Answering the Call in Latvia

Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.


Back in April I was listening to WCSG on the radio like I do every morning.  On that morning the DJs were talking about a mission trip to Latvia through Orphan Outreach and I thought "Wow, how often do you hear about mission trips to Latvia" and wouldn't have given it much more thought except that God had begun to whisper to me. What was He whispering?  "Go to Latvia."  And by the end of the week, that whisper was a shout "GO!"  

I have always admired missionaries and people who traveled to foreign countries to spread God's Love but had never in a million years thought God would want me to go.  I mean, me, of all people!  How could or would God ask me to go when I am so unsophisticated and such a horrible public speaker?  Me, who has severe anxiety and has to struggle to go to the grocery store!  But God wasn't taking any excuses.  

When I applied to WCSG to join their mission group, a part of me was hoping my application would not be approved, the same with the interview, and when it came to fund raising.  But all along the way, God did the impossible, making this mission trip a reality.  And each step of the way, God gave me the strength to move forward.  

Even up to boarding the plane, I was hoping something would happen and something did, God provided me the strength to get on that plane, to continue on to Latvia.  And my life has been forever changed.

Before I went on this trip, I had no real idea of how difficult life can be.  The children we met are like most children around the world, they like to play with Lego's, playing board games, and just being kids but their lives are so much harder than any child's life should be.  So many of them come from single parent homes and live in what can only be described as slums.  They do not have access to private bathrooms, and in some cases, their kitchens are not much more than a hot plate.  The things we take for granted as part of our every day lives are riches to them.  Even something as simple as a place to go for privacy is a convenience they are not afforded.  

And these children are thirsty!  They are thirsty to know they are loved and cared for, that there is a better hope than what their current lives can provide.  Which is exactly why we went!  We went to show these children and to a small extent their families, a love that is beyond our comprehension.  And they drank it up, even those children who started out "difficult" were thawed by the love of God.  

But for every bit of love we gave to the children, we received so much more.  By the end of the week, I knew what it was like to be crushed by love for another human, to want to give more of myself than I have ever done before.  I felt my heart break in a way it has never been broken before, not for my own hurts, but for the hurts of children who have been born into a life I could never comprehend.  

Now that the trip is over and I sit comfortably in my living room, the kids are still very present in my mind.  I hear their laughter, see their precious little faces, and am comforted by their hugs but I am also stuck.  I am stuck with "what now God?".  I know that this mission trip is not the end of an experience but rather God's way of moving me forward but forward to what.  I pray and will continue to pray that God uses this experience to help me better serve His Kingdom.  To help me step more outside of myself to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter what that may look like.