“I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them.” ~ Bob Goff

In less than three months, a diverse team of servant leaders will leave Trinity Church for Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This will be my fourth opportunity to lead a Trinity Mission Team to Cambodia and my fifth trip to Cambodia. Our team this year is comprised of nurses, college students, general contractors, photographers, retirees, teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, engineers, and others who will conduct mobile medical clinics, light construction projects, and teach bible classes to children at Cambodian Care’s Light of Future Schools. Some team members are veterans at short-term missions projects. Others have never been out of the country before. Everyone is extremely excited about this opportunity to serve alongside Cambodian Care Ministries again. I am so excited about this team and the work we are planning to do.

 

Yet, at the same time, planning a mission trip can be a daunting task. Traveling with a large team in a foreign country is also pretty daunting. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Other times, I just feel afraid. What is my fear about? It’s about not getting an “A”. It’s about the plans not working out or an oversight that causes complications while we are traveling or someone becoming sick or injured. If I am honest, I have to admit my fears are centered in the fear of failure.

Have you ever had a great opportunity presented to you and you spent as much time being afraid of what might happen as you are being excited about what might happen? That’s me in the weeks leading up to a mission trip.

As I have been praying about this trip and the emotional roller coaster I ride on before a mission trip, I have been asking God to help me to accept the fact that I cannot plan for every possible scenario. Not only that, I have been asking God to help me to learn how to serve without the fear. I have been asking God to help me be willing to do what He has put in my heart to do without judging myself or pre-judging the potential outcomes. Serving without fear. Serving as a representation of God’s love. There are no grades for that.

Is there something that God has put in your heart to do, but you are holding back based on fear of failure?

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27 NIV

 

 

(photo credits: Linda Freeman, Kratie Province Medical Clinic, August 2015; Alexis Lopez, Light of Future School #2 Medical Clinic, August 2015; Michele Lozano, RF Orchids, Homestead, Florida, April 2016)