Alison: Essentially, when I was in my early twenties, I felt like my life didn’t have that much meaning. I was looking for more purpose and I knew that God had something more for me and I just wanted to find out what that was. I really didn’t have any sort of expectation of what it would be like. I just knew that I wanted to go help people. I was also seeking greater fulfillment of God at the time.
Before you became a missionary what did you think your experience would be like?
Alison: I pictured some of the things that we did but once we got down there what we did far exceeded my expectations. I couldn’t even imagine the richness of the experiences of what it would be like. The people were so loving, grateful and thankful. I was going down there to help somebody else out but I found out that that trip would be a change for me.
Can you tell me some of the countries you went to and your length of time doing missions?
Alison: I did two different trips to Honduras that were each a week long.
What was the training you went through like?
Alison: That’s actually a very funny question because most missionaries go through a long extensive process of training, raising support money, and getting ready to go down there. At the time period when I went down there I wasn’t even a Christian. I had someone offer to take me and I didn’t realize how God was blessing me and divinely setting that up. I just said “Sure! Yah, I’d love to go!” And here there were so many people who had prayed, wrote letters, believed God to be sent down there financially. I think it was just because of the ministry call that God eventually had on my life that He put me in that position. But the next year I did have more of an awareness of what it would take to go down there again. I returned after giving my life to the Lord and being involved in church and ministry, but once again somebody just totally blessed me and paid for my trip, I didn’t even have to worry about it. The training we did when we were down there involved doing medical missions and we were also building a storage barn for the mission's base that they had. Essentially our training would be that they would give us a briefing that morning about what we would do, such as giving the children dental work. We would arrive and the Dentist would line us up and tell us what routine things we needed to do. They would also tell us nutritional tests to give the kids because a lot of children there have malnutrition. As far as the building project we had an overseer who would tell us what to do.
You spoke earlier about how someone miraculously helped you pay for the trip. Can you give more detail on that or maybe talk about an organization that was involved?
Alison: It was one of my best friend’s Dads. I think he was friends with the man who was on the board for HOI ( Honduras Outreach Incorporated ) and he wanted to take his daughter. I was pre-med at the time and she was going through nursing school. I think she told her Dad about me and he said “Yah, see if she wants to come too!” Her Dad became very instrumental in leading me to the Lord and so I believe he was doing it to reach out to her and I. It made a huge impact on us.
What was your main objective in Honduras?
Alison: For the second trip I just wanted God to use me in serving Him and sharing His love, being His hands and feet. That’s all I really wanted to do for God. It was neat because as we were down there building that building I was realizing since God is a Spirit He can’t just poof out of the sky and build a building, but He was using my hands and my feet to build the building. He used my heart to share His love with others. That was really exciting having that experience.
What was the greatest joy you experienced while there?
Alison: There were so many. On the first trip I was just really touched by God’s love. That was the first time I ever experienced His presence. A lot of times I still get choked up just thinking about that he went to that extent to win me to Him. I also made a lot of new friends who were Christians and that made a huge impact because all of my previous friends were druggies and partiers. I didn’t know what it was like to have friends who were kind and didn’t use coarse language, who looked at the right things in life. That really was a turning point for me in my life. I think the difference in the joy’s I experienced between the two trips was that the first trip I was really receiving God’s love while the second trip I was giving God’s love.
What was the greatest hardship you experienced while there?
Alison: Honestly? I loved every single bit of it. It was just the most incredible experience. We really didn’t have any hardship. There were just minor inconveniences like not having electricity or television, but having no T.V. was actually a huge blessing for us. I remember one time I had to take a bath in the river because the water was shut off temporarily, but that was fun.
Can you tell me the major religion and the language spoken there?
Alison: It was Spanish, and that would be the Catholic religion.
How did the locals receive you?
Alison: They were awesome. They were so hospitable. There was this one woman with 9 children who lived in this tiny shack. We went down there to visit her and she made us dinner and fresh tortillas, it was like we were the only people on the planet. That just blessed me to see how we can be so selfish with the things we have and here is someone who has nothing who is willing to give. It’s just a very different mentality. I have done inner-city ministry here too where the attitude can be “Oh, you owe me…where’s my hand out?” or “I don’t like this present, can I get another one?” It was so different from that. They were just so appreciative and grateful for everything we did for them.
Alison: We were on a compound because there were some people in the area who were robbers; we had a guard for when we were sleeping at night. We had two different rooms in the building we stayed in where the woman and men slept separately. There were about 8 beds per room. We had a power generator that was turned on at night. We had running water and a stream nearby. In the compound they had built this really nice kitchen but because the women were so used to cooking over a fire they didn’t want to work in the kitchen so they built a building outback for them. In the morning I would go while they were making our breakfast and drink coffee while the fog was raising over the rainforests and mountains…it was just beautiful. Our food was incredible. We did eat the native food there, which was good. Also, we were down there during the rainy season so it did rain about once a day.
Can you describe to me what one day in your life there was like? (daily routine)
Alison: We’d wake up early in the morning. I would get a little time to read and pray. I would go out and see the lady’s making breakfast and then we would go in and everybody would have breakfast together. Then we would have a devotional time for the whole group after breakfast and then we would commence to do a project. After our project was completed we would come back and eat and have our afternoon siesta during the heat of the day. After that we would get up and work again until dinnertime. After dinnertime we would just sit around and socialize or play games or sing. Lights were out pretty early though because we were on a power generator. But when the lights were out they were out. Nobody would be up doing anything. We did get to have some free time. I went out horseback riding in the jungle one time and one day we got to go to the beach.
How did the people respond to the Gospel?
Alison: I would say the way we were teaching the Gospel was mainly through service. Since it wasn’t a “ministry” trip it was mainly just ministering to people’s physical needs. We would be say “You know God loves you so much” to the people while we were helping them but it wasn’t really a ministering of the Gospel trip it was more just sharing God’s love by letting them know God cared about their physical needs too.
Can you tell one story of an amazing way God met a need?
Alison: Yah! How I got there in the first place! My friend had forgotten to get her passport and I found this out three days before we were supposed to go. I knew if she couldn’t go, I couldn’t go. So I told her to go ahead and try and get her passport. I knew I had to be down there so I prayed like I had never prayed before. You know what? The passport came back in time and we got to go!
In general, how was the experience of being a missionary rewarding to you?
Alison: I think it was just awesome to be a part of God’s plan this is bigger than yourself. Words can’t even describe. We think of our needs and the things that we want or will make us happy, but God knows what we need so much more than we do. God met needs I didn’t even know I had, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I think it was also great to be able to give people a taste of what I was experiencing by ministering to them.
What would you say to someone who is thinking of going on a mission trip or becoming a missionary?
Alison: Go for it! It’s awesome. It’s life changing. Don’t go down there to change someone else’s life, go down there expecting that you will be the one changed. I tell people as a Pastor, God not only uses you to impact people in the ministry but also uses the ministry to impact you. You have to go down there with an open mind and stay in close communion with God because He’s going to share and reveal things to you that will revolutionize your life.
Just for fun, can you tell me your favorite verse?
Alison: I have a lot, but two that are very foundational are Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” and 1 John 5:4 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
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