5 Month Mission Trip

Life

Courtney (who came with me to Sierra Leone) and I were doing our homework in a coffee shop when I told her about a trip to Spain I heard about. Then and there we decided we were going to apply. From there we realized that the trip to Spain is only three months long so why not take advantage of the opportunity! What if we took off a semester and traveled the world going on different missions? And that is how we left the coffee shop; with big dreams. A month later we got accepted, and now it’s weird to think that our big dreams are starting to become a reality. God opened the door for us, we prayed about it, and decided to walk through.

Doors God has Opened:

Spain: January 15^th-April 13^th

The College of Education is partnering with the government of Spain that has a program that is sending ten students to Spain to teach English for 3 month with all expenses paid for.

Sierra Leone: April 14^th-May 9^th

I have not stopped missing my kids from Sierra Leone since I left. There are times I just cry thinking about them going to bed at night with out a hug. So I am so excited to return and see them. Courtney and I will be returning by ourselves and will be living in the orphanage again. Our goal in going here is to live and talk with the children in the orphanage and the people and children in the villages, and come up with different story lines to create a children’s book. Once we have the story line we will have students draw pictures for the story. Then when we return to America we hope to get these stories published for these children. Hopefully, we can bring enough awareness to this so that we can have people purchase a book to send overseas to a child, house, or teacher to use.  We hope to bring this idea into other developing countries around the world for children.

India: May 10^th-June 10^th

I have also felt a strong calling to India so after Sierra Leone Courtney and I will be traveling to India where we will be staying a month with a missionary couple that works with Pioneers. Here we will be letting God guide us as we build relationships with people and reach out to the community and specifically street children.

What God Has Placed on My Heart

My heart goes out to the children who are poor and orphaned in the world. These children are not tucked into bed, they are sleeping on the streets. They are alone, invisible, and unloved. I have felt a strong calling from God and I have prayed about the fact that so many children need a mother. They need someone who will live with them, love them, give them support, and make them feel wanted for the first time in their life. God has given me a mission heart for children who are the poorest of the poor and for people who have never heard the truth of the gospel. I am taking a step of faith to see where God is calling me.

My family will be far away, nothing is secure, heartache and sadness will come. But when I think about the opportunity to love even one child…its WORTH IT! And a life for God is a life surrendered to God and to follow his purpose for my life.

Support

This is a journey that I would love for you to be apart of with me. Together through pray and support we can transform the lives of children who WILL transform their nation. We CAN do it if we WILL! If you are interested in being a part of this new journey with me either by partnering in prayer or financially please email me at jesi.shearhod@gmail.com so that I can have your email to update you while I’m away. The total for India and Africa is going to be an estimated cost of $5100. 

There are two ways to financially support my trip: please email me at jesi.shearhod@gmail.com if you would like my address or if you would like to give me your address to send a support letter.

 You can support me directly by clicking on the donate button to the right of the blog. (this is not tax-deductible and will go towards my trip to India) 

Or For Sierra Leone:

If you are sending a check make it out to Children of the Nations and include the team code (SL_TJS411) on the memo line.

I send the money I receive to Children of the Nation every other week

By Computer:

Donate online at http://www.cotni.org/opportunities/7

In the subject line put my name (Jesica Shearhod) and my team number (SL_TJS411)

Children of the Nations will then notify me of funds received.

 

 

 

They are Real

I have always known that people are affected much more with issues of slavery, sex trafficking, starvation, and malnourishment when they personally know the people who are being affected. If your son was starving you would do anything you could to feed him. If your sister or your wife was being trafficked for sex or if she was raped (even one time) you would want to do anything to bring her justice, and stop it from happening again. If your best friend was being worked 6 days a week for 15 hours a day, treated horrible, and paid nothing you would get them out of that surrounding. You would never purchase anything from the company exploiting him/her. And yet there are sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands, friends dying from starvation, scared from being trafficked, overworked from slavery and yet we do nothing.

The other day I had the most amazing opportunity to watch a 2 week old baby and she was so precious. I loved to watch her sleep because in her I saw innocence. Then I begin to think of this innocent little girl in the conditions of children around the world and it made my heart sink. I put her name on the girl dying of starvation and malnourishment, on the girl lying on the brothel floor praying that she wont have to give herself to another man, on the girl who has been injured numerous times by the machines she works with all day and doesn’t have a chance to a childhood. Then it began to become real. This child could be me… this child could be someone I love. This child is someone who is loved by someone.