My Mission Trip to China...

Well like I mentioned yesterday, Im off to China in two weeks time. This will be my first mission trip and while I must admit I am a little nervous, I am also really excited about the ways in which God can use me while I am over there. But no matter what happens, its definitely going to be an amazing experience! The below image shows where in China I will be.

My schedule for the trip is as follows:

2nd April - Fly to Hong Kong
3rd - Meet with mission team and fly to Xi'an in the afternoon.
4th - Orientation and travel to Sanmenxia.
5th - Tour of the welfare center
6th - 10th - Work with the children in the welfare center
11th - Rest day
12th - 14th - Work with the children in the welfare center
15th - Work with the children and debrief session in the afternoon.
16th - Travel back to Hong Kong via Xi'an
17th - Team ends after breakfast

The focus of the center I will be working at is abandoned children and young people who are disabled. Actually I have been using the incorrect term a lot, they are not actually orphans, but abandoned children. A lot of the people cared for at the center were left there by their parents. This is something that weighs quite heavily on my heart, the fact that a parent could even consider abandoning their child...but nevertheless I just hope that the time I can dedicate to spending with these children can make a difference in their lives and show them that there are people out there that do love and care for them.

The welfare center I will be traveling to is a new center which only opened last year, so we will be only the second group to travel there. But being a relatively small city, its really going to be different to what I experienced on my previous trip to China, where I was mainly visiting the larger and more well know cities.

So at the moment I am going through my preparations, my flight has been paid for, I go to pick up my VISA today, and this weekend I need to start purchasing things I need to take. One of the big things they ask us to bring is toys for the center, but I will most likely buy these in China.

So no doubt on return from my trip I will upload some photos to my blog to give you a glimpse of the wonderful experiences that Im sure to have!

I know it has been a while...

I know its been a long break since my last post...but I feel I have a new set of topics that I feel God has put on my heart to share. But tonight I just wanted to give a bit of an update on things...

Well it is 2 weeks until I will be setting of for China on my very first mission trip as I have mentioned previously. I will be traveling to the city Sanmenxia where I will be serving in a Orphanage. I will writing a post that more comprehensively covers my trip in the next couple of days.

Apart from that I have been working hard on a series of different projects. I am back at the gym working hard (be prepared for a scattering of gym related posts to come haha). The AFL Premiership season commences next week with the season opener being the mighty Blues up against the hapless Tigers. Cant wait!! The only downside to being on the mission trip will be that I miss 3 weeks of AFL...how will I cope? 

But something I wanted to quickly share tonight was something that I have been thinking about quite a lot lately, in relation to planning what Im going to do in the coming months. Sometimes I go ahead and try and map out my future, without taking in to perspective what God wants. Sometimes I worry so much about whats going to happen and what I am to do.

But it is times like this I remember the passage in Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus says the following:

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
 ²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The verse that stands our for me is verse 34 where he says do not worry about tomorrow. The fact is as long as we continue to put our faith in God and live our lives pleasing to God and following his word, we have nothing to fear and nothing to worry about.

So while I know I get a bit stressed over current situations, be it work related or personal life related, I always remind myself to live a life with faith trusting our loving father in heaven.