you want to work with internationals let me know.” I immediately said yes. So the following week we went to an amazing school in Jacksonville and learned about how foreigners are being ministered to and were being told about Christ, right here in town!! I knew that this was a place I needed to be. I was so excited and I was thanking God when it dawned on me. I leaned over to my pastor and said, “if I was on the China trip right now, I wouldn’t be here and wouldn’t know about this place.” Now that’s not to say I wouldn’t have had another opportunity to be introduced to it, but God confirmed for me that night that I didn’t have to go somewhere else in order to show the love of Christ to people who didn’t know Him. Within a few months I was teaching English as a Second Language to refugees and immigrants. I love this place and these ladies so much and I can’t imagine not being with them. I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of this amazing ministry. He even used this school to place a woman in my life at exactly the time I would need her. My mom passed away just a few weeks into the school year and my new friend Kristin was able to help me in ways she could never even imagine. Even now, I know I can get good godly counsel  from her and I’ve needed someone like that since my mom went home.

But back to the actual “mission trip”…last year the church began advertising different trips that we would be taking in the next year. When the trip for Wales was announced it was like the Holy Spirit yelling, “that’s it!” But then I found out it was just supposed to be a college trip so I was pretty bummed again. The amazing thing that had happened though was that Danny was finally ok with me going JJ I began thinking about going to Haiti instead. Then at the end of 2012 this trip to Wales was opened up to anyone. I was excited, but knew that I still had a long way to go. I had to pay for it!!

I began fundraising in January and even through that God confirmed in phenomenal ways that this was the trip He wanted me to go on. When I paid in full I was so overwhelmed that I was that much closer to this dream! All the while though I tried to not be so excited that if something did fall through I wouldn’t be devastated.

After hearing some more about this trip and the landscape of the country we were going to, I realized that another dream of mine was coming through as well. So let’s take a little side trail…

For years I have wanted to go to England. However I’ve always said I wanted to go to England 200 years ago…castles, manors, cottages, greenery, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to go to England now and London in particular. However, the more I learned about Wales I realized that the landscape of Wales was exactly what I have always wanted to see! This was just an extra hug from God in my book. That He would fulfill 2 dreams of mine in one trip.

So here I am, sitting in the Charlotte airport, waiting to board a plane to Philadelphia…to board a plane to England. To then drive to Wales. I still can’t believe it’s finally here!

More later…