10 Years an Overseas Missionary

On this day, 10 years ago, I was making the final preparations for what was at the time the beginning to the greatest adventure yet.

Anyone ever feel like they have heard their calling from the Lord, but hadn’t yet received the green light?

That was me two years prior. I had been a believer for 2 years and shortly after accepting Christ, I left for my first mission trip to the DR, actually it was my first mission trip ever. I didn’t even really understand what missions was, and why I was on the trip, but God knew.

He planted a seed in me that would continue to be watered for 2 years on mission trips to the DR and for an additional year, where I literally prayed every.single.day that God would open the door for me to work with GO. A year later my prayers were answered.

I worked first in Louisville at the headquarters for 2 months. The President and his family took me into their home and loved me well, and began showing me what it meant to give yourself over to something much much larger than yourself. I still look back on those two months with such fondness in my heart for this very special family.

Then May 23, 2007 came. I was $1200 a month short on my monthly budget. I had a meeting with a family the night before and they pledged $500 a month. I was blown away, but still $700 short and I had one meeting left and a plane to board in 48 hours. Everything seemed to be against me that day. The morning of, I got a flat tire on the way to the meeting and had to have the car towed and borrow one from someone else, making me significantly late for the meeting. However, this was no ordinary meeting. It was a divine appointment. My best friend’s mom wanted to take us to the spa! And it was there after having massages and sitting in the sun room eating caesar salads that she told me she wanted to bring me here to bless me with me a good massage before I left and that she felt God moving her to support me at $700 a month. Say whaaaaaaaat? Yes, this is how our God works. Less than 48 hours before I would begin my journey in a foreign land that he called me to, and he would provide to the exact dollar amount I needed financially.

I packed my two little suitcases and a carry-on and two days later I boarded a plane bound for the Dominican Republic that would change my life forever. The beautiful people of the DR and Haiti have changed me forever.

There have been so many high mountain top experiences while serving with GO, and several valleys as well. You can’t climb to the top without first starting lower on the mountain, sometimes a straight climb out of the valley floor.

Last fall, it felt like I fell off the mountain completely, wind knocked out of me, not sure if my broken heart could be brought back to life, but I am slowly beginning to climb that mountain again. I am working my way to the top, though it will take time, I am choosing to stop along the way with great celebration as I look down and see how high he has brought me, and with great determination I pray his strength carries me back to the top.

I know we never stay at the top, but oh the view, the smell, the joy, the sense of accomplishment for what he has done. I know someday he will allow me back to the top as I slowly climb. For today, I choose to celebrate where he has me and where he has brought me from, drinking from the well of living water as I climb.

It has been a great honor, and joy to faithfully serve alongside of such brave-hearted men and women for 10 years with GO.  They have taught me so much about celebrating and mourning and all the moments in between as we have shared them all. They have shown me kindness, forgiveness, and what it means to die to our own expectations for our lives and how to open-handedly accept his will and plan, which undoubtedly is better than life.

This morning, as I look back over the journey of 10 years in the DR, I find myself deeply satisfied and full of joy and thankfulness. The Lord is good and his love endures forever.

A look back over 10 years of living in the DR!