I have been on several mission trips in my life - to the Dominican Republic as a teenager, to Romania to teach English at a church camp, to Alaska to help and serve in practical ways at a Bible Camp, and recently to Jamaica. The trip to Jamaica was the first time that my husband and I had been able to travel together out of the country to serve. I was looking forward to it, but - as with so many things these days - the cares of this life, the daily "grind", and all of life's many demands were making it very hard to let go and leave.
I faced the trip with trepidation. There are areas of Jamaica that the US State Department have declared very unsafe. A dear, trusted friend of ours who is a police officer in the Caribbean warned us to be "extremely careful." Getting help lined up for my family, for my dogs, for work...it was just all very overwhelming.
And then I went. :-)
The trip to Jamaica was supposed to be about building a home for a Jamaican man. It was supposed to be about "being the change" in the world in the name of Jesus. It was supposed to benefit others. All of that was true, but the most significant part of it for me was "being changed." I came home with a new heart and a sensitivity for how God may want to use me in the future. He changed me. I am so thankful for the opportunity to go. I am thankful for the people I met, the people I worked alongside, and the for the ways that God expanded my heart.
When God calls you, please consider going. It may change your life!