Stories From the Field
Kenya Trip, Derrick Collard
Kenya was the best experience of my life. Never have I had to rely more on the power of God for everything. There were a number of occasions where I found myself out of my comfort zone when the only way to succeed was to be fully reliant on God and boy did He show up!
I was given an opportunity to work with people that I had always dreamed of working with, and they are an amazingly resilient group of people. I saw people in the most desperate of situations that had more joy and hope than people whom I've met in the suburbs of America. I fell in love with the people of Kenya because I gained the heart of the One that I love and Kenya will always have a piece of my heart.
Swaziland Trip, Allie Williams
The first short-term trip I took was to Swaziland, Africa in the fall of 2008. Through a series of events, people, and relationships, the Lord used this trip to show me where true happiness is found, ultimately wrecking my desire for a “normal/successful life”. I recall a specific ministry day from the trip when I was in a hospital in town. I was walking through the women’s ward and stopped at the bedside of a very sick elderly woman. I smiled at her and she grabbed my hand with the little strength she had. I hesitate to say she smiled back up at me, because smile does not do this action justice. She smiled with every essence of her being. I was overwhelmed by the exchange of love moving between us, and how much this woman was overjoyed that someone would simply stop and acknowledge her. At that moment, as my soul filled with the love of Christ and was amazed by the power of his love, I was able to think back to that person I used to be and the things I desired before the trip. Everything I could think of paled to the intimacy of Christ, and the relationships he had orchestrated with the children and people in Swaziland. It was on this trip that the Lord shaped my primary desire into following him all over the world—going and being the hands and feet of Jesus to the hopeless, that they might know that they are not in fact forgotten.
Kenya Trip, Derrick Collard
Kenya was the best experience of my life. Never have I had to rely more on the power of God for everything. There were a number of occasions where I found myself out of my comfort zone when the only way to succeed was to be fully reliant on God and boy did He show up!
I was given an opportunity to work with people that I had always dreamed of working with, and they are an amazingly resilient group of people. I saw people in the most desperate of situations that had more joy and hope than people whom I've met in the suburbs of America. I fell in love with the people of Kenya because I gained the heart of the One that I love and Kenya will always have a piece of my heart.
Swaziland Trip, Allie Williams
The first short-term trip I took was to Swaziland, Africa in the fall of 2008. Through a series of events, people, and relationships, the Lord used this trip to show me where true happiness is found, ultimately wrecking my desire for a “normal/successful life”. I recall a specific ministry day from the trip when I was in a hospital in town. I was walking through the women’s ward and stopped at the bedside of a very sick elderly woman. I smiled at her and she grabbed my hand with the little strength she had. I hesitate to say she smiled back up at me, because smile does not do this action justice. She smiled with every essence of her being. I was overwhelmed by the exchange of love moving between us, and how much this woman was overjoyed that someone would simply stop and acknowledge her. At that moment, as my soul filled with the love of Christ and was amazed by the power of his love, I was able to think back to that person I used to be and the things I desired before the trip. Everything I could think of paled to the intimacy of Christ, and the relationships he had orchestrated with the children and people in Swaziland. It was on this trip that the Lord shaped my primary desire into following him all over the world—going and being the hands and feet of Jesus to the hopeless, that they might know that they are not in fact forgotten.