Chile Mission Trip

“I want to work with international adoption policy because of a trip to Africa that I went on with my youth group.”  Christen Miller and I were having coffee at Austin Java just East of campus. She’s fairly new to FBC and had recently joined the young adult Amani Sunday school class.  “When I saw the children there and the conditions they lived in, it changed my life. I knew then that I wanted to work in international adoption.”  She is now working towards a Master’s in Public Policy at UT.  “That’s it,” I realized again as I listened to Christen talk about her passion.  “That’s why we’re going to Chile.”

Short term missions not only helps the communities receiving the additional hands and hearts working toward one goal, but it changes the servant too. What Christen experienced working in Africa ten years ago changed what she viewed as her calling in life. And while I don’t expect all of my students to return to America and change their major to become child advocates or daycare workers, what I do want is for their vision to broaden.

I want my students to begin to think globally. The world is bigger than Austin, it’s bigger than the U.S., it’s bigger than Juarez or Mexico. Our Christian brothers and sisters are a twelve hour plane ride away, and who we are wherever we live affects them. We are all in the business of ushering in Christ’s Kingdom wherever we are and no matter where we live. The choices we make and who we are affects our Christian neighbors even half a globe away!

Read the rest of Ann Pittman's article in the April 22, 2009, issue of The Clarion.