Why I'm Me...

Last night I had an epiphany. Ok, maybe that's too strong a word for what I actually had; but, I did have a pleasant realization. It's always amazing to me the way that your upbringing more or less controls your personality. Think about it, your circumstances, especially as a child are primarily responsible for who you are as a person. That's why cloning people would be a catastrophe. Your environment is the primary factor in your personality- Even if you cloned someone you could never clone their personality, different environment, different person. Anyway, why cloning wouldn't work wasn't my semi-epiphanic moment. Not directly anyway. What I did realize was the reason why I have a heart for missions and why I want to travel the world. And do you know how this started?
It started because last night, I watched The Chipmunk Adventure. Yes, the 1987 classic where The Chipmunks and the Chipettes were on a balloon race around the world. I must have watched that movie a hundred times, and I'm pretty sure that watching that movie and seeing those loveable Chipmunks race around the world and see all those places was a big factor in why I am hungry to travel. Funny how things affect you, huh? Well, after I started pondering that for a bit, I started to realize more about why I'm me and especially why I'm going into the mission field.


Why I Have a Heart for Missions: A short essay by Gillian Baikie

When I was growing up, I probably had a fairly normal childhood. Well, as normal as possible in the crazy family I live in. But nonetheless it was for the most part normal. However, I did have a few things in my life that weren't so typical. For instance, My cousins and I (who all grew up together) spent about half of our childhood lives at Grammy and Grandpa's house. This was so that we wouldn't have to go to daycare. We would get dropped off at their house in the morning, they would take us to school and pick us up at 3:30 then our parents would pick us up from their house. Summers, we would do the same, except there wasn't any school, so we would spend the whole day there. This is where I learned that family comes first, and that what I consider my immmediate family is what most people consider their extended family. My cousins are more like brothers and sisters, my grandparents were a second set of parents. Second, while most happy-go-lucky kids spent their time after school playing and not having a care in the world, our after school time would consist of helping sort clothes, carrying boxes of food or toys or clothing, and loading up vans. "Why?" you ask. Because my grandma and grandpa started Roadrunner for Christ, a non-profit mission that was founded to collect food, clothing, toys, and all sorts of other things. What's weird about that? They ran the whole thing out of their house, which was constantly filled with non-perishable food items, boxes and all sorts of things that they sorted, stored in their garage, shed, basement, and yes, even their living room until they loaded up their 15 passenger van with all the donations. Once the van was ready, they would drive it down themselves to the Ysleta Lutheran Mission in El Paso, Texas, a small church focused very much on poverty relief across the Mexican border. Often they would take it themselves over the border, as well as to the Hopi Indian Tribe (my grandma is Hopi) and to the Tarahumara (pronounced Tawra-Mawra) Indian Tribe in Mexico. We essentially were free child laborers. Which leads me to my next example. While most kids spent their summers on the slip-n-slide and going on beach vacations, our summers consisted of vacations to some of the most impoverished parts of the border of Mexico. We would go with my grandma and grandpa when they would take a load down, help for a little bit at the Mission, and go across the border to take supplies and donations to poverty-stricken areas, and when I say impoverished, I mean cardboard boxes for houses and no running water. However, this wasn't weird for me at all. This was just my typical summer vacation and I loved it. My grandparents, without even knowing it, set an incredible example about caring for people and showed me about caring for others. I mean, for crying out loud! They spent their golden years packing up donations with boxes surrounding their entire house and then in 15 passenger van driving the same road 3 or more times a month down to Mexico to drop off all these things! I used to hate loading vans. I wanted to be the happy-go-lucky kid that just worried about how long it's going to take to set up the Slip-n-slide, but everytime we would complain, we were just reminded how much others needed our help more. My childhood wasn't normal I guess, but I'm glad for it, and so thankful that God blessed me with grandparents and a family who truly set a Christ-like example of caring for others. My great-grandmother was a missionary too. I guess I'm just carrying on the family tradition.

My Heroes:



My other Heroes- well, my inspirations: