"It's a party in the USA!"

     The song "Party in the USA" came out shortly before I went off to DRC for three months back in 2010 and I played it constantly on my iPod when I was alone... I don't care how much you do or don't like Miley Cyrus - when you're literally on the other side of the world and there's a fun song about your home country - you listen to it over and over and over. (Yes, I do know all the words......)
     ANYWAY... In 11 short days (roughly 264 hours) I'll be headed to the other side of the world. I'm very excited about my first trip to Asia! I'll be heading to Tagaytay, Luzon, The Philippines as a voting-delegate (Young Adult) from the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church to the Global Young People’s Convocation and Legislative Assembly (GYPCLA). I've recently seen the final list of delegates from the SEJ and I believe I'm the only one from the Virginia Conference. I leave Charlottesville early in the AM on the 14th and after stops in the US to meet up with some more delegates I head off to The Philippines after a very quick layover in Japan. I'll arrive around bedtime on the 15th and our event is the 16th-20th. I know very little about what to expect except that we'll have Worship, Fellowship, Prayer and Holy Conferencing. (Yes, we'll be going paperless, we've already rec'd a link to the legislative stuff in all the languages... I'm sticking with English so that I know what's going on.)
     Here are some links that might help describe the Conference a little better: here's one and here's another.
     I'm very grateful to the GBOD for providing a scholarship and my conference, district, and church for helping with the funding for this. Without all this I wouldn't be able to go. (Don't you love a call where they ask you to be a delegate for something but then tell you you have to pay for all of it?!?)
     While I'm away I hope to have the time and opportunity (aka: energy and wifi) to update this blog a few times with stories and photos. I covet your prayers for safe travels and a wonderful experience for each and every person who is a part of this event! In the meantime just think about how excited I am to rock out some compression socks on the 13ish hour flight from Detroit to Japan... OH YEA!

 

     This October a team, including members of Aldersgate UMC (and, of course, yours truly) will be heading to Honduras to volunteer for a week at Worldwide Heart to Heart Ministries. Heart to Heart's projects currently include a Children's Village, Church, Medical Clinic, Soccer Academy, and English Immersion School. Our team will be spending most of our time at the English Immersion School helping in the classrooms. 
     Our team is asking for prayer as we prepare ourselves for this time in mission. As the trip gets closer we will start a prayer calendar and ask our faith family to sign up for specific dates to be in prayer for us. At this point we are working on our applications and thinking about all the fundraising we'll be doing. The trip will cost approximately $2,000 per person. Could you help someone go to, and return from, Honduras with a $2,000 (tax-deductible) donation? Perhaps you can help someone go OR return with a $1,00 donation? (Great gift for that person you don't like who is going, hope they raise enough money to get back too!!) Perhaps you can help pay someone's application fee for $200? All donations are welcome! Please make checks payable to "AUMC" with "VIM" (Volunteers in Mission) in the memo line and mail them to the church or put them in the offering plate.
     To find out more about where our team will be serving you can check out the ministry online at http://h2hcv.org/
Gracias y vaya con Dios!

(You can also make donations to a specific person on our team, just write them a personal check! However, please know that it won't be tax-deductible...)

A week of HOPE(well)

