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Isn’t the idea of a missions trip so we can go and make a difference and change people’s lives?  So why is it that I feel that I was the one changed more than them?  When you go on a trip like this and build playgrounds for orphans it sounds so prideful to say,  What did you do this week?  I built playgrounds for orphans.  Maybe that is some people’s attitude to trips like these.  It may have been my attitude last year.  Not this year.  This year it was the idea, the hope of bringing a smile to kids face.  To create a place of safety.  To create a place where they could simply go to be a kid.

We are so spoiled here in America and most of the time either don’t realize it or don’t care.  After all we deserve what we have right?  As I watched the kids in the Smolensk work project jump in and help without us asking.  As I watched them SERVE without expecting anything in return, I was humbled.  How is it that it is so easy to serve in another country but so difficult to serve the ones I love?  To serve those who are around us on a regular basis.  To serve our communities we live in, work in and play in.  The theme of this year at our church is to Live Different.  That was also the theme of our missions trip.  As I try to download this past 10 days I realize that we did not only go to help provide opportunities for them to live different, but we went to challenge each other to live different?

How are you living different where you are today?