Back in November I decided to go to a mission meeting at my church. The Church of Eleven22. www.coe22.com They take many trips throughout the year and two were calling my name. Jamaica and Brazil. Both interested me but for different reasons and I wanted to find out more information because I felt it was time for me to head on a mission trip within the next year.
Here is a little info on what I knew about both trips/destinations:
Jamaica:
First I have been to Jamaica and not just the touristy part of Jamaica but the real parts of Jamaica that are poor and where people struggle to have housing, jobs, shoes, medical care etc... I was there as a tourist at the time but one of the excursions we went on was up in the mountains to zipline and to get there we saw much more of what the 'real' Jamaica was like. So for that reason going on a trip to Jamaica for a mission trip interested me. The other reason is that I heard that my pastor (Joby Martin) was leading one of the two Jamaica trips at that time and I was interested in also getting to know our pastor and growing in my faith with him. This trip was scheduled for late May 2013.
Brazil:
Brazil was heading on their trip a bit later in the year and would be more expensive, but was partnering with Compassion International which interested me as well. I currently sponsor two Compassion children and had recently volunteered at a Compassion Experience at my church and so this was also pulling on my heart. The other reason I wanted to head to Brazil was... BECAUSE IT IS BRAZIL! I have never been to Brazil and it is in my top 5 places to visit. I have never been to South America at all so this trip really interested me, especially working with Compassion and kids which I love both.
So now comes the mission meeting. This meeting was for the two different Jamaica trips as the Brazil trip was not having an info meeting for two more months. I find out there are two different trips at two different times going to Jamaica. (I had no clue which one Pastor Joby is leading) We had an option for Trip A (I honestly can't remember what the focus was but more evangelical which scared the poop out of me) and Trip B which was a medical based trip. The trip for medical assistance pulled at me hard and basically had taken over my mind and my heart within minutes of hearing about both trips. At this point I still had no idea who was leading the trip and as some of you may know....I am a nursing school drop out so why would I want to help on a medical mission trip! I can say that I am not one to shy away from the sick ,or from blood, or anything like that and I tend to have a strong focus, compassion, and patience under extreme situations including medical ones and I just felt this is what was for me. God definitely spoke to me basically just saying JAMAICA!!!! JAMAICA!!!! MEDICAL!!!! MEDICAL!!!!! and repeat until I listened!
So I listened, I signed up and paid my $100 deposit the next day and was ready to go to Jamaica right then!
So the journey begins!
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