Why you should send your kid on a missions trip

Our daughter began taking missions trips at the age of 14.  Out of country.  I hear this statement a lot:  " I would NEVER let my kid do that!  How did you do it??"

When Elyse came home telling us God had told her to take a missions trip out of country - my response was this:  "Well - must be nice - but God didn't tell me that."  Then my wise husband said "don't you think we ought to at least PRAY about it honey?"  Hmm.  Really honey?  PRAY about a MISSIONS trip? What a foreign concept ;)

Most of you have heard the story of how it came to be - but since that time, Elyse has been to 8 countries.  She has been on trips for as short as a week and as long as 2 months.  She can handle airport security and border crossings better than I can.  She is now at North Central University studying to become a full time missionary.

The biggest potential mistake I could have made as a parent boils down to that one decision.  I kid you not.  Telling her no could have changed the course of her life.  My fear could have prevented my daughter, at least for a time, from becoming all God called her to be.

When we were contemplating sending our 14 year old daughter half way around the world, a wise friend said this to me:

I will never stand in the way of what God wants to do in the lives of my children.

I have never forgotten those words.  It was those words that held me together when I dropped my daughter off at the airport, sent her to Dallas, TX for training, helped me as the people who were supposed to pick her up at the airport didn't show and I was 1500 miles away, watched the plane tracker track her flight across oceans, time zones, continents.  It was those words that kept me strong when she came to me time and time again and said "now God is telling me to go here or there".  It was those words that bounced off the back of my brain when she informed me God was calling her to full time missions in a place you can't legally be a missionary.  It will be those words that I cling to the day her dreams come true and she lands on the foreign soil she's been preparing for since the age of 14.

Now it's time for number 2 to begin his missionary journey.  Next summer, he'll head to Guatemala with us and Lord willing, if the youth group goes, to Haiti.  I don't know where God will take him from there - but I know sending our children on missions trips has been the best decision we could have made in our lives.

There are many reasons to send your kid on a missions trip - let me just give you a few.

First, and most importantly, in Mark 16:15, Jesus tells his disciples (msg) "Go into the world.  Go everywhere and announce the message of God's good news to one and all."  Don't you like to hear good news?  Isn't good news the best?  Jesus tells us - not just people over 20 or over 30 or whatever - but he tells ALL of us - young and old - to GO.  Go and tell.  Go into ALL the world - EVERYWHERE.  We let them go - because Jesus commanded it.  Plain and simple. 

Second - it breaks their heart.  Maybe this sounds like a BAD reason and not a good one - yet - sometimes when our hearts are broken, we are the most pliable in God's hands.  There is something almost magical (not magical - don't jump all over me!) about missions trips.  Something about going and doing what God has commanded - stepping out in faith - that opens us up to God even more.  Something about going and being used by Him that draws us closer to His feet.  Isn't that what you want for your child?  To sit longer, gaze harder, into the eyes of Jesus?

Third - it gives them a broader perspective.  It opens their eyes to all of God's creation.  It teaches them how to eat foods they would have otherwise turned their nose up to.  It helps them to learn to trust in God for finances to go.  It shows them how to love all people regardless of race, color or creed.  It gets them out of the box of their local environment.  Again - everyone needs to hear the gospel - maybe YOUR child is the one God has called to give it to someone.  Have you thought about that?  That God has prepared your child to be the one to give the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ?  That maybe your child is the perfect one, with the perfect words, to open someones eyes to all Jesus has done for them?  Your child is called!  Let them go and preach the good news!

Fourth - it makes them thankful.  Thankful for their beds, thankful for the food on their table, thankful for their parents, thankful for their countries.  Thankful.  Lord knows we can all use a more thankful kid!! 

Finally - you never know what God is doing in their lives, in their hearts - for their futures.  You never know what sending your child on a missions trip will do.  Maybe, like Elyse, they will want to pursue a life as a full time missionary.  Maybe they see the need for shelter for people in a foreign country and go on to become carpenters that go and build homes.  Maybe they see how education could help keep people from poverty so they become a teacher.  Maybe they fall in love with an orphan and go open an orphanage or adopt a child here in America.  Maybe they see a need and will grow up with the financial means to give.  You don't know - but God does.  Don't block that for them - allow them to go.

I know this has been a long one and thank you for listening.  If your child ever comes and asks you to go - send them.  Yes, of course, check and check well into the organization they are going with.  And yes - it was very hard - very, very hard.  It's not easy raising the money, it's not easy putting them on the plane, it's not fun to worry.  You'll cry - a lot.  Yet - it's not about you - it's about what God wants to do in and through your child.  Don't let your fear stand in the way of what God has for them.

