Zimbabwe

I am Zimbabwe bound!

I'll be travelling with a team of 15 people in April to work in an HIV orphanage.

Am I scared? Yes, but choose not to be stopped or controlled by it. I am afraid of leaving family, afraid of asking people for support and am afraid of all the unknowns involved in a trip such as this.

What will I be doing? Working in an orphanage, serving food at feeding stations, and assembling and distributing wheelchairs.

Am I raising support? Yes! I will be trying to raise at least $2,600 for myself, my team and our project.

Will we be paying for some of the costs? Yes, but we will send support letters to family and friends. We believe that everyone should serve the poor and the fatherless. I am lucky enough to actually go, but know that asking for prayer and donations gives others an opportunity to join me in serving.

How long will I be gone? 10 days

Does it bother me to leave my daughter and husband for such a long time? Yes, it will be VERY hard. More than anything though, I want to model service for my daughter. I don't think that 10 days away from her mom will harm our girl in anyway. Someday, I hope that she'll see that her mommy believed that we truly are called to be the hands of feet of Christ to the hurting people of the world. I want her to know my heart, and this type of work IS MY HEART. Teaching this to our daughter is of the utmost important to us. 10 days will fly by, and I will quickly be back at home on mommy and wife duty.

Why not serve people in the USA? We are called to care for the hurting, the hungry, widows and the fatherless everywhere. We do what we can locally, and constantly try to increase the giving of our time and money. We have been abroad though and KNOW that poverty here doesn't compare. Our hearts burn for those in extreme poverty. We are incredibly patriotic, but don't feel as though an imaginary line drawn around one piece of land makes one group of people more important than another.

Am I excited? More than I can describe! I feel blessed to have such an incredible opportunity.

Have I done a mission trip before? Yes, Mark and I built houses in Mexico while in college, and then I travelled to Belize several years ago to work in medical clinics.

How was I impacted by these trips? After crossing just over the border into Mexico, we saw families living in tiny cardboard shacks, toddlers selling goods on busy streets and kids walking through dirt, rocks and glass without shoes. We are not the same, and have longed to return. We had NO idea what a life of wealth that we had been living.

Is this the first of many future mission trips? You bet! We hope to do this regularly and eventually would like to take our entire family.

If you'd like to be on my support team, please let me know. We'll need your prayers first and foremost, and will also need financial support.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah 6:8