Mission Trip Update #5-ish
I went to try to decide what title to put on this post and discovered that at one point last fall, I had a “Mission Trip Update” and then a “Mission Trip Video Update #1,” so I now realize my numbering system got corrupted pretty early.
But who’s counting?
No video this time, which is funny, because the update is actually about something that happened over video. Raise The Roof Academy scheduled a couple of videoconferences for people who are going (or still thinking about going) on this summer’s mission trip to Uganda. These are intended as loosely-structured Q-and-A sessions, and are primarily for people who have never gone on the RTRA trip before.
They announced two either-or options: today at noon or next Friday at 4 p.m. I decided to check on today’s teleconference — next Friday is a production night, and my night to stay late, so I’d be at the office for either option, but noon Friday is less busy than 4 p.m. Friday.
As it turns out, I was the only one who picked today’s teleconference, so it was just me and Marlene Ssebulime, the co-founder (along with her husband, the Rev. David Ssebulime) of RTRA.
Just to backtrack a little bit, all nine of my previous mission trips were with LEAMIS International Ministries. At the time I first went to Nicaragua with LEAMIS, I already knew its co-founder Gail Castle (then Gail Drake) through Mountain T.O.P., for which I was a board member.
LEAMIS no longer does that type of short-term team trip. They really stopped doing team trips about the time of my 2010 Kenya trip. My 2016 trip to Sierra Leone was just me and LEAMIS’ other co-founder, Debra Snellen, and the only reason we made that trip was that it had been in the planning stages for years but kept being delayed. Today, LEAMIS primarily places individuals in mission situations, often for longer periods than a one-week short-term trip.
I enjoy the dynamic of a team trip, and I’d been thinking about taking another mission trip, but nothing seemed like a good fit. Then, last summer, I was a chaperone with the youth from First United Methodist Church to Youth 2019, a big conference in Kansas City. It was there that I attended a breakout session about RTRA. I liked what I heard and signed up to receive more information.
The irony of this is that RTRA’s American headquarters is in Brentwood. David Ssebulime’s day job is as pastor of Hillcrest UMC in Nashville, a church where some of my Mountain T.O.P. friends attend. And yet I had to travel nine hours in a van full of teenagers to find out about them.
I decided to go on the trip, and feel like it was God’s call. But it’s felt a little strange up to this point. Other than attending the breakout session in Kansas City, all of my conversation with RTRA up to this point has been by e-mail. I attended a fund-raising dinner in Nashville in November, but even then the staff was understandably busy putting on the event. I had a lovely conversation with the folks at my table, including one veteran of previous RTRA trips, but I didn’t get to talk that night with anyone who was actually on the RTRA staff.
So it was kind of nice today to have a face-to-face conversation, even by video, and be able to ask questions. I think I understand a little more about the diferent potential service areas, although I haven’t yet made up my mind about which one suits me. As I think I said to Marlene at one point, it’s starting to feel real now.
Now, I’m looking forward to our actual in-person training sessions, which start next month. Those will include both first-timers and returnees (although there are some team members from out of state who will not be present).
Fund-raising hasn’t changed since my last video update, the one where I prattled on about hot sauce. I’m actually way ahead of my teammates, apparently, most of whom don’t start turning in money until the deadlines that start next month. But I am still looking at how much I have left to raise.
Monetary gifts to Raise the Roof Academy, with a note asking that they be applied to my trip expenses, are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. You can make a gift on my behalf in any of the following ways:
- Mailing a check to Raise the Roof Academy, Mission Trip, P.O. Box 92216, Nashville, TN 37209. Please write my name in the memo section of your check.
- You may also go to http://www.raisetheroofacademy.org/donate/ to donate with your credit or debit card, or checking account. Please choose “Mission Trip Support” from the drop-down menu and enter my name in the memo section.
If I am unable to participate in the trip for some reason, any monetary gifts raised toward supporting me will in turn be used to support the mission.
Thanks for your continued prayers and support.
