One year ago, I was invited to a bible study in Westchester County, N.Y. I decided to attend their Church Service as well. That service featured several congregants just returning from an Overseas Ministry Trip. They were all extremely moved as they described their experiences with children in three schools/group homes.
I had a profound feeling that I would be on that church's next fall ministry trip. So profound, that I told my husband that I thought God wanted me on the next fall trip. So, exactly one year later, I was leaving from JFK International Airport on a big adventure.
Despite the sense of divine inspiration, when asked to join the missions trip, I did have some reservations. Firstly, it had been a while since I had done any children or teen ministry work. Would I be up to the physical demands of this trip? What did I have to offer these children? Could I be of help to the missions team?
I never say "yes" to anything so important without first devoting some time to prayer. I told God all that I was feeling. I told Him that perhaps there were those who were more spiritually mature than I. As I cried out to God I realized how really ill-equipped I was for this trip and mission. It became clear to me that if I were to go on this trip, it would truly magnify the Lord and I would have to utterly depend upon Him as my source.
The weeks before my trip, I spiritually prepared myself for battle by praying and studying the Bible. I also met and spoke with the people who would be traveling with me. I learned that the head of the Ministry Team had been visiting this destination twice a year for the past twenty years. She described the trip to be something like a vacation bible school.
For those of you not familiar with that concept, vacation bible school is a children's program run in many churches during the summer months. It is a fun-filled week of games, singing, and bible study. The vacation bible school can be simple or very elaborate. Shows can be put on or not. I have seen snacks or even theme related lunches served. There is usually a fun theme that the children can explore and relate to such as, African animals, or space travel. The list is endless. Whatever the theme, the process always connects back to a godly concept.
I was asked to prepare two devotions for the missions team and a lesson for the children. The themes came to me immediately and I strongly felt Gods' divine hand directing me. I asked the Missions leader to allow me to do the first devotion and the last devotion. I wanted to focus on two things. At the beginning of the trip I wanted to emphasize that we as Christians must remember to always be a body of Christ. That is, we should act like a body ought to with Jesus as the brains of the group and each person conforming to the role that they were made for.
In order to be of use to the children we must resolve to act as a well-oiled machine. We who were from vastly different cultures and spoke different languages had come together with the goal of helping those in need. This is no small feat considering how fractured this world is. Many men and women can not get along in a marriage very long before they decide to call it quits. Many people work against each other in their workplace or even when supposedly working together for a humanitarian goal.
Not to mention the fact that the country which I was visiting had a history of relational problems with my country, the United States. No, without Jesus there is no way any of the people who ended up going on this trip would ever have any reason to be together. Men and women of different ages and from very different walks of life. Yet, here we all were, gathered together in an hotel room about two and a half hours outside of the country's capital praying and preparing to meet and minister to the children.
I woke up the first morning that I was to meet the children with no sign of jet-lag nor symptoms of the allergies that I had a few days before my departure from New York. My trip began with little miracles like that and continued thus. The next miracle was the seventeen year old girl who was to be my translator. Her name was Vanya*. Vanya was on a break from school before she continues on to the University next year. She was recruited to assist on this trip by our main foreign partner on this trip, Senya*.
Senya and Meg* warmly greeted one another at the airport, like the old friends they were. Friends whose bonds were created by their shared love of the Lord and mission to make a difference for the kids who had touched their heartstrings some twenty years ago. The kids may have changed but not the ungoing needs of those group homes. Senya handled all the ******* side details and Meg was his American counterpart. What were some of those details?
On his part, Senya works with the three group homes to arrange a visitation schedule. He then makes our hotel and dinner reservations. He helps us shop at the local markets to get the best prices for all the supplies that we buy for the children. This included school supplies, toiletries and daily lunch food that we brought to share with the children. He translated all of our sermons. That would have been enough but, Senya did much more on this trip. He was more like a father to everyone.
He worked harder than anyone no matter what the task was. It could be to make gift bags for the kids (which we handed out on the last day). He jumped out of our van to open or close gates whenever necessary like a man half his age. He knew every hotel and staff member of the homes and fostered godly relations with them all. Best of all, Senya truly loved the children that he served. He visited them regularly and consistently. This was not easy for him due to poor health and travel difficulties.
NEXT WEEK: My First Missions Trip - Part 2 - Meet the Kids!
*the story is true but the names are changed.
*******- the country that I visited.
