Vision

This trip is the perfect example of thinking that I know how God is going to work…and then realizing that God’s ways are far above mine! Six months ago, writing a post about the vision for The Road Trip would have been a relatively easy task. Yet God has been rocking my world, turning it upside, and challenging me to see my life differently. So, as I sit down to write out the vision for the trip, I am finding it difficult to find words. Does that mean that I am lacking vision? Absolutely not. In fact, I have spent hours thinking, praying, and talking about this. Somehow, putting it into words in a post isn't as easy as I expected.

If I were to boil all those hours of thoughts and prayers down to one sentence, I would say the vision of the road trip is to spend a year intentionally focused on serving others and seeing the country that God chose as "my" country. 

Missions overseas is extremely important. God is doing amazing things around the globe! Yet that's not where I feel called during this season of my life. I love THIS country, MY country. And I want to serve here first. I want to minister to the struggling and broken in my own "backyard." After that, I will see where God leads!

What will the trip look like?

A lot of this "intentional serving" will happen through different non-profit organizations:
 There are multiple week-long retreats that Joni and Friends runs for families with kids who have disabilities or for wounded warriors who need a healing time away with their families. I am passionate about the chance to give these hurting people a chance to refresh and refocus. Joni and Friends also has regional offices that I will contact to see if there are any churches or families that need help for a night. There is another organization that has monthly respite nights for family with children who have disabilities. If the timing works, I would love to help them out too! Jill's House in Washington DC offers overnight respite care. At a minimum, I would love to see the facility and the ministry in action. If they have needs, lending a hand is definitely a possibility. :)
Another organization I would love to serve with is Habitat for Humanity, especially in the hospitality sector of what the operation. My body likely could not hold up to the heavy construction, but I would love to help out in a way that is possible for me!
Ronald McDonald houses and crisis pregnancy centers are some other likely possibilities that I am exploring. 

But more than that I want to spend this time available to God, listening to His directions and obeying. Over the past few years God has shown me countless times that true service is not something that I can create or force, but rather something that the Lord guides. I've had the chance to help a woman pay for a hotel room for her and her kids. I've bought food for a hungry man outside a store...actually more than once.... I've seen God use me to encourage and bless. It's one of the reasons I love where I live. People think I stayed in California because I fell in love with the weather. But, while I do like the weather, it's actually the people who kept me here. The people I know, but even more so the people I encounter around me. Hardly a day goes by when I do not see someone who is homeless. It keeps poverty and brokenness on the forefront of my mind. These instances force me out of my selfish bubble on a regular basis and draw me closer to the God I love. 

And that same driving reason that kept me in California after my graduation is the reason that I am going to leave California for a year...and see who else God wants me to reach.

The vision of the trip is to have an interruptible plan. To allow God to use me wherever I may be: a Joni and Friends retreat, DisneyWorld, or a gas station in the middle of no where. What will that fully look like? I would be foolish to say I clearly know. Gods plan will be so much bigger than mine.

So, as I said at the beginning, do I have a vision? Absolutely. Reaching the broken. Helping families who have children with disabilities find refreshment. Ministering to those in homelessness or poverty. Giving hope to families whose children are diagnosed with cancer. Loving whoever God shows me to love. 
Is it entirely something I understand? Nope. 
Am I excited to find out and have you share in the adventure? 100% YES



(Please note: although I used first person in this account, Alyssa and I have the same heart and have had many discussions about this together.)