Mother and Daughter on a Mission

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good"  (I Cor. 12:4-7)

As a high school youth, I went on several mission trips.  I will never forget - the first trip was to a spot in Maine - we were quarantined for a few days because one of the participants got measles - unheard of at the time!  However, I also installed a faucet, used power tools and hung sheet rock - also previously unheard of at the time!  In the ensuing years our group traveled to western Pennsylvania and South Carolina.  I helped put a roof on a house, pushed wheel barrows full of cement for a sidewalk, and helped build the foundation of a home that would house a victim of Hurricane Hugo.  It's been 25 years and the memories from these trips are still vivid in my mind.  I remember the elderly woman who did not have running water - and the mostly toothless smile she gave us when we turned on the faucet in her new bathroom.  I remember the small child who ran around the Habitat for Humanity worksite while his parents worked with us side-by-side on the house that would some day be their own.  They were life changing moments - faith in action that led to a leap in spiritual growth with every trip.  We were young and unskilled in every way imaginable - yet God still used us for the "common good".

Twenty-six years later, my teen age daughter and I will take a slightly bigger leap and take the same Spirit of mission to a global level.  We are off to Guatemala in July with an intergenerational group of fellow church members to begin what will hopefully be a long-term relationship with the village of la Cumbre. As the world has changed, so has the need increased for us to seek opportunities to connect face-to-face with people in different countries.  Technological advances have brought us pictures of conditions in which many people "live", but the overload of information can de-sensitize us to those conditions.  

Last summer, one of the women at our church gave a sermon where she asked "Who is our neighbor?".  My hope is that, after Kimberly and I present our physical selves for service and mission for La Cumbre, we will be spiritually changed in a way that upon our return we can bear witness to others to an increase in compassion for our neighbors, both near and far.

We'd love to share our journey, so we'll be posting updates here as we prepare for our trip.  Perhaps Kimberly will guest blog!  In the meantime, you can see details of our trip, the organization we will partner with, and the fundraising goal our team is hoping to reach here

We'd love your support as we seek to follow where God is leading us!