To travel or to Save?

I've been spending some time over the past few days looking at my pictures and I have realized how lucky I am! I have got to do so much traveling in the past few years. Even this past year I realized that I have ridden on at least 15 planes and had a couple of road trips across western Canada and the North Western States. In the past 4 years (since I graduated from high school) I have been to the states, Mexico, Guatemala, Bulgaria, Germany, Honduras and of course I've got to see more of Canada. I have been so blessed to be able to take all of these trips!

The bad thing about traveling is once you start it's really hard to stop. So for the past month I have been thinking about what traveling next year will look like for me. I have thought about just going on a trip for the fun of it or should I be going on a mission trip? Or would it just be best for me to stay here and save my money? I was praying about it and looking into different opportunities. During this time I came back to what do I want to do for a living once I have my student loans and car payed off? This is something I have been struggling with for a while and while I was thinking and praying it came to me! Ok actually it came back to me becuase it was a dream I had a couple of years ago, I would LOVE to lead groups on short term mission trips. When I went to Mexico with the youth group in '07 I loved it. Sure it got stressful and wasn't always enjoyable but I had a joy while there! I have decided to pursue this endeavor and see if I still have peace about it. So I have decided that this summer I would like to go on a short term missions trip as a leader, that is if it's God's plan and he allows it to all be put into place.

After making this decision I figured that I should look into different missions groups I could go with and I came across Big World and their Never the Same missions trip. The lady who is organizing and leading this trip is Susie Shellenberger (the old editor of Focus on the Families Brio Magazine). I had always wanted to go on this trip when I was in high school but I could never afford it. So I looked into it some and guess what the are going to ANTIGUA!!! I decided at this point that I would look at my calender and make sure that the dates fit. They didn't :( The trip doesn't end until the 11th but Kassi is getting married on the 1oth and I can't miss Kassi's wedding. That was the end of that... ok if you know me you know if I want to do something I wouldn't give up that easy so I emailed Big World and told them about my dilemma and they informed me that leaving a couple days early would be fine and that I should still apply! So that is where I am right now at the application stage, the 14 page application.

Please pray for me, that if this is what God wants to me do it will all work out and go smoothly and if this is not what God wants me to do that I will feel peace knowing that he has other plans for me, greater plans. Thanks!