Have you ever dreamed about embarking on a mission, go to different parts of the world and become so close to the people and their culture that you will feel like you have a home in each of those places and that somehow you need to visit them again?
Well... That's me! Since an early age I started to discover that you could do that but even then I was aware that I was still so young and had to wait at least until I was out of high school so I could be a little more independent. Well.. Time flew by real fast and before I realized it I was done with high school and didn't know what to do with my life... I felt uncertain and lost... With not much support and undecided, afraid and all you can call it.
Now I am on a stage of my life where I am no longer running after a toddler or running back and forth to school picking up and dropping off my teenage son because now that child is almost off to college. One of the countries I have dreamed of going to on a mission trip was Africa! For the longest time I never saw that dream coming true for me... The possibilities seemed almost impossible but deep inside my heart I knew that one day that time would come.
Years ago I bought a book title "The Dream Giver" by Bruce Wilkinson and it talks about the dreams God has for us, for every human on the planet and that every person is born with it . That we need to pursue our dreams and work toward them. Many people go through life without having dreams or in other words they are not even aware they have them. I am not talking about dreams that you dream when you go to sleep but the ones that you have in your heart and mind at all the time, the ones that when you ponder over, it takes your breath away. With dreams come sacrifices and effort and some times it can seem difficult and hard.
Last year I had one of my dreams come true. God's time for me had come and in September of 2014 I traveled to Swaziland, Africa, to a small village named Kaphunga, where a lady named Nomsa Lukhele lives and I just fell in love with the community of that beautiful place! Loving children and women with a smile on their faces but also you could see sad little faces here and there with no hope for them to hold on to.
When on my flight to Africa I was so exited I could not believe it was real, that I was in a dream... Of course I thought to myself! One of God's many dreams for me was happening right in that moment and the joy inside of me was HUGE!
Like wild flowers popping up on an endless field, more dreams, ideas and desires for the people of Swaziland started growing in my heart and mind on the way back home to Texas, but when you get back you hit reality... Or reality hits you! People are going on about their lives and the only one standing there with a heart full of stories and more dreams is you and you "alone". No one understands and not everyone is very interested in what you have to tell about your trip and experience. As soon as you get home you start planning towards your next "voyage" and trying to figure out how to put a mission trip together so that other people can join you and experience what God allowed you to experience, but even though some people tell you they want to go they are not doing their best efforts and other people start discouraging you.
You feel alone, lost for ideas, helpless and the thought and lack of possibilities begin to drain you. Times hurries and slip away before your eyes and then BANG! You realized that you are on a lone wide road to your own mission and that's when we need to seek God and His will and guidance for our lives. That we don't get to fulfill our dreams right away doesn't mean that God is saying no; It might means that God is preparing a better way and better time... His perfect time for us to accomplish what He has already put in our hearts but we need to pay attention around us and keep working on our goals but at the same time helping and reaching out to others inside the church, outside the church and out family as well.
And it is ok to walk the lone road to missions because even though we might feel lonely, Christ is right beside us leading our way!
Joanna Russell
