When Park Rapids Eastsiders Amity and her husband decided to go to Mexico with the Global Compassion team this past summer, it was quite the leap of faith. “We needed passports, we need a new furnace, new propane for the upcoming winter season–we had needs, but God told us to go.”
Amity kept hearing the lyrics to the worship song, “Oceans”, resound in her head: Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters, wherever You would call me. “I wanted to get out of the boat, get onto the water and stand. We hear these lyrics, but do we respond to the call?” This summer, she and her husband certainly did.
In Mexico, Amity was struck by how genuinely happy the children were. As she kept interacting with these orphaned kids that exuded such joy despite having next to nothing, Amity realized that she had been letting her own difficulties in life get in the way of her own joyfulness. These kids acted like they had it made, and it both warmed Amity’s heart and convicted it.
One day, the Eastside team headed down to the Dump Community to offer sack lunches to the families living there. A young boy immediately approached Amity’s husband and bridged the gap between them and the poverty-stricken community they had come to visit. Amity got to speak with one woman in particular who had asked for three lunches to help feed her family, but was distraught to not have a fourth for the last member. Without hesitation, the same little boy gave his in sacrifice for this woman’s family.
Amity was astonished. How could this youth, living in the same conditions, not knowing where his next meal would come from, so readily give all he had to her? Amity and her husband left the country wishing they could have given more. How was it that their mission had been to give to this community, when in actuality, they had been the ones to receive?
Humbled and transformed, the married couple returned to their Minnesota home to discuss all they had learned with their two children who had stayed behind. At the ages of nine and six, Amity and her husband had chosen to leave them safely in Minnesota, for fear of what the foreign country might hold their young children. Amity explained that upon coming home, her mind had changed so drastically regarding the safety of her kids and that they had made the choice to make next year’s Mexico trip a family affair.
From her experience at City of Refuge Orphanage in Mexico, Amity’s perspective and passion in life underwent big change. She said to make actual impact for the Kingdom of God we can’t just experience “head change” by the knowledge we gain through the news we watch or the sermons we hear. We have to experience “heart change” that opens us to feel the hurt and the needs of this world to realize the eternal impact we have in this life.