Comfort Zones

 As a wise man (ie. Facebook) once said:  “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”   And just two days into this mission trip and I can tell you that truer words have never been spoken! 

We come here from a world of convenience and security.  Our lives are plush, and pampered, and most of all, sheltered.  But what I don’t think we ever really realized is that...... we are spoiled, rotten, brats. 

While