Home Front

James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

If you don’t know a lot about my family, you may still know that I have a lot of brothers and sisters. You may also know that four are from Ethiopia, and one is from China. My parents have a real heart for adoption, and because of that, my father has started an adoption group at our church called, “Pure Religion.”

I always thought the name was pretty cool. It makes me think, “Our religion is pure and yours isn’t because you don’t adopt kids.” However, in no way does that reflect pure religion at all. Even though it is still a cool title for a Bible Study, it means so much more than just having helped kids and even widows through adoption. For that, I thank my parents who truly have the desire to adopt and serve.

Our church, Faith Bible Church of the Woodlands, really pushes its congregation to go on Mission Trips every summer. There are maybe a dozen different trips that one can go on, and this year, I have been trying to figure our which trip I want to go on. My first trip that I attended was to the Dominican Republic, which I really considered this year. My second trip was to South Korea, where I also really enjoyed but there was no trip going there this year. My third was to Burundi, Africa, which once I again I really enjoyed.

So many different choices have shown themselves to me. However, I remember one day driving down into Conroe to shoot a video with a friend at a Jr. High School. If you know anything about downtown Conroe, it’s not the nicest place on earth. The houses are very close together and torn apart, people roam the streets with nowhere to go. In comparison to the Woodlands, which is but a ten-minute drive away, it is trashy and completely despised.

While my friend and I were shooting the video, we both noticed Conroe and thought to ourselves that there was a lot of work that could be done. I knew a ministry called Compassion International that had a little coffee-shop-like homeless ministry church. I had been there many times before, and today I went to go talk to the head director of it and talked about doing missions all summer long with them.

We talked about some ideas and really just laid the base down for what might happen this summer. However, I am super excited to maybe get the chance to make a difference just down the street. I understand that Africa and China and all the countries like that need to be reached, but how much more so the people that live across from us, or down the street.

Sometimes, I believe we get too focused on other countries, we forget what is going on here or what needs to be done. Maybe you’re thinking of doing a mission trip somewhere over the Atlantic or Pacific, but don’t be afraid to heed to the voice that says, “Just stay here and minister to those around you.” In fact, everyday should be considered a mission trip. You are called to go out to all the nations and preach the Gospel.

Going out to all the nations doesn’t mean you have to leave this one. – Forsake All