Guest: When I Figured Out That The World Isn’t About Me

My Life Is Crazy Too is a series of reader submissions. Your life is a story … this is your opportunity to share your stories about life, love, and mommyhood to provide understanding, hope, and compassion in the unique situations each of us face every day. “Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it! I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are. I’ll never quit telling the STORY of your love.” Ps 89:1 If you would like to submit a story to this series, email me at karigib@gmail.com. Today’s crazy guest is Kelly Shank.

It took my best friend days to gather the courage to ask me the question because she was afraid of my answer.  “Do you want to go on an international mission trip?”  What I had kept to myself for several years was a desire to go another country.

Cambodia kept coming to mind.  Our church youth group came home from conference excited about a trip to Cambodia and Thailand the following year but that trip never materialized.  My husband and I had talked about adoption but just as we agreed that Vietnam was where we were called, international adoptions were suspended.  I still felt a desire to go somewhere.   It just seemed like I didn’t have the right answers to where or when.

Fast forward 3 years to that call from my  friend.  I immediately said yes.  She was worried that I wouldn’t want to go.  She started searching for a trip and found Dorie’s Promise Guatemala.  My trip to Guatemala changed me in a way that is irreversible.  My eyes were opened to the reality of the world, away from my sheltered American life.  Every day we met people who allowed us to learn more about God’s very attributes.  Standing in a home in a ghetto that hovers precariously on the side of a cliff, we were loved and welcomed.  As we prayed with families, I knew that God was with them.  They knew what it meant to rely on God to provide their daily bread and yet they offered their home to us.  The other team members we met there showed me how to love even the unlovable just as Jesus would.  I will never forgot Lynn scooping up Lupe even as she said she was too dirty to sit on Lynn’s lap.

I returned from that trip a different person.  American success is not the goal anymore.  As I told a friend, work is the means to the greater goal.  We work so that we can help others.  I share my experiences with others so that they too may know the reality of the world outside of this country.  I want to share my love for the people of Guatemala with everyone.  Every day is a chance to think about someone else and how I can change their life for the better.  I want to raise awareness to as many people as possible that there is greater fulfillment in life than what we can buy at a store.  The greatest joy comes from knowing Jesus as my Savior and being where he wants me to be.  As I follow his path for me, I find his love all along the way in those I meet.

My change inspired my husband to go back with me to Guatemala last year and this year we will travel as a family to our second home.  I don’t think anyone else in my daughters’ classes will be able to say that they spent their vacation in Guatemala but I can’t wait to hear them tell the stories.  Already one teacher has researched what the weather will be like during our trip.  A child’s enthusiasm has opened the door for someone else to learn about what the world is really about.

Matthew 28:19  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”