January - spent 8 days in Jamaica, working at the Falmouth Medical Clinic. Great trip - great weather - great people. Learned a lot about the nursing profession, as well as pharmacy. Learned a great deal about the culture in Jamaica, as well. I even ate ox tail for the first time. That was interesting.
February - spent a few days in Greensburg, Ks, working in residents' homes recovering from the May 2007 tornado. Again, great trip - and surprisingly, great weather. One day, it was 77 degrees - that's unheard of in Kansas in February! Construction trips are always a learning experience for me - I am now pretty competent in sheet rocking, mudding, and painting...things I never knew how to do very well before my immersion in mission trips. Now I just need to master plumbing and electrical work! Ha!
March - we'll be spending a few days up at Camp Wilderness in Lawson, MO, on the Family Mission Trip that our church offers. My kids love this mission trip - besides having fun, we try to teach the kids the importance of reaching out to assist others - and giving back. This year, I heard our project may include building tree houses - that will be a new one! Each year, it's hard to drag our kids away from this when it's time to go home. I'm going to leave them this year...seriously. Who needs kids?!
May - Galveston, here we come! Dates are May 9-16th. Now, this is one of two trips that I'm in charge of this year. I'm hoping to have between 25-30 people going down to Texas to assist in the recovery after Hurricane Ike. I've been working with the United Methodist Conference Coordinator in Texas, on getting lodging and paperwork taken care of. I am VERY excited about this trip - I can't wait to get back to the island and reconnect with some of the people I met when I was there last September after Ike.... We have room for more people - let me know if you want to go!
June - Okay, no mission trip this month for me, as Mike and I will be going to Europe for two weeks to celebrate our 10th anniversary. So - I'm planning excursions to Venice, Rome, Cannes, Florence, Greece - woo hoo! Just got our air fare booked yesterday - hotel is booked - so, I think we're almost all set. Now, I just need to brush up on my Italian....yeah, right. Spanish is hard enough for me. Heck, ENGLISH is hard enough for me.
July - Guatemala, for the 7th time. Trip dates are July 3 - 12th...and it's filling up. Won't take more than 18 people on this trip - and even 18 people is rather large, for the conditions that we face while there. Again, this will be an opportunity to see people in Guatemala that I only get to see once a year - and that's exciting! We'll be working in a new village this year - a much smaller village - working on a water project. This is the 2nd trip I'm leading this year, and it takes a lot of work for it all to come together. But, I love it! Wouldn't change a thing
August, September, October - well, I imagine I'll be busy with Red Cross and hurricanes...although I can always pray that it's a slow season and the U.S. doesn't get hit with any major hurricanes this year. Even so, I usually leave those months open, just in case I'm needed somewhere.
That's it...so far...but if you hear of any more trips, let me know! I can always be persuaded! Especially to warm weather places, like Jamaica or Hawaii! (Speaking of Hawaii - I'd still like to put a trip together for 2010 - if you're reading this, Dwayne, let me know!)
Deep-sea fishing in Hawaii last year
Be sure to do YOUR part today to change the world - one day at a time, one action at a time...look around for a mission trip to get involved with; they really are life-changing.
Peace.
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