10 March 2011

Do something More

My friend Janel (I'll call her my friend) is amazing. What's so amazing about her? She follows after the heart of God. Over a year ago, she was writing about their stuff in Ghana. So, I had the wild idea to make Journey Bags to be sent with her to Ghana. I was glad to work on a project that would be helpful to others.

Shortly after that Ryan and I went to Ethiopia to pick up our son, Judah. While there we saw the plight that surrounded every day life. We drove down the road and I longed to teach them how to prevent the erosion I was seeing in the fields.

I came home but wanted to go back. I wanted to do something more. Sure, we sponsor a Compassion child there but that wasn't enough for me. As the chair of the missions committee at church, I began planning the next mission trip. Though I love and have a heart for Mexico, my heart wanted to go to Ethiopia more. So, I planned a little and questioned a lot. I didn't want to go on another mission trip, throw a few thousand dollars at a project, return home and pat myself on the back. I desired to teach themself something sustainable; to work myself out of a job.

Then, I went to a leader training and it was confirmed that we needed to do missions differently in our church. We pursued a vision casting trip instead. Still, I longed to return to Ethiopia. Those who talk to me would attest that I said I was going to Mexico this year and also saying that I was going to Ethiopia this summer. So, without getting into ALL the details of our missions decisions, within days of deciding that I wouldn't go to the Mexico trip, Lory from FOVC asked me to join them on a trip to Ethiopia!

Are you serious?

So, here I am. Not going to Mexico. But going to Ethiopia. And Ryan is going to. I'm so excited to be able to serve along-side my lover! I'm so excited to be serving in the area our son is from! As we move forward, we will be buying tickets ASAP so that we can leave in 10 weeks! It was a simple choice for us. We have so much and wanted to give back using our gifts and talents. We're doing it friends. And so can you!

If you're interested in reading more about what I'll be doing, check out yesterday's post at http://journey4hope.blogspot.com/2011/03/fovc-and-me.html

1 comment:

Sarah said...

:) This is amazing. I'm so excited!!