This summer I have the amazing opportunity to go on a missions trip to Ireland! To say that I’m excited would be an understatement. Before you say it, no, it’s not because its Ireland. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the fact that I get to travel to Europe in twenty days is super cool and a dream come true. However, the reason I’m excited is because missions is what I LOVE to do!

Back in the summer of 2015 while I was in Nicaragua, my first out of state missions trip, I fell in love with missions. I know this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you the “aha” moment. You know, the moment where I was like “Wow I love missions. I want to do this forever”. To be honest, I don’t think I really had one moment, because the entire trip was that for me. We were working with Castillo del Rey, which is an organization that focuses on kids ministry. For four days we did four back to back programs during some of the hottest days of the summer. We’d leave at 9AM and sometimes not be back till 10PM. There were mosquitoes, my muscles were in pain from all the dancing, I had dirt/sand all over me, and I was tired. All of that should have had me running to go back home (or I guess flying). My flesh wanted to give up multiple times. Sometimes the kids only wanted the prizes and candy, so while we were busy sweating our guts out and bleeding from doing dramas on the rocky pavements; you could see kids talking and messing around you. I definitely wanted to say “PEACE OUT!”  however, during those same moments of frustration I also realized that this is probably the only time these kids and even the surrounding adults, ever heard the name Jesus; and I’m complaining because I’m hot? Needless to say God gave me a good talking to and I sucked it up.  I began to do everything with this mindset: if this is the only chance these kids will feel loved, safe, and hear about their Creator, then I’m going to give it my all because I already know the Truth and my purpose on this missions trip is to share and believe that those seeds will stick and grow. Once my mindset changed, that is when my heart broke for missions. By the end of the trip I didn’t want to leave. 

I can’t remember if it was during the last service or on the plane trip back home where I made a promise to God that I would always go on a missions trip every summer. Saying this scared me because that meant I had to trust God in always providing for those trips every year. Fast forward three years however, I can say I’ve been on two other missions trips (Ireland will be my third) making it five missions trips in total from the age of 19-24 and I don’t see me stopping anytime soon!

Stepping out in faith and giving God my desires is maybe a scary thing to do. However, because I trusted God, He has now led me to become an intern for “The Voice” where one of my tasks is to help out with The Voice’s missions trips ! Can you talk about full circle? The thing about loving what yo do is saying you are going to give God full ownership of your dreams and let him take you to new levels. For me its missions and ministry, for you it can be something entirely different; but if I’ve learned anything so far, its this: just step out, find out what you’re passion is, give it God fully, and watch him move.

Kathy Vega