GO - Yvonne M Morgan

We hear so many excuses when we ask people to join us on one of our teams for a mission trip. Some of the excuses include reasons like:

I have no money
I have no vacation time
I am too old
I am too young
and others

I think everyone should experience at least one mission trip during their lifetime. God may not be calling you to a life on mission but He can change your life with one trip. Going on just one trip can open your eyes to God’s calling on your life. A mission trip can show you a world in desperate need of Christ. Any mission trip needs to be approached with prayerful consideration to ensure you are going in God’s timing but I believe everyone is called to go.

God is faithful to those that go. If you feel like you are being called to go on a mission trip, He will provide. So many times over the years, we have seen the Lord make the impossible happen. Prayer and discernment is the first essential step in this process. Once you are sure God wants you to go, then it is time to go without any excuses. We have never witnessed a person missing out on a trip because of lack of funds if God was truly calling them to go. And it has always been amazing to watch how a calendar will free up for those who are willing to follow the call to go. Trust God to remove the obstacles and watch what happens.

God does not discriminate based on age for mission work. In fact, God does not discriminate on any basis. The youngest person to go with us was 11 years old and the oldest was in her 80’s. The 80 year old went on a construction mission with us to Honduras. We knew that working on the construction site would be taxing for her especially with temperatures in the upper 90’s. We prayed about it and we all knew she was meant to go with us. Her job became our prayer warrior and “nurse” at the construction site. Each day, she would sit and pray for us as we worked in the heat. She would pray for the community around us and for the whole country. Her nurse duties included things like getting us water and wet towels to cool us down during our rest periods. She would also help put band-aids on our blisters. I don’t think the trip could have been so successful without her. God was faithful to provide for her because she was faithful to follow the calling to go.

We hear lots of other reason not to go including some that are health related. I have Celiac Disease which is an allergy to wheat and wheat products. If I eat something with wheat, I get major stomach distress and let’s just say I need to stay near a bathroom for a while. I became a Celiac soon after we starting going on mission trips. It is not any fun to be out in the middle of the African Savannah and have stomach problems. There are no bathrooms around to use. I have learned to swallow my pride at such times and find a nearby tree as a substitute. Sometimes, I think it would be so much easier to give up on mission trips because of these problems. But I know God has called me to this mission work so I continue. I am learning to thank God for all the times that there is a bathroom nearby when I need it. Celiac Disease also forces me to really think about what I eat no matter what country I visit. This can be a challenge to explain my problem to a world that does not speak English or that does not understand the word gluten. I manage and I survive by God’s grace and the rewards of our trips outweigh my tiny problems. God is good all the time.

Going on a mission trip is an amazing adventure with God. It is a chance to deeply feel His presence and watch Him at work in the world. It can be a scary time but the rewards are worth the cost. It is even worth more than all our excuses put together. It would be so easy for any of us to find excuses why not to go. But when you don’t GO, you are missing out on something special that God has planned just for you. God wants to show you His world. God wants you to meet your spiritual brothers and sisters all over His globe. God wants to show you how you can change His world for the better. It all starts with putting away your excuses, praying for God’s direction and timing, and then going.