You Know You're On The Short Term Mission Field When...

A little background:
This past week, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Base Camp. This camp, operated out of a local church, gives youth the opportunity to go out into their community doing mission work. There were several different teams: Construction, Yard Work, Assisted Living, Critical Needs (who saw to making sure all of the teams had food to eat during the day, Journey (I'm really not sure what they did), Inner City Day Camp, and Hispanic Day Camp, which is where I was placed. The entire camp was so alive! We really felt like we were being the hands and feet of Jesus, getting out there and actually DOING something. I'm so grateful to have had this experience.

 Now. You know you're on the short term mission field when....

• Your eyes are opened to needs that you didn't even know existed
• The little things (smiles with teeth full of cavities, hugs, kisses, random dance parties) are the things that make your day-heck, your entire WEEK!
• There are about three little Hispanic kids that you wish you could adopt
• You wish that you could play with every kid at day camp, but the Lord calls you specifically to pour love into only a couple
• You're a little surprised when some black kids show up too, but you just figure that they need the love of Jesus just as much as the Hispanic kids do, so you love on them too.
• When the week starts, you're nervous about the language barrier
• But as time goes on, you find out that love is the universal language!
• Plus, you find a couple of kids who can speak Spanish and English, and they can act as your mini-translators. 
• You grow close to the people on your team who love the kids just as much as you do
• Seeing that you've put a smile on a child's face is the best feeling EVER
• On waterslide day, 8 kids come up to you at once saying, "Will you go with me? Please?" 
• You think speaking English in a funny accent will make the kids understand it. Yeah, no...
• During response time at worship, you write letters to some prisoners.
• You later find out that you wrote them to the prisoners at the jail right behind the park that you've been doing day camp at. How's that for the Lord's plan?
• When you're tired out, you have to remind yourself, "Hey, I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for THEM and HIM."
• You NEED worship every night so you can recharge
• You somehow, incredibly, get the chance to share the Gospel with some kids, one on one.
• You are amazed at how much stuff you can do in one day, and wonder how in the world you can just sit around the house all day back home
• Prayer is essential
• Battle scars: ant bites, sunburns, face paint in a glob on your arm, sore muscles from picking up children, a smile as big as the sun, and a heart softened by their innocence
• Your heart is broken when you learn that your kids know where the gangs fight and drink, and realize that they live with that every day
• There's that one kid that just wants to pick a fight. You need to love on him just as much.
• Somehow, 5 hours of sleep is enough to keep on going
• You hear a thousand stories of how small things like cleaning out a refrigerator have shown the love of Christ in the most powerful way.
• The Lord sends you people to laugh with, cry with, lean on
• You do crazy things, like get up in front of 150 people and dance like you've gone insane! (That was a serious lesson in obedience.)
• You're experiencing so much that you don't even have time to think!
• You fall in love with your kids and wish you didn't live two hours away.
• Making Kool-Aid is an art.
• When you get home, you have strep, pink eye, and a head cold. Not a coincidence. Totally worth it for being able to love on them for a couple days.
• You're so pumped up that you hate that hour of dead time
• You feel compassion for the most unexpected people
• Being by yourself is a curse and a delight: There are those times when you feel lonely. But when you do feel alone, you are forced to rely on the Lord, making you learn that he's the best friend you're ever going to have.
• Three and a half days are enough to know that you want to be a missionary for life.