Whew! I survived my first ever mission trip in the good ol' U.S. of A. I didn't have to board any planes, I spoke the native language, I didn't have to take anti-malaria meds, I was able to flush my toilet paper, and I didn't have to exchange currency to make purchases. It was a blessing to help right here in Virginia! I truly enjoyed getting to know the ladies I roomed with and the crews I served with!
So Sunday morning another adult and a youth and myself loaded up a truck and trailer and hit the road. (We missed those who had last minute situations arise that kept them from joining us!!) After about two hours on the road (and a lunch stop) we arrived at the newly renovated high school in Hopewell, Virginia that became our home for a week. I was roomed with some awesome ladies from NJ. They kept me laughing all week. (Not the "tee hee" type of laughing- the kind of laughing where you have to run to the bathroom to pee while wiping the tears from your eyes. Laughter is awesome medicine!)
Sunday evening we met our work crews. I was on crew 25 and we were paired with crew 26- I considered us one big crew- it was hard to tell where 25 stopped and 26 started!! We did our devotions together at our site all week, we ate lunch together, we worked together, we made messes together, and we served God together!
My crew worked at a home near the school. Our jobs included building a wooden deck over a brick deck, building a ramp off the new deck, moving the tomato garden, weeding, coating the top of the carport for more protection, scraping and repainting the supports of the carport, painting the bathroom, and repairing a section of the house near the roof. Whew!
During the week we met our "resident's" neighbor who asked us to pray for her 32 year old grandson who was dying of cancer. Sadly, he passed away the next day. I spent time talking to her and getting to know her. She was a light in my week for sure!
During the week we had a different question to ponder for the day that tied in to our devotions and times of Worship. On Weds our question was "Why do you doubt?" I shared with my group about a time I doubted and that out of that time rainbows became special signs from God. (We'd be here all day if I tried to write them all down- hope to do that some day though.) Well Thurs it was raining while we were working and the youth started saying that it would be cool to see a rainbow in the sky and kept looking up and around for one. I prayed to God that God would show them a rainbow- but if not- it was okay. So we left without seeing a rainbow. HOWEVER, that evening I was talking on the phone out front of the school and saw a huge rainbow across the sky. Not only did I see it, everyone on our crews, some at the school, some at other places around town, saw it too. God's awesomeness never ceases to amaze me!!!!
By the end of the week I was mentally, physically and emotionally spent- but spiritually shining bright! I'm STILL getting caught up on sleep and will probably have to run to the doctor- I was fighting a sinus infection when we left and all the sawdust, mold, etc we encountered seems to have not helped me get over it. However, it was an awesome week! I met so many amazing sisters and brothers in Christ and made some awesome friends!
Please feel free to check out photos of our week here. (The site is password protected. The password is: rachelmiller) Please feel free to save any photos you like, they're for all to enjoy! If you have some awesome additional photos please feel free to send to me so that I can add them.

God's Peace!

What's on your heart? I hope you're struggling with something too...

WOW! So as you can see by the date of my last blog, I haven't been on here for... um... a while. It's coming on up three years since I left for Lubumbashi, DRC and I've been reflecting a lot on that experience and how it changed my life so I thought I should get back to this blogging thing and write my thoughts down. So, for better or worse, here goes!

So yeah, I'm sure most of you know that I went to DR Congo for three months in 2010. I still talk about it too dang much, thanks for putting up with me ;-)  I figured I'd give a short background about it for those new friends I've made in the past few years who may not know much about it (feel free to skip this paragraph if you don't want to read about it, unless you tell me I won't ever know)... It was my first ever mission trip of any kind. I took the Individual Volunteer UMVIM course and hit the road (well, the skies anyways). Off to a country where I knew no one, didn't speak any of the languages and where, for some strange reason, I felt called to be. While I was there I was homesick (and a few times physically sick.) I cried and on a few occasions I almost gave up and left... However, while there I met so many amazing people from around the world! I gained strength from friendships and from God. This gal from VA who gets carsick and doesn't like being in loud places survived the roads (if you want to call them that) in DRC and being in Worship that had to be louder than most concerts I've been to! Living at Jamaa Letu was a blessing to me! The girls, babies and Mommas who live there are so amazing and strong. I think of them often and wish I could just hop a flight over there to say hey and visit for a few weeks! Was I the best guest?  I still think of things I did wrong or didn't handle the way I should have so I'm sure I wasn't! Was I helpful? Probably not. Did I get teased about not knowing how to wash laundry by hand? You bet I did! Did I always understand what was going on? Nope. Do I still miss Mama Rebecca's cooking? Mmmm, yeah buddy!! Do I love all those folks I met and pray for the great folks at Jamaa Letu? You know it!!! (And seeing one of the babies from Jamaa Letu stateside with his forever family? WHOA, ah-maze-ing!)

So after that amazing experience I was blessed to head back to DRC that December and help out with an awesome and amazing non-profit! Was it challenging? Yes! Would I give up a week of personal time in a heartbeat to go back and help them or one of the other amazing non-profits who do work in DRC? Pretty sure I should just insert "duh!" here ;-)  (BTW, if you're in Kinshasa and need a place to stay, I can recommend an awesome place!)

That was it! God had put it on my heart that international missions went from being pretty much off any priority list that I had for myself to pretty close to the top! I went to Honduras twice in 2011 with Mercy Teams. I not only had the most awesome folks on my teams but I really enjoyed going back later in 2011 to see the kids I had met in the spring. Building a relationship with folks around the world who love God is a HUGE blessing! Because I was so busy my trip to Costa Rica in 2012 never even made it to this blog. Dang it, right? I helped lead a group of super youth and their awesome leaders to Costa Rica and we worked our butts off! (Well, actually, I worked the skin on my knee off, after being horribly clumsy and stepping into a hole while trying to walk down-hill- oops...)

