Emily McGirth followed her mother up the stairs to the second floor of the church and into the small conference room. When she reached the doorway, she saw a large mahogany table standing in the center, surrounded by grand black chairs. The furniture seemed to know that it was destined to host people that contained matters of great importance that required the comfort of the furniture to ease the pain of lengthy discussion. Their self-proclaimed magnificence made her feel underdressed in her jeans and T-shirt and unworthy in her youth. She was only sixteen years of old and didn’t have matters of great importance to discuss, like the table and chairs demanded. Thankfully, she was only here to listen and to learn the facts she would need to make her decision, but she whispered an apology to them for any unworthy word that she may allow to escape her lips. They seemed more gracious after that, as if they had dimmed their hostility toward her. She was relieved to find herself at peace with them and, consequently, a little more at ease when the first person walked in. He was a small man with very little hair and a big smile. He greeted her mother with a hug and a hello and then turned to Emily to introduce himself.
“Hey there! I’m Robert,” He announced in a chipper voice, as he extended his hand. “You must be Emily.”
“Yes, I am,” she answered, as she shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” he replied. “I’m so excited that you’re here!”
“Thanks. I am too.”
They then both exchanged smiles, finishing the conversation. Robert then turned to her mother and began to discuss the last minute details of the meeting, as he helped her finish set up the sandwiches and sodas they bought for the event. Emily selected a chair at the end of the table and sought to occupy herself. She pulled her bulletin out of her purse and began to doodle on it as the threesome awaited the other arrivals. A few moments later another person arrived. This time, a woman entered. She was tall and blond and immediately turned to meet Emily.
“Hi, my name’s Barbara. Are you Emily?”
“Yep. That’s me. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“I hope nothing bad,” Emily smiled.
“Only a few things.”
Emily laughed quietly in response, as the next person entered the room. The next entered soon after and after twenty more minutes Emily counted twelve people in the room, including herself. Every one was just as friendly as the last.
“OK, everyone,” Robert announced several minutes later as Emily's mom joined him at the front of the room in front of a large laptop computer,” go ahead and help yourself to a sandwich and Kate and I are going to go ahead and get us started.”
Everyone quickly grabbed a seat and faced the pair up front.
“As you guys know we’re here to talk about our second mission trip to the Dominican Republic. We just want to show you guys some photos and clips from last year’s trip and talk a little bit about what we’re planning this year.”
He turned to hit a button on the computer and images sprang forward. He talked about most all of them, laughing at the memory of some and becoming somber when viewing others. As he talked Emily couldn’t help but notice her mother’s excited looks in her direction. Emily knew that this trip was important to her mother and that she wanted Emily to share it with her, but excitement made Emily feel pressured. She was still unsure if she was going to go or not and her mother had been spending the past few weeks trying to convince her to say she’d go. It had taken all of Emily’s strength to hold off this long; she had always been a people pleaser and was especially considerate of her parents’ wishes and her mother was not making her desire a secret. She was proud of herself for not immediately giving in and for at least learning some facts beforehand, but knew that the “yes” her mother was waiting for was not far off. He explained the cost of the upcoming trip and mentioned some names of the people who went on the last one. Most of it interested Emily, but she paid special attention when he began to discuss the plans for the upcoming trip and hoped that they might help her decide whether she would go or not.
“In the fall we passed out a bunch of shoes in the local villages,” Robert explained, “and we want to do that again this summer, but we also want to spend a considerable amount of time with some of the orphans in Pastor Ramon’s program.”
It seemed to take Emily a moment longer to recognize Ramon’s name, but she soon recognized it as the name of the pastor her mom had said that the mission trip team had worked with on the last trip.
“We’ve been talking to him a lot,” Robert continued, “and he’s sent us fifteen names and pictures of the most needy orphans that attend his program. We really want each one of you to choose a child to spend time with while we’re there and to sponsor afterwards. We want to make a big impact in these kids lives.”
Everyone seemed to nod and murmur in agreement and Emily couldn’t but agree inside. She had always loved children. She had four siblings and after the last one was born she had regularly suggested that her mother adopt a sixth child. Emily had gradually forgotten the suggestion though and now simply resorted to babysitting. She loved getting paid to play and spend time with small children. She had always loved them and now got very excited about the prospect of spending time with the Dominican children. She knew she would love it and became determined to make the experience enjoyable for the children too. She nearly began to daydream of laughing and playing with the children, when she opened her ears to Robert’s voice again.
“That’s all for this time. We just wanted to give you all an overview of all that we would be doing and just showing you a little about the trip. So, any questions?”
A few people began to ask questions about what to bring and what the weather might be like and other small things, but Emily allowed herself to be lost in thought, when she realized the kind of questions that were being asked. She began to think about herself and the trip. She had always considered herself to be a kind person with a big heart, but as she sat in that room she glanced back at the past few years of her life and felt very selfish. She had become inward focused, concerned only about her own relationship with God and not at all about others’ relationship with Him. She saw incident after incident flash by in her mind and discovered regret in each image. In that instant she resolved to be different; to be focused on others from that moment forward. She then left her memories and returned to the meeting, discovering that forty-five minutes had passed. The questions were over and Robert was displaying some short videos from the last trip. I enjoyed them for the next few minutes, laughing at the right moments with everyone else. Several minutes later Robert spoke again, “Alright, I think we’ve kept you all here long enough, so, you are all free to go, but you’re welcome to stick around and although all of you have a few weeks to think about this if any of you know if you’d like to come for sure we’d love for you to let Kate or I know. Thanks, everybody!”
Emily immediately went up to the front of the room and announced her decision to her mom and Robert.
“I want to come,” she declared.
Her mother’s eyes glowed and grin grew so large that Emily thought it could probably reach around the world twice. Emily knew that her mother’s wishes had some influence on her decision, but she also knew that she now was not just going because of others’ desires and plans, but for her own reasons now, as well. She had discovered that she longed not just to focus on her own relationship with God, but to use the loving heart she knew He had given her to touch and help other people around her and to turn her view inside-out; to see others first and to work to meet their needs before her own. She desired to change and she became confident that spending a week out of her element, serving others in the name of Jesus Christ, would help bring about that transformation.
Four months passed by with little to speak about. Emily went about her life as usual, but as the trip drew closer her excitement grew. The day finally arrived and Emily couldn’t have been more excited. She boarded the plane with enthusiasm and carried it with her throughout the entire trip. She visited families in houses made of tin, randomly dotted along trash covered dirt streets. She handed out shoes and rice at small local churches. She captured photos of small children and basked in their amazement of the images. She returned a different woman; she no longer was concerned with doing things to change herself. She learned that if she just gave her heart to others she wouldn’t have to be concerned about changing herself, for every single person that had received a piece of it would return it a little better, with a touch of them inside. The trip had forever changed her, but the gifts that the dozens of Dominican children had attached to their piece of her heart would never leave her.