Spring Break in the Caribbean

Some people may have heard this by now, others not. I'm going to Trinidad and Tobago for Spring Break with Campus Crusade for Christ. I'm pretty excited about this. Well, parts of this. I'm not looking forward to support raising (let's face it, no one does). I'm considering adopting a new support raising strategy. Instead of going back to my parent's mailing list and asking people I don't really know for money, I'd ask people whose numbers are in my phone (so, if I call you in the next month or so, there's probably an ulterior motive). Every time I've gone on a mission trip in the past support raising has been relatively easy; I had only to motivate myself to write a letter and address envelopes. But this time around, since it could possibly be my last time around, I thought I might try to stretch myself, reach outside of my comfort zone.

That actually played a large part in my decision on where to go for spring break, New Orleans being the other option. That would have been the easy option. I went to Pass Christian, Mississippi in October of 2005 (wow, has it been that long?), and frankly, it was comfortable. Yeah, we were sleeping in a church parking lot under a big tent, and yeah, the port-a-potties smelled bad, and yeah, we ate FEMA food the whole time, and yeah, I was covered in dirt from head to toe, but I actually kind of enjoy that stuff (except the port-a-potty). It was easy. I didn't really have to talk to people, and I could swing an axe and that is what I was there for. So going to New Orleans this time around would have been more of the same.

But I didn't want "more of the same". I wanted to give God the chance to stretch me. I wanted the chance to trust God with something because there was no way I could get through it on my own. In New Orleans it would be the strength of my own muscle that propelled my service. In Trinidad there is no way I can rely on my own resources to get anything done.

So I'm nervous about Trinidad. Only adding to that nervousness is the fact that I am the oldest of four girls going on this trip. The oldest. There aren't any staff ladies going this time around. So I'm getting the feeling that Trinidad is going to be a whole lot of me relying on God to get me through it. That's probably a good thing.