Reflecting on the past...

So I've been thinking about my past mission trips as I think about IF Ben and I did go into missions, where would I want to go? Of course, this is a decision we would make together, but as I'm the thinker and he's not... I'm sure he's not even thinking about this right now as we're not going anywhere at least for the next two years (finishing school and stuff blah blah blah). So anyway, I've been on three mission trips. The first one was in 2005 with Operation Barnabas. It was an in-country mission trip, and my team travelled to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa. From it, I learned that I don't think church ministry is my passion. If I was involved in church ministry, I would definitely want to help with the youth group. I love teenagers!

In 2006, I went with Teen Missions International to Malawi, Africa. This was definitely the best summer of my life. I can't say that I feel called to Africa for life (although I'm open to it), but Africa is truly an amazing place. They have so many corrupt things about them (although Malawi is generally one of the better African countries... we did see some Spirit worshipping though)... but the people are just so content and happy. I loved hearing them sing more than anything else. I also could not believe how generous they were in letting us do things before them, when things such as getting water was their LIFE. It's so sad how many orphans are in Malawi, and in Africa in general. AIDS is just wiping out their population.


In 2007, I went to Wales in the UK. I've always been interested in going here because I have family from this country. It's a beautiful, beautiful country.... but also a very lost place. I would assume it's pretty close to the US, but the people I met there who were Christians had a distorted view of what being a Christian meant. Sooo many people have messed up families because of drugs and divorse. The lady below had gotten into some really bad things, and so I met her at Save the Family, an organization we worked with in Wales. They help save families who have fallen apart from things like drugs. Isn't her daughter adorable? She loved her more than anything. My heart was broken for these people, but I don't know.... I'm not sure how to reach them. It's such a challenge.

There are so many things I can do and so many places I can go. If Ben and I go into missions, I would love for him to be able to use his construction knowledge. He's so good at it. I'm really interested in human and sex trafficking and think it would be amazing to help out victims of this (but also very hard).

Well, that's all my rambling. btw, it's been snowing ALL morning. Please let it GO AWAY!