Summer is prime time for Americans to vacation. You may have already gone on yours or you may still be looking forward to it.
My husband and I have always loved to travel. When we got married we made a decision that we wanted to take a big trip every two years. Our first was to be our honeymoon to Paris. That was back in the 1980’s when the economy took a turn for the worst and all our saved money that paid for that honeymoon was lost when the travel company declared bankruptcy…….five days before the wedding. So we went to Disneyland and spent lots of time in the French Quarter and imagined what could have been. Then two years later we headed to Mexico City for our first out of the country adventure. It was a wonderful trip! Two years after that it was to Washington DC to learn about our country. We came home much better Americans. Two years after that…..well we got off track…..my mother was very ill and we now had 3 kids under the age of 4! So we didn’t go much for awhile, but managed some California trips and lots of local weekends. Then we got the opportunity to cruise with other families. It was a wonderful time! We loved the food, the fun, the company, the adventures! Just liked we had loved all of our vacations!
Then it happened. That feeling of being a hungry consumer of pleasure and other people’s beautiful resources and people. You have seen it when you’ve gone somewhere wonderful and just behind the hedge of tourism is the ugly reality of all those people who live in poverty as they serve you up one more fancy drink, one more fabulous meal, one more adventure on the beach. There they are, people trying to make a living for their families. What do they think of me as they politely smile and fill all of my request? Have I shown them the respect they deserve or have I given them the cold shoulder. Ultimately did I treat them with love and respect? Sometimes if I’m honest I have to say that I never really even thought about it. I had on my vacation sunglasses. I’m immune to seeing past the waves on the beach. That’s not what or who I was thinking of when I came on vacation. Now if I was on a mission trip, I would be all about the loving on those less fortunate. That’s when it’s easy to put on your Jesus glasses. You know what your job is then.
So the real question became how do I show love in all of life’s situations? I am grateful that we have the ability to go on vacations and see the world. We have wanted our children to see how other people live in other places, but to do this we had to start looking at Vacations With A Different View. So we began looking for opportunities in places we planned to visit. Our first try at it was when I was working in Vacation Bible School and we had a story about the Graffiti Church in New York City. graffitichurch.org. They needed books for their library. So we took an extra couple suitcases full of books that our church family donated and delivered them to the Graffiti Church. It was wonderful! We hoped that we had given back to the city that were enjoying and spread some of God’s love there. We have gone on to do different things like toys to an orphanage in the Bahamas and suitcases full of pajamas to an AIDS hospital in South Africa! I’ll have to tell you that story sometime! We’ve done all of these things with our children by our sides hoping to be good role models.
Now all of our kids have kids! Yep we have 5 wonderful little grandkids under 5 years old. We are quite the chaos when we show up anywhere. So once again I have been challenged to Vacation With A Different View. When we traveled with our kids everyone could walk, read and dress themselves so it was easier to find someplace to show love to others at. The last couple of years we have taken a family vacation to the beach. We stayed in a beautiful home on the bay and enjoyed a week of fun, relaxation, cooler weather and family time with some of our extended family. Each of those times I thought about what we might be able to do to show the love of Jesus to our beach town but, unfortunately that’s all I did was think about it. When we were there I clearly had on my beach sunglasses. You can see many pictures of me in them. Then I’d come home go back to church, sing worship songs, love on my church family that I had missed…….and never thought about my desire to show love on vacation……..until right before the next trip! Yes I would think a lot about it then. Maybe even vocalize to the kids and husband. “We really should do something to show some love on vacation to the people there.” And before you know it vacation has come and gone and I packed my vacation glasses and left my Jesus glasses at home!
So this year I got my Jesus glasses out early. I searched the internet for “ministry” opportunities. I looked up activities of local churches. I looked on the “vacation for good” websites. I even had my pastor put out inquiries to his contacts in the area. I kept searching for the perfect opportunity to love on the people of our beach community. I found nothing that worked for a family ranging in age from 3 months old to 79 years old. Most of the opportunities to serve required you to be at least 16 years old or had hard labor involved or required a long term commitment. My pastor came up with nothing. I felt like I kept asking God to put something in front of me and I would rally the troops and we would be off to do a little loving! But no. I was defeated at every turn. Frankly I was a bit discouraged. Then just a few nights before we were scheduled to leave I lay in bed awake talking to God and wondering why He hadn’t given us an assignment. Then I clearly felt him say “Why are you depending on someone else to show you how to love? You just need to figure out something for yourself!”
WOW! I didn’t sleep much that night but I got started on my plan that God had for me all along! First I ordered 20 bright colored string backpacks from Amazon.com. I was in luck, they will arrive a day before we leave! Then I texted the kids on the family thread and told them the Lord had given me the idea of making blessing bags to give out to the homeless on the beach. (We had done these before with our women’s ministry) I even named the idea at approximately 2:30am: Operation: Mission Beach Blessing Bag! I do like a theme for a good event! So with the help of the family we all brought toiletries, granola bars, water bottles, gift cards and a pamphlet with important numbers and addresses for additional assistance if you live on the street and told them that Jesus loved them. It was a joy to see the grandkids helping pack the backpacks on the floor of the beach house as they added each of the items to the bags. We put them all together and the family circled them and prayed over them that the Lord would help us find people who needed these. People who might feel loved and important when they received the blessing bag. Then we loaded them all up in the baby stroller and headed to the beach! This is when we really had to put our Jesus glasses on. We said oh it will be easy to find people. But it wasn’t when we were looking in all the places that we went to. We had to travel a different path along the alleys, in the park under trees, on the beach in the early morning sleeping, in parking lots and public showers to find those in need. The little boys were so excited when we were able to give out the bags! As a parent and grandparent I silently prayed that the Lord will bless these children and grandchildren with a heart for service their whole lives! The people who received the bags were happy to get them and would immediately open them up to see what was inside. We left them with a God Bless You and many returned the sentiment.
I am so thankful to have been able to seek the Lord’s guidance and actually DO something with it! I know you are probably like me, full of good intentions and don’t always seem to turn that into reality while living this busy life! I hope you are inspired to Vacation With A Different View this year. Showing other people they are loved by you and God is never out of season and works on every coast, in every campground and in every city! Vacations are a time to see and do things we haven’t experienced before. To relax and rejuvenate our body, mind and souls. Vacations help us remember it is always good to come home. And now I hope your vacations are for showing others the Love of Christ where ever they are! I am going to try and be very intentional in the years to come to always pack my Jesus glasses right along with my vacation sunglasses! Enjoy the rest of your summer and show a little love wherever your journey takes you!
Carrie
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