Due to my crazy schedule and book writing, I haven't been able to process all that's going on in my head, so until then I wanted to share with you a note I wrote in my journal and shared with my Missions Team at our debrief a few days ago.
These were my overall thoughts on the trip I took over spring break and the impact it has made on my life. enjoy!
"What I find so unique about the Portland trip is that we
weren’t abroad...
So many times by friends and others I was asked:
"If your spending all this money to “make a difference” why
not go somewhere completely different from what you know? Why not travel to some
place that is poverty stricken?
Portland doesn’t really need attention, does it??"
Let me be honest: until I actually WENT to Portland I didn’t really understand how much these people and this city DID need attention. The high rate of homelessness there was very apparent...
What really struck me though is that Portland is just a city.
It’s
just a place-like Rocklin, Sacramento, Roseville…
So why does it take some official title... why does it take
the phrase “Missions Trip” to be added to the end of this seemingly ordinary
city in order to get us to act?
Why does it take two words, “Mission Trip” to get us to open
our eyes to the problems surrounding us?
What would happen if we saw our whole life as a missions
trip?
Sacramento, Rocklin, Roseville: they all have their own set
of issues, struggles, and needs. Yet we keep our eyes so set on our own path
that we are guarded against the needs in our own cities. Our own workplaces.
Our own classrooms.
What would these places look like, what great benefits would
we be able to see, if we actively pursued the missions around us?
I saw this missions trip to Portland as an opportunity to
give back to others what I had been given… but why do I think that such giving
can only occur in the setting of a missions trip? Why do I feel like that title
obligates me to act, but everyday life doesn’t ?
We spent a week giving everything we had to people we have
never met- yet that person at work who is in the same office as you, or that
person who goes to class with you- We find those people ACCEPTABLE to skip over.
Let us work to give all of who we are to everyone we
come in contact with, regardless of the setting or the title “ missions trip”.
Let us give everything we have, even if its just a hug or an authentic
conversation, to those in need.
This type of giving is a risk. It could require
you to step out of your own circle of friends, it could require you to be five
minutes late to wherever you need to go that day-but its those sacrifices for
others that show our true character.
It's those sacrifices that speak louder
than any words that we can produce.
Let us learn to be missions minded in our day to day lives
too.
We need to learn what it really means to love and give and sacrifice
everyday not just when we have no other distractions to keep our attention.
Life
is not always going to allow us to dedicate an entire week solely to meeting
the needs of others. It is up to us whether or not we truly believe that we can
make a difference. And if we do in fact believe that we can, then it's up to us
to ACT on that-- wherever we are and with everyone we are given in our lives.
Everyone in the world has needs that can be met. Lets not wait on a title to tell us when its appropriate or okay to
act and meet those needs. Let us take the first steps from where we are at today. "
Thanks for listening Mom. I miss you every day.
Love Always and Forever
Your Daughter,
Britty
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