A New Begining

As a college student, I am constantly hearing people talk about what they want to do with their life. That is, what profession they want to have when they leave school. But I want to ask you, what happens when the plan that you have set for your life doesn’t go exactly as well, planned? What happens when God calls you to something more?

Isn’t that what all missionaries experience at some point? They hear God telling them to put aside the mundane for a little while and try something extraordinary. I know that is what has happened to me, several times in fact. Now I could talk to you about the past several mission trips that I’ve done but I want to focus on the one that got me started. I want to tell you about the moment that I went from being just an average nineteen year old college student who cared about friends, work and school to being a hardcore servant of the Lord who was forever “wrecked for the ordinary”.

About three years ago I found myself sitting in my dorm sick of the world around me and what I considered the meaninglessness of everyday life. I was looking to do something extreme that would benefit others. That is when I decided to go on a one month trip to Brazil with a program called Cross Cultural Solutions. This trip involved me getting on a plane by myself, to travel to a completely foreign country by myself ,and move into a house with about twenty five total strangers by myself. I was terrified but I did it anyway because I knew that God had a plan for me and there was a reason for me to be there.

Not long after arriving in Brazil I was put with about seven other members of my team to work in an orphanage in the worst area of Salvador. We spent most of our mornings playing with the small children and babies there and we would help to cook, clean, do yard work, etc. The majority of my memories are of old nuns yelling directions at me in Portuguese. Needless to say as the fourth week neared its end I was feeling slightly stressed. I felt like the language barrier had kept me from having the kind of impact that I had planned. I was feeling like I hadn’t really benefited anyone from having been there.

But it was our very last day in the orphanage that God turned all that around. As we were saying our goodbyes I was holding my favorite little girl there, Nicole. She was about two and a half and extremely withdrawn. She would never seem to want to play like the other kids. Instead she would usually just sit in a corner and stare at the ground. I feel like most people tended to forget about her because she was so quiet. I made a special effort to try and show her one on one attention. I would sit in the corner with her and try to get her to play, laugh, smile, or do anything. But she never changed. After a while I started doing this thing everyday where­­ I would blow her a kiss as I said goodbye. On the last day as we got ready to leave I was feeling very depressed because I truly felt like my time there had been spent in vain. I put Nicole in her crib, told her I loved her and blew her a kiss goodbye. Right as I was turning to leave, she blew me one back! While I was standing there not knowing what to say, she gave me one of the biggest and most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. I knew in that moment what my purpose was for being there and in that moment I also knew what God’s purpose was going to be for the rest of my life, to love those who have been forgotten!