More than Just a Trip

During my first year at Camp Garawya as an Acteen at one of the worship services the Missionary started talking about missions (of course, because she was a missionary). She talked about all the different kinds of groups of people who need Christ. She (the missionary) got about 4 or 5 girls to come to the front, and then she handed them each a sign with different words that varied from “Nominal Christians” to “Muslim”. Then she asked about another ten to twenty girls to also come up to the stage in the front.  She arranged these in front of the girls with the signs. About half the girls were placed in front of the girl whose sign read “nominal Christians”. As you looked down the stage fewer and fewer girls were standing with the signs. The last two signs said “Buddha” and “Muslim”, and between them stood only one girl. The Missionary then said this represents the different groups of people in the world, and how many Christians are trying to reach out to them.  She went on to explain that Buddhists and Islamic people are the two least reached people in the world.  Since I have lived in Bosnia (the main religion in our town being Islam). I immediately thought of all the people I know in Bosnia who are of the Islamic faith.  In that moment I realized that God was calling me to missions. Not just to Bosnia or just to Muslim countries, but to go anywhere and everywhere He asked me to go.

The next summer I wanted to go on an over-seas mission trip, but I wasn’t able to. But last fall I felt like it was time to go somewhere. I started looking at four-week long mission trips with AIM (Adventures in Missions). It wasn’t to long after I started looking that I felt God saying, “Nicaragua”. Even though I knew that is where God wanted me to go, I still wasn’t too sure about it. It took me about 4 or 5 weeks to finally accept that Nicaragua is where God wanted me to go.

Now as there is only 3 more days before I am at training camp, excitement has totally overwhelmed me. I’m about to take an epic journey this summer with God as my guide.  A journey where I don’t know what’s going to happen, or what I will see. 

These last few months I have been asked by multiple people if I am nervous about going to a different country. The first few times, when Nicaragua was still so far away, I told them I wasn’t, but as it has gotten closer I have realized that I’m not nervous about going to a different county, or worried about getting a disease (which someone did ask me if I was worried about), I’m worried about how I’m going to react to what I see. I’m going to a country where about 80% of the population lives, or tries to live, on a dollar a day. Many of them don’t have clean water to drink everyday. In my life anytime I have ever needed or wanted water I just went to the kitchen and poured myself a fresh glass of water without even thinking twice about it. I know that going will be like going to a totally different world! Even though I have never been to Nicaragua I know that I won’t come back the same. Which will most probably will be a good thing, but a scary thing.