So now we come to... well, now. I have two mission trips on the calendar. Taking the youth to a project here in Virginia this summer and leading a team to Crisfield, MD to help with Hurricane Sandy relief in October. (Shameless plug- we still have some spots open, email me if you want to join!) I have been considering joining a team going to Brazil from my district in the fall but not sure I can swing that with everything going on in life right now. Perhaps God needs me to stick to these US based mission trips this year.

Can I just tell you how much my heart aches to serve internationally again sometimes in the next year or two? To get back to DRC or Honduras or serve in another third-world country would be so amazing. I miss meeting Christians who live a different life than I do in their own home-country. However, serving this way really changes ones views. Am I thankful for all I have? Oh yes, yes, yes! Would I give up constant internet connection, constant running water and constant electricity to be helpful somewhere else? Oh yes, yes, yes! Would I wash my clothing by hand again? Yup! (Would I do it with gloves so my knuckles don't bleed though, yes... learned that lesson the hard, bloody way...) Would I give up showering again for months on end to serve if needed? Thanks to bathing wipes from REI- yes, yes I would. (I would also soak in a tub for an entire day upon my return.) Would I miss my family and friends way too much? Oh yes! But you all are so supportive of me that I know we'd find a way to stay in touch. (Cell phones work everywhere these days... well, in many places...)

So I hear you asking (if you've made it this far into this entry): Rachel, why are you writing all this? What are you trying to tell us?
My answer: I dunno... I've just been struggling with this whole "having-a-heart-for-a-longer-term-international-mission-and-not-knowing-what-it-means-or-what-to-do-about-it" thing...
I do know that I've been reading a lot of blog posts recently by clergy and laity. Some blog posts aren't church related, others are. I've decided that I need to blog more- keep this sucker up to date a little more. No one, besides my Mom and Dad (HI you two), may read this... that's cool. But I'm putting it out there for the universe. I have some future blog posts started...

So what's on your heart right now? Honestly, I hope you're struggling with something too or have been recently. Not because I want folks to be struggling and uncomfortable or because I want struggle-buddies... but because God doesn't call us to find a place in life and get comfy for too long. Throughout life times should find us that call us to be uncomfortable, searching and questioning. Without these times we can't grow. We may not be able to reach perfection, but to strive for it means growing and changing. I also hope that you have a safe place to struggle. If you don't, find one. Need a struggle-buddy? Let me know!

Before I sign off, let me just offer this prayer please:
Creator God, thanks for being so amazing and awesome and wonderful and powerful that there are really no human words to properly describe you. For those in this world who have no belief in a higher being and the hope of an eternal life after this one, I totally pray! For those who lack sufficient food, water, clothing, shelter, support and LOVE, I truly pray. For those who say they love everyone but don't show it in their actions, yeah, that's all of us at some point, I really pray! For those who aren't happy and satisfied with their situations right now for any reason, I pray. For those who are hurting, lonely or suffering, God, I pray. For every person who is happy, smiling and satisfied beyond belief at life, I pray. Help us to do our best at all times God. Lead us. Feed us. Find us. Heal us. Beyond all, THANK YOU for loving us! In the name of the most awesome radical dude in history, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” -Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Heading to Honduras tomorrow... we'll all meet at the airport around 5AM, fly to Miami around 7, have a short layover there and head to San Pedro Sula... we'll be there by early afternoon.

Not everyone knows how I was lead to mission work... but I will say that a very wise and kind woman told me I should take an opportunity and follow my dreams... Little did she know that my dream was to help orphans in Africa and little did I know that a year later I would have already lived in DRC for three months and be on my way back to assist some families going through the adoption process and report on some children who had been matched with families!! Here I am TWO years later going on my second trip to Honduras in 8 or 9 months. 

I should not be so amazed at all God has been doing in my life- yet I still am! Mission work and advocating for orphans has quickly become a passion in my life and I thank each and every person who has helped me get to this point. I was worried about this trip because I wasn't feeling well recently and my sister went into the hospital last night due to concerns about her pregnancy... but here I sit, 10 hours from leaving from the airport and Erin is resting at home and I'm on the mend :-)  

Today I ran into Psalm 131 (my birthday, imagine that!) 

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord
   from this time on and for evermore.

I have calmed and quieted my soul... I pray God brings peace and calm to all who read this. 

Looking forward to sharing stories and photos soon!

Adios & God's Peace,

Rachel