Guatemala Bound (Se dirigió a Guatemala)

I used Google translate with Guatemala Bound and got "Guatemala Limite" (can't make the little mark of the first i, sorry) - and that's not exactly what I was trying to say.  That would be more like, well, literally, Guatemala limited - using bound as in tied up instead of headed to.

WHEW - anyway - so Se dirigio (again, I don't know how to type the accent) was a little lesson for me.  I didn't know that word (dirigio) yet.

Anywho.  Here's the whole point.  Thought I would share what was going on in this aspect of our lives.  Little bit of a surprise, even for me.

If you've known us for any length of time, you know we long, dream, and can't wait, to be on the mission field full time.  There are times the dream seems soooooooo distant.  It's heart breaking to think of what we are called to be, yet we are still here - a long way from where I thought God wanted us to be.  Sometimes I question God, wondering how long we have to suffer for our past mistakes, and just try to learn what it is He must still have us to learn.

The point is - sometimes God throws a little surprise and this is one of those things.

Never once in my whole missions heart have I ever had even a spark of wanting to go to Central America.  Yes, my husband is semi-fluent in Spanish, yes, I have a good base - but I never had any kind of desire to go to a Spanish speaking country.  My heart has always been in Africa.  It's where I feel we're called to be.  But - something presented itself recently that's causing a bit of a "rift" in my walk.

Our Pastor called Marty up to see if he would be interested in leading a trip to Guatemala next year with a group called Champions in Action.  It would team up Marty's love of soccer, heart for missions, and fluency in Spanish.  Marty has ALWAYS had a desire to combine soccer and missions.  We met up with a wonderful couple who - well I'm not sure their title - they are the parents to the person who does these trips to Guatemala.  I think we spent an hour with them to talk about the possibility of us taking a trip with them to Guatemala.

I think Marty was probably ready to jump at it immediately - but I hesitated.  Again - never any desire to go to a Spanish speaking country.  I wasn't sure.  I didn't feel pulled, called, or anything.  We spent several days in prayer and Marty was feeling very led to go.  I still wasn't.  One day, God just gently reminded me that I was to follow my husband and allow him to take the spiritual lead.  I tend to be just a bit of a control freak so I knew that was a God-thought and not a Tami-thought - lol :)  So - I gave Marty the news and here we are.

No details as of yet, but we will take a trip, hopefully with some others, to Guatemala next summer around the end of June.  As soon as I have details - I'll let you know and will most likely have an informational type of blog about the trip.  We would love for you to come along.  Basically, it is my understanding we work with Champions in Action with 12-18 year old boys.  I think - but don't quote me - most of them are street kids.  They come to camp to learn soccer - and about God.  Soccer is the pull - God is the focus.  Champions in Action also connects the boys up with local resources to help them out.  United Way as well as several area churches are involved from what I understand.

So, you ask, where is my heart now?  Is it in Guatemala yet?  Not quite.  I'm still tossing this one around in my head honestly!!  Someone at church tonight said "I never saw you guys in Guatemala" - and I said "me neither!" and then she wisely said "but God will still move".

I think part of my problem is I can't believe it will really happen.  The cost for all 4 of us to go will probably exceed 5,000.  If you've been a reader of my blog for a while now, you know we had hoped to go to Ethiopia a few years back with Global Expeditions.  The cost then was 10,000.  We didn't even touch the surface.  I didn't understand God then.  I thought for sure He had called.  We are in a far worse financial situation now than we were then, and I can't wrap my head around being able to raise 5,000 for all of us to go.  That's one thing about us - we do everything as a family - and this will be no exception.  Maybe that's part of my hesitation - afraid to get my hopes up for something that may never happen.  And now we'll be in charge of a group of other people.  Fear of letting them down is as great as fear of letting myself down.  We've got a kid going to college this fall and as it is, I wonder where the money (and when) will come from for that - let alone to think about this.

However.  I will move forward.  I will follow my husband where he feels led to go.  I will sit back and watch God do His thing.  I will trust and He will lead.  I will work on my Spanish, learn the guitar (always thought it would be a good skill to have on missions trips!) and not doubt. Or at least, I'll work on that!  Prayfully, at this time next year, my heart will have been left with the people of Guatemala and I will be looking very forward to being with them again.

Not sure how Guatemala fits in with the whole African plan - but - God does.  We are called to go out into the world.  No matter what part of the world it is, God is there.  My job is to take His hand and walk alongside of Him and be amazed in his presence.  Nothing more, nothing less.