Is a Mission Trip for You?

Romania 2011

Many years ago my husband decided he was called to missions.  He traveled many places and was eager for me to go with him.  My answer was always the same.  I need to stay and take care of the kids.  You go on and I will be your support from home.  In 2011 he finally convinced me to go on a trip to Romania.  The trip was a small one.  Only one other couple and the director of ACF went with us.  We were to work on the third floor of what is now called the Point of Hope.  I was okay with that since I really didn't have to go out of my comfort zone and deal with people.  I could scrape walls, sand mud and paint.  You see my comfort zone was building and fixing - not forming relationships.  In addition to scraping and painting someone decided it would be a good idea to take some of the kids served by the Point of Hope on a picnic.  I went along because I really didn't have a choice.  We took the kids away from the center and played games and ate.  That was the beginning of a change that occurred me.  I started to see that relationships are what is important.  Fixing things can occur at any time, but you only have so many opportunities to make new friends.

This week

So the girl who wanted to stay home and send others had a shift occur in her heart.  I wanted to go back to Romania.  So I came back in 2014 with my son, Jonathan, and this year I brought my daughter, Asya.  I wanted to give them the opportunity to see how loving and accepting the people of Romania are.  Asya was a little hesitant to come on the trip not knowing what to expect.  She asked a lot of questions about who we were going to see and where we would go.  Today she informed me she doesn't want to leave Romania.  She said she will miss all of the hugs from the kids and Asya will miss the team very much as well.
For me this mission trip has been so much more than fixing the physical things that are broken.  I've made new friends in the States (we have folks from Illinois, Texas and Tennessee on our team), worked with some wonderful translators, teachers and workers at Point of Hope.  It's a step out of that comfort zone I like to stay in.  The rewards have been many.  It's watching special moments - like kids hugging the team members and squeezing so tight, women laughing at each other as they use a facial scrub and relax with cucumbers on their eyes.  It's about visiting the homes of the people you are serving and watching the pride with which they welcome you into their homes.  The pictures they proudly show you of their families and seeing the crafts the kids made the past week displayed on the walls of their home.  It's sharing with these people the struggles we have and how they are similar to their struggles.  It's telling these people that the same God carries us through the tough times and through the good times.  It's about sharing the Hope we find in Christ.

So what keeps you from going on a trip?

Written by Terri Harper from Chattanooga, TN.