Why?

This blog has followed/highlighted all of our adventures...foster care, babies and adoption--to name a few--so I figure it'll follow our journey into missions, as well. No worries, I'll still be posting cute pictures and video clips of the kids--I have a killer one of Kayla doing her Ethiopian head spinning dance--but I also plan to take some time to focus on our journey into the completely unknown.

A good friend recently asked me why we were going into missions--what our intended purpose is. I suppose there are a many different reasons that a person would choose to go into missions, but here's mine:

I grew up as a PK (pastor's kid). I've always been taught think about others and respond to their needs. My parents had me volunteering at a very young age. They took me on my first foreign mission trip when I was only 12. We spent 7 weeks in Europe and my dad preached at some youth camps in what was then Yugoslovia and Hungary. We also toured some and visited many different countries. When I was 16, I went on another trip to Romania and worked with children and visited orphanages. I believe that it was on that trip that my eyes were truly opened to the differences between my world and how so many others live. A desire to do something with missions or social service started at that point. When I was 18, I graduated high school a semester early and moved to Belgium where I worked with some missionaries for 3 months. In college, I participated in two state-side mission trips and just last year, Chris and I spent a week in El Salvador doing medical missions work. This was his first trip and he had a definite God moment on that trip that led him to also want to pursue missions, but that's really his story to tell so you'll have to ask him if you want more details. I guess you could say my whole life has been leading up to this. It's just that now it finally seems like the right time.

Does that answer why? Maybe 1/2 of it. The other half is that I want to make a difference. There are basic social needs that must be met in other parts of the world. AIDS is something you almost never hear about in the US anymore, but it is still making orphans on a daily basis in Africa. Fistula is a word I had never even heard before going to Ethiopia, but this is a minor medical issue that causes thousands of women to be ostracized and left to die. A simple surgery often fixes the problem in just a few minutes and a little education before the problem is created would do even more. (If you have Netflix, I highly recommend A Walk to Beautiful if you want to learn more about this specific issue.) My heart's desire is to meet some of these social needs. But I also know that meeting a social need doesn't do anything to impact someone's eternity. So, we will take the message of Christ's love with us while meeting these basic needs.

I believe that God asks each and every believer to do this on some level. I just think that God is asking us to do this in this way right now. If you have questions...ask them. I am not easily offended and am happy to answer anything. We really are excited about this journey. I don't know where it will lead or how long it will last, I just know that God is asking us to be willing and we are.