“Here I am! Send me” - Isaiah 6:8

Saturday July 18 -   We made it!  The moment we stepped off the plane, the blazing sun, the humid air, and the intense heat instantly brought back memories of my childhood in Taiwan. The crowded airport with no air conditioning was a reminder that this is real!

It is our first short-term mission trip, and honestly, we have no idea what we could really do. We are not especially talented. We don’t have much physical strength. And to make things even harder, we can’t even speak the language. So why are we here?

Little did we know that God would answer that question Himself.

A few weeks earlier, everyone had packed more than a dozen boxes of donated supplies—school supplies, daily necessities, and a special shipment of the four Gospels printed in Spanish. Different team members helped bring the boxes over. We had been told that customs hardly ever checked our luggage because this mission team comes every year. Well... this time was different. We got stopped.

As the customs officer opened the boxes, he asked if we spoke Spanish. I managed to squeeze out a weak Spanish, "No." He started digging through the boxes and then began typing very seriously on his phone. Terry and I looked at each other, thinking, If this turns into a problem, our mission trip might be over before it even begins.

But when he turned his phone around, I was deeply moved. Do you know what he had typed into the translation app? …. “May I have a Bible? And could I also have a box of crayons for my daughter?"

Before we had done anything at all, the Holy Spirit was already at work.

We are so quick to focus on our own limitations, our lack of ability, our lack of strength, and what we can't do. But we forget that our strength comes from the Lord. Our part is simply to obey His calling, follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and be ready to say,

"Here I am, Lord. Send me!" - Betty (& Terry)