Manila
Awhile back, I updated my status update to something like this: 'I need to stop looking at others' vacation pictures...' S, our missions coordinator at our church, commented about me taking a nice, warm vacation...in Manila (which is in the Philippines). I shrugged it off, saying I'd have no one to watch my boys. My mom chimed in, saying she would try to watch them.
Well...I looked more into the trip. I felt a stirring (a calling?), especially after talking to my friend J, who is also going on the trip (and had been the only girl signed up). Then my mom couldn't watch the boys. My MIL couldn't watch the boys. So I thought, 'never mind, it's just not my time.'
Then our pastor preached one of his sermons on Daniel - no compromise, no excuses. It really hit me during the service that I was making excuses. My children aren't infants any more; they can survive without me. If Biggest Loser contestants' children can live without them for 3 months, then mine can live without me for nine days.
I worked out a quick plan in my head during the service. Big A would take the two Mondays and the Friday off of work to stay with the boys. Then another friend J had previously said if I wanted to go on a missions trip, she would help with my boys. Her husband is going to Manila with us, too, so I hesitated to ask her but I'm so thankful I did. She is wonderful with our boys and would really only have them from 7-5 with Moose going to school from 12-3 and Squirt napping from at least 1-2.
So from April 22-April 30 I will be taking on the biggest adventure of my life, so far. Well, I don't know about biggest but definitely the most different. I will be totally relying on God because this is completely out of my comfort zone. We've always talked about going on missions trips but ones where we would be "we" not "me."
I have only ever left my children 3 days and 2 nights one time. Ever. I have only left the country for a brief visit to a tourist trap in Mexico with my college softball team my freshman year of college. I have only left my husband for a week (well, he has left me for a week for work). I have never left my children with a friend, even a trusted one, for 3 days (not the nights but still).
I'm now more excited because TWO of my good girl friends, J and K, are coming on the trip, too! It's really going to be a wonderful time of growth. I'm excited to work with the women of the church we'll be visiting. The church has 150 members, 2 of them men! Wow. So our main goal will be to build relationships with these women and the lay pastor (who is a woman). I'm humbled because this task will be large and really important, but literally 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'
Please be praying as I prepare for this trip. Be praying for the Lord to prepare my heart to leave my family and spend time with these strangers, these other sisters in Christ. Be praying for my family, for my husband and my children. They'll get along just fine without me (I think the house will be cleaner with me gone!), but they'll miss me. Be praying for the rest of the team: our head pastor, our pastor intern, one gentlemen, K and her husband, J, and myself. That we just prepare ourselves the best we can to do God's work.
Well...I looked more into the trip. I felt a stirring (a calling?), especially after talking to my friend J, who is also going on the trip (and had been the only girl signed up). Then my mom couldn't watch the boys. My MIL couldn't watch the boys. So I thought, 'never mind, it's just not my time.'
Then our pastor preached one of his sermons on Daniel - no compromise, no excuses. It really hit me during the service that I was making excuses. My children aren't infants any more; they can survive without me. If Biggest Loser contestants' children can live without them for 3 months, then mine can live without me for nine days.
I worked out a quick plan in my head during the service. Big A would take the two Mondays and the Friday off of work to stay with the boys. Then another friend J had previously said if I wanted to go on a missions trip, she would help with my boys. Her husband is going to Manila with us, too, so I hesitated to ask her but I'm so thankful I did. She is wonderful with our boys and would really only have them from 7-5 with Moose going to school from 12-3 and Squirt napping from at least 1-2.
So from April 22-April 30 I will be taking on the biggest adventure of my life, so far. Well, I don't know about biggest but definitely the most different. I will be totally relying on God because this is completely out of my comfort zone. We've always talked about going on missions trips but ones where we would be "we" not "me."
I have only ever left my children 3 days and 2 nights one time. Ever. I have only left the country for a brief visit to a tourist trap in Mexico with my college softball team my freshman year of college. I have only left my husband for a week (well, he has left me for a week for work). I have never left my children with a friend, even a trusted one, for 3 days (not the nights but still).
I'm now more excited because TWO of my good girl friends, J and K, are coming on the trip, too! It's really going to be a wonderful time of growth. I'm excited to work with the women of the church we'll be visiting. The church has 150 members, 2 of them men! Wow. So our main goal will be to build relationships with these women and the lay pastor (who is a woman). I'm humbled because this task will be large and really important, but literally 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'
Please be praying as I prepare for this trip. Be praying for the Lord to prepare my heart to leave my family and spend time with these strangers, these other sisters in Christ. Be praying for my family, for my husband and my children. They'll get along just fine without me (I think the house will be cleaner with me gone!), but they'll miss me. Be praying for the rest of the team: our head pastor, our pastor intern, one gentlemen, K and her husband, J, and myself. That we just prepare ourselves the best we can to do God's work.
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