Fiji Mission Trip

I always hear people say when they come back from missions trips that it's themselves that are the ones that are transformed. Yes they mention the ways they served the people of the places they went to, but they always mention how it changed their thinking and helped them grow a lot. Now I know what they mean! It's such an awesome thing to see God's hand shaping and molding my life and ministry.

Leading up to the trip I'm not sure how prepared I was to go. There seemed to be a lot of busyness that I was experiencing. Or was it just overall lack of time-management? Maybe my expectations were tempered because I've done this trip 2 times before so I thought it would be the same as before. But God had a bigger plan.

God had a bigger plan.

One of the best things I received from the trip was seeing how God brought the team together. Each year since I've been helping with Celebrate Jesus the team has increased and this year was no exception. The team went from 5 to 11 to 24! I remember when I saw a picture of the team before I even left Seattle I felt some uneasiness both because the team would be huge and that I didn't know most of them. Would we get along? Would it be too much of a chore to get to know all these people? Will there be conflicts between members of the team? But God had a bigger plan.

When I arrived it was cool to see the team so willing to talk to me and get to know me. I immediately developed a good connection with them. But I think what made the connection stronger was through the way we were able to pray for each other. Throughout the time before the conference and even during it there was a lot of spiritual attacks on the group. Some had travel difficulties even getting to Fiji. There was weather issues during the conference. But the biggest thing was health attacks on a lot of the team. Practically every day we were gathering around a team member to pray against these attacks on their body. It was like the enemy was desperately trying to break our team apart. But God had a bigger plan.

Because we prayed together we became more and more reliant on God as well as each other. We leaned on each other. We cared for each other. This struggle that we all were going through actually brought us closer together. We rallied around each other. We became a team. 24 people from all across the world. Some knew each other but most of us didn't have much of a relationship going into the trip. Even for the ones that lived in Australia in proximity with each other. Yet we grew unbreakable bonds. I miss the team already. I miss those encouraging relationships. I'm hopeful that I'll see them again. CJ2014! God had a bigger plan all along. Praise God!

Another thing that God was teaching me was this idea that I need to not be so hesitant to step out of my comfort zone. From the beginning when Vince asked if I would do a message I backed down from some opportunities. I remember thinking about when we were praying for a wheelchair bound person I thought of my own paralyzed faith at times. How fear inhibits me from stepping out and speaking Your Word. Whether it just be a word of encouragement or something larger than that. We need to be bold. How could I have been selfish to not encourage that girl who was in the wheelchair? The only thing that was stopping me was fear of being looked at as foolish or wrong by other people.