Upon graduation, I spent a bit of time in Belize as a volunteer lay missionary with SOLT. My good friend Gayle Ohrenberger actually surprised me and hopped on board a last-minute spring break mission trip and brought me coffee, peanut butter and much appreciated communio.
Gayle caught the mission bug and has since led several trips with the high school she is the campus minister for. Truly a mission trip rock star, she has encountered everything from lost passports to broken bones to parasites and she not only keeps going back, she brings teenagers with her.
Inspired by Gayle's courage, I'm hoping to join her on a mission trip she's leading for young adults to Mustard Seed Communities in Nicaragua. There won't be teens on this trip... This time I get to take the orders and do the dirty work. I'm excited about it.
The crazy part is that it takes place in November, over Thanksgiving. While it only costs Mustard Seed about $100 to have me for the week, they wisely require that I raise about $1000 to contribute to the support of the mission and raise awareness for what they do. I realize that these are difficult times and it was only a few weeks ago that I was begging support for my sister Martha, a FOCUS missionary. I'm also shaking donations out of everyone locally to support Room at the Inn and their upcoming silent auction.
I realize that asking people to throw a few dollars towards a trip to Nicaragua-- when there are so many other needs-- is pretty brazen of me. However I can say, with confidence, that it's not to support me (I even pay for my own plane ticket and put down the $100 deposit to cover the cost of my visit)-- it's solely to support the children with disabilities that Mustard Seed cares for, as well as outreach to the poor who live and work at the local dump. I have the freedom to skip town for a week at Thanksgiving, go hug children, clean toilets and dig ditches. Maybe you wish you could too but for whatever reason can't. As Martha just told everyone as she headed to Nebraska, "some give by going, others go by giving". So, here I am, begging for your prayers and, if you can spare it, the $5.00 you'd spend on a latte.
I promise if I make it, the blogging will be phenomenal.
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