The Call: Part 2

As stated in my last entry, I had the amazing opportunity to go on mission trips as a child.  When I was 12, I traveled with a group called King's Kids, which was a dance/worship team through a wonderful organization called Youth With A Mission. 

Now that I am an adult with children and have regular expenses, I can really see what a miracle it was that my mom made it possible for me to go on that trip.  We were 'American poor' at that time; meaning, we were not third world country poor, but we were still broke.  It seems that we didn't even have a regular pay check to live month to month by.  My mom was dating a man (who is now my step-dad), but she had spent the last two years prior to that financially struggling through single motherhood. 

When I heard about the trip, I knew it would take a miracle to be able to go, but I knew that God would provide.  After a car wash (or two), a soda can drive, and some donations from family and friends, the money was raised!

On this trip, my team traveled to Spain, Latvia, and Denmark.  Here are some memories from this trip in no particular numerical significance or order (now, remember, I was 12 at the time, so these are the things that were important in my 12 year-old brain):

1.  Some women in foreign countries do not shave their armpits.
2.  It's impossible for many people to drive slowly overseas.  If you want to cross the street as a pedestrian, you better run.
3. A Happy Meal in Denmark is outrageously priced, and chewing tobacco and ice cream made that country significantly wealthy.
4. Eel is tasty (a meal we had in Latvia).
5. The Baltic ocean coastline is beautiful!! It looks very much like the Oregon coast.
6. Cobblestone streets are amazing but your feet will be severely sore after walking on them for a day.
7. Toilet paper can be blue and it is the consistency of sandpaper everywhere else but America.  God bless the U.S.A.
8.  Some people still do not have bathrooms with running water that are attached to their houses (i.e. many people still use outhouses). 

Of course, these are observations that are not necessarily the gospel truth for everyone, but for some reason, my brain held onto these memories that were true for me at the time.

All jokes aside, the experience that really touched my life on that trip was visiting an orphanage.  I will never forget seeing the rooms full of babies and toddlers that were lying in cribs and waiting for someone to pick them up.  Many of them had decided to give up on crying, because that form of communication was of no use. There were too many babies for the workers to care for, so it was impossible to hold each baby when he cried. 

This was the first time in my life that I really focused on someone other than myself.  It was the first time that I took on a world view.  I knew that I had been through my own abuse as a young child, but in comparison, this seemed much worse. 

At 12 years old, I knew I had to grow up to make a big impact, but I also knew that someday I would.  I couldn't let those babies down.