So, here we are! One year in the making, one group in the planning. One team, one mission, one heart…on a mission. The preparation for this trip seemed endless: shots, passports, paperwork, fundraising, meetings, packing, planning…and did I say planning? Kaley Campbell, our 21 year old team leader, came to Nicaragua a few years ago, fell in love, and yearned to return. Kind of like I yearn for Guatemala. But I never planned a second trip. I guess I was all talk, on a mission “high,” so to speak. But not Kaley. For 4 years her heart has longed for the children at Hogar Belen. For 4 years Jesus pulled on her heart strings asking her to return to His people. But she couldn’t go alone. So we said, “we will go with you!” 12 of us. No pastor. No church. No tour guide. Just 12 friends that are in LOVE with Jesus and are consequently captivated by the beauty of His people. Every tribe. Every nation. I pray whole heartedly for a heart like Kaley’s, for a heart like Jesus. I want to be so filled with passion for a people that I would stop at nothing until I can be with them again. Loving on them. I want to see what He sees, hear what He hears, and feel what He feels to the best of my tiny human ability. The more I think about it, the cooler the idea of this trip is! 12 friends all with a similar heart for the Lord, going to a foreign country to help build up an orphanage for mentally and physically handicapped children. Children that will most likely never be adopted. HOW WILD! While every other college kid is vegging out in front of their TVs or getting sucked into facebook, straightening their hair before a big party, or getting cozy with their family by the Christmas tree- we are going to be in a place with no running water, minimal electricity, who have never heard of facebook because they have no access to it and are slaving away at their family trade to make ends meet (and not MEAT because chicken is way too expensive for them). They will never be able to get cozy with their family because they don’t have one. I pray the Lord will keep me humble through this. Lord, don’t allow me to think I am high and mighty through all this because only YOU are the Lord most high and only YOU are mighty to save. Strike down our pride when we think the toothbrushes we bring them is from our hands when only YOUR hands are fully capable of true healing and YOU are Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord that provides. Instead, I pray that I realize the importance of my hands moving so you can work them, my mouth moving that you would speak to them, my feet moving that you would guide them on their journey to their promised land. Their milk and honey. They deserve it too.
SO, our group question is: How do you respond in the face of tragedy? This is what I feel like the Lord is telling us this before our journey begins: Have compassion, but not pity. Look them in the eye. Provide for them everything you are possibly capable of, and realize that You Can’t Save the World. But God can. And He will. He provides for His people by the second, in ways we will never be able to see or comprehend. We have to remember that, or else, our hearts will never be healed from this heartbreak. Trust that all this is true, and REJOICE that one day every tribe, every tongue, every nation will sing HALLELUJAH! Who knows, maybe you, reader, will meet these beautiful kids one day. Oh, that special…special day.
I’M SO READY FOR THIS ADVENTURE!!!
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