Show the world you are not a self-involved selfish person! Help someone help people!
There are two links on my links pages for the World Race. I am glad to say that Jeremy and Sarah have their funding. Kaity is still behind. Where are they going?
The Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Peru
Nicaragua
Guatemala
Thailand
Kenya
Uganda
Tanzania
Asia (ATL)
Malaysia
They do not know where they will stay. They will begin by flying to the DR but after that, who knows? By plane/bus/boat/donkey/walking? They will have a week's worth of clothes and a tent. They may stay with a missionary or a local pastor. There may not be one around, so they may pitch tents on the ground somewhere on the ground, on a rooftop, in the rubble of an abandoned building...who knows?
Some of these countries have terrible health problems - diseases, drug addiction, starvation, slavery and child abandonment. Do a Google search for "glue kids of Africa" sometime. Did you know that many African witch doctors tell men with AIDS that the cure is having sex with a virgin?! You can imagine the results... Most of these countries have life expectancies of around fifty or so or even less. Thailand is the capital of pedophilia and sex slavery in Asia. In South America many of the young people are forced to work full days in horrifying conditions and make about 8 dollars a week for the effort. Few third world countries give many kids a chance for schooling beyond grade school, if that. There are countries where more than half the population is illiterate.
So Jeremy and Sarah and Kaity are giving God a chance to call them to a mission field full time. They are helping people wherever they go anyway they can. They are not going to have air-conditioning or heating or nice beds. They will probably depend on taking a bucket shower from time to time and handwashing their few clothes. There is a very good chance they will get ill from some illness or be infected with a parasite. They realize they may even be risking their lives, as some places are rife with crime, tribal battles or revolt, governmental corruption...they cannot know.
We have a few friends who have gone out to be missionaries full time. They build hospitals and churches and help people to learn to read and write and of course teach them about God. They try to build up family relationships and end slavery and abuse. Often they become natives of the countries they go to and never come back to the USA other than an occasional short furlough to visit friends and relatives. I figure a few of them will stay where they have gone until the day they die.
Kaity and Sarah and Jeremy don't know if they will discover a call to a full time mission somewhere. I sure admire their courage and fortitude! I have health issues that will not even allow me to fly right now and a few weeks without medications might kill me. So I can just stand on the sidelines and cheer for them. Youth group is enough of a mission field for me right now.
Jeremy and Sara are leaving lots of family behind and lots of friends. They are youth group staffers and we will miss them and so will the teens. Kaity is leaving her boyfriend and school behind and of course her family and friends. Last night I think at least 80 or 90 of us youth staffers and family and teens got together and prayed over them and gave them a sendoff. They do not know if they will have access to internet or phone connections, let alone when. They are just going in a group (normally about seven people in one small group and 51 in their total group) and making themselves available to be used by God to care about other people, leaving their comfortable lives behind.
If you believe in God, remember to pray for these friends. If you are willing, go to Kaity's blog and give some money. She has raised or put in by herself over eleven thousand dollars and she still needs almost four thousand more. You can sign up to give a small monthly amount or just one gift. She will wind up owing the organization money if all of her support is not raised. Teens have given from their allowances or jobs, so have friends and family. It would be tough if Kaity came back after giving of herself for eleven months and then have a big bill to pay before she could get back to working on getting through college.
What if everyone who reads this blog and has a job just gave Kaity a couple of dollars one time? Around four hundred or so people read this blog every day. Some are regulars, some come once and some come now and then. If everyone who reads this gives something, well, I won't know you did it. Maybe Kaity will not know who gave to support her mission. You will know you did something entirely to benefit other people.
I never ask readers to give me anything. I won't harp on this over and over, I promise. Just want to be sure to give everyone a head's up - you can make a difference in the world! Please help Kaity go get dirty and worn out and stretched beyond what she has known before for the sake of people she has never met and doesn't know...yet.