A New Perspective

Sometimes little detours can change our perspective.

My hubby went with our pastor and another gentleman, this week to meet with a man to discuss a summer mission trip. The small church we are attending, hasn’t had a huge interest in mission projects and with a staff of one and no one to head them up, they haven’t been a priority. When I sent our pastor an e-mail inquiring about the possibility of a youth summer mission trip, he replied that they had been praying about it for some time, but hadn’t had anyone willing to be in charge of it. He went one to ask the question, “I wonder where we would find such a person?”

I laughed out loud as I read it. I shared on another post recently, that I had been praying the prayer, “use me.” So far, it’s put me in a Christmas Cantata and in the church choir. Now, I’m looking into summer mission trips. I find it kind of interesting up to this point, that God hasn’t plugged me in doing anything that I already know how to do, but that’s usually what it’s like when you decide to walk with Jesus.

Of course, I roped my hubby in. He may not be praying the, “use me” prayer, but he’s getting used too. Thankfully, he doesn’t mind. I couldn’t make the trip on Monday, so he went. Turns out, there had been a total mis-communication, because we were very clear about staying within the United Sates to do mission work and preferably in the Southeast. We feel there are plenty of people right here who desperately need the help of the Christian community.

The man they met with had only done mission work outside of the country. He shared with them some of what he had done. He told the men that one of the trips he went on was ten thousand dollars per person, for the airfare and ten people went. As my husband was telling me this, I interrupted him saying something like, “Why didn’t they just send the people there, a hundred grand? I mean, what a waste of money to fly!”

He told me he thought the same thing, but he listened. Oops! That’s what I should be doing too. The man shared that while they did some physical work there, they also ran a Vacation Bible School program. The children and parents there had never seen anything like it. And the most touching part of all, was that they couldn’t believe that there were people out there who cared enough about their tiny poverty-stricken village, to fly around the world and tell them and show them about the love of Jesus,

I have to admit, I never thought of it that way. On the other side of the coin, the man they spoke with is looking for an opportunity to do something here in the United States, but he hasn’t found the opportunity, so he wrote down all of our men’s information.

In the end, I think we all got a new perspective. I still hope to take the teenagers as well as some adults, on a summer mission trip here at home. My daughter’s experience in South Carolina last year, on her first mission trip, was truly life changing. But, I’m going to look at these out of country youth trips in a different way too. I’ll definitely pray for the financial success of those attempting to go and I’ll contribute if I can. Who knows? I may go on one myself one day.

I think in the end, that little meeting this week, that seemed like a detour, may have been exactly what God had planned all along. He’s always full of surprises.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

P.S. If you are doing the Thanksgiving challenge, you should be on number 19 today! 🙂