Okay, this is major, big time, scary, putting-it-all-in-God's-hands stuff for me. My journeys out of the U.S. thus far have included Canada, Bermuda, and the Bahamas.
Wow.
About 18 months ago, Jack, the soon-to-be 16-year-old boy I sponsor in Peru wrote that his father had died and that his father's family then made him, his mother, and his sister leave their home. He told me that he was very sad and lonely and asked if I had ever had to go through anything like that in my life. I wanted to rush to Peru and hug him then. At that time, he was my correspondent child, but shortly after that, his sponsor dropped him, so of course, I had to pick him up. He had already lost so much. He still writes that he misses his father and is very sad.
I have always thought it would be amazing to join a sponsor tour, but my mindset is that things like that are always for other people. There's no way I should ever spend that much money to go on trip. It will never work out for me. Really awesome stuff like that isn't meant for me.
I decided if I could ever visit someone, it would be Jack because he is my oldest child. Then the letter about his father and the following letters have made me want to visit him even more.
So I decided to pray.
Recently, a friend from OurCompassion asked me if I would ever want to join her on a sponsor tour. I asked her which countries we have in common (our sponsorships), and she said, "Only Peru." Well, not only is it Peru, but it's the exact same project in Peru.
However, there were no trips to Peru planned for 2012 at that time . . . well, not that we knew about.
A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from Jack telling me that his prayer request was to meet me in person. I can't even begin to find the words that describe how that made me feel. There are none.
On January 30th, I received an email from Compassion about a sponsor tour to Peru with an Advocate discount. I wanted to pray about it for at least a week, but the tours fill up fast, so I knew I might miss my chance. Besides, I had already been praying for months, and it was too obvious that everything was falling into place for this.
So I took the huge leap (my heart is pounding even as I type this) and registered for the tour. My mind was telling me that I shouldn't spend so much money (have only paid the deposit so far), that I have no experience traveling in a foreign country, especially into the poor parts, especially into the JUNGLE, that I have to get my passport renewed, that I can't even guarantee getting the days off since it's in October, and that's next school year (I'm a secondary educator).
But my heart told me this is my chance to minister to the poor, to use the Spanish I've been working so hard to learn, and most importantly, to meet Jack, to put a smile on his face, to let him see that I love him enough to travel all the way to his country just to hug him.
Peru Sponsor Tour
Wow.
I have always thought it would be amazing to join a sponsor tour, but my mindset is that things like that are always for other people. There's no way I should ever spend that much money to go on trip. It will never work out for me. Really awesome stuff like that isn't meant for me.
I decided if I could ever visit someone, it would be Jack because he is my oldest child. Then the letter about his father and the following letters have made me want to visit him even more.
So I decided to pray.
Recently, a friend from OurCompassion asked me if I would ever want to join her on a sponsor tour. I asked her which countries we have in common (our sponsorships), and she said, "Only Peru." Well, not only is it Peru, but it's the exact same project in Peru.
However, there were no trips to Peru planned for 2012 at that time . . . well, not that we knew about.
A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from Jack telling me that his prayer request was to meet me in person. I can't even begin to find the words that describe how that made me feel. There are none.
On January 30th, I received an email from Compassion about a sponsor tour to Peru with an Advocate discount. I wanted to pray about it for at least a week, but the tours fill up fast, so I knew I might miss my chance. Besides, I had already been praying for months, and it was too obvious that everything was falling into place for this.
So I took the huge leap (my heart is pounding even as I type this) and registered for the tour. My mind was telling me that I shouldn't spend so much money (have only paid the deposit so far), that I have no experience traveling in a foreign country, especially into the poor parts, especially into the JUNGLE, that I have to get my passport renewed, that I can't even guarantee getting the days off since it's in October, and that's next school year (I'm a secondary educator).
But my heart told me this is my chance to minister to the poor, to use the Spanish I've been working so hard to learn, and most importantly, to meet Jack, to put a smile on his face, to let him see that I love him enough to travel all the way to his country just to hug him.
Peru Sponsor Tour
