Thursday, September 15, 2011

Lessons learned at the Travel Clinic

Today I went to the Travel Clinic to get my vaccinations for our trip to Ghana. I had a lovely conversation with the nurse who gave my my injections (yellow fever, typhoid, hep a and a polio booster in case you are curious).  The conversation ended with tears in her eyes and kind words about our trip and God's protection for us. I was blessed to have her today.

In the waiting room where I was waiting my obligatory 30 minutes to make sure I didn't explode from the yellow fever vaccine, I met a pastor. He was from Farmer City. We talked about serving people and his trip and my trip.

But the one thing that was confirmed in my heart is that... a mission trip is not about solely helping people. I mean, that is great and something God has called us to do. And it even has rewards that can't be measured. But that is not the only purpose. It is about changing my heart and helping me to see people how God sees them. It is about making me a servant of people not a servant of myself. It is about dying to self and living for Christ. It is about my heart as much as it is about these trafficked children. Or maybe, in some ways, it is MORE about my heart. It is more about changing my heart into the kind of person I long to be and know that I was created to be.

And God weaves that into the things he calls us to do. Uses the change necessary in my heart to bring friends and family together. To bring a church together. To rescue beautiful children and help to provide them with an education and HOPE. And on some level it all makes a little more sense to me now than it used to. It is about them, it is about me... but we are just the chorus and God is the director weaving all of these hearts together for both freedom and growth.


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