It's Time to switch from Creole to Spanish or Maybe Qiche?

This summer has been so incredibly different than our normal summer breaks. I used to think that resorts and nice hotels were the best thing since sliced bread. Not anymore...

Our world has opened up to us and we are beginning to realize what it means to see someone else's country through their eyes. I thought we were before but I think it was slightly limited and protected. We expect to just get away from it all for awhile. Stress, sleep deprivation, hard work are everyday problems. For some reason though, now that our family has chosen mission trips over luxury, we actually feel better over the long term. Why is that? We didn't get to sleep in. No nice beds like before. Cold showers. Unusual bugs and unsanitary conditions at times. So why is that we go away, knowing what we face and yet feel so much more alive and useful and grateful when we return? I think because it's not what looks good on the outside that matters anymore, but instead what bends on the inside of our hearts that sticks.

It's not ok anymore to just ignore the majority of people in our world who struggle to survive. It's certainly easy to allow that to happen if we wish. Many people I'm sure think we have lost our minds. Maybe so, but I will take the pure excitement of arriving in a destination where most people don't want to travel because it doesn't have the comforts of home and at the same time reap the rewards from experiencing people that give me so much more than I could ever begin to give them. It's really not about the "things" we can take back for ourselves. It's about what we can manage to pull out of our dusty minds and hearts and learn maybe once again or possibly discover for the first time just how incredible it feels to give simply our love and time and help in anyway possible to those who have less.

Throwing money at people cannot fix problems permanently. It takes more than that. You have to step out of your comfort zone and reach out and touch the people who we just occasionally hear about on a special news broadcast or article in a magazine. We are all human. We all have feelings and hopes and dreams. Each of us has felt loss and disappointment and maybe even grief. We cannot expect those who have never been taught the basics to simply do what needs to be done. And that's why the rest of us are here...to lend a hand, open an incredible book, teach cooking, sewing, math, show someone how to do more than simply survive because if we don't, than aren't we just hording all this knowledge for ourselves? How selfish of us to critisize others for something no one has ever taken the time to show them.

I know we hear this every single day and it becomes like the teacher talking on the Charlie Brown specials. We are so blessed to live where we do and have what we have and be able to accomplish what we can because of our opportunites. "Wha, wha,wha,wha,wha,wha,wha". What was that? Did you hear it? It's the sound of simple compassion for others being sucked right out the window. Don't you hear it? We are allowing everyday life to rob us of what really matters.

I can't let that happen anymore. I can only speak for myself. I'm glad I chose to break the norm this year. Now I can't wait to do more when Anna and I leave July 24th for Guatemala. It's cool guys, to do more work but somehow feel more rested, I guess in my heart, after helping others. I hope everyone one day will break the mold as well and step out to discover what an awesome world we live in filled with different people,languages,cultures and cuisines coexisting somehow in this big blue world we call home. Forget how much we think we need and instead learn how to give back more than you even thought you had in you.It's amazing what you will discover from within yourself when you do it. Not because you are forced to but simply because something just seems more complete when you can. There's someone out there just like us who at the end of the day lays down their head where ever it may be and sees the same stars at night when they look up into that vast black sky simply hoping for a better tomorrow and someone to take their hand and show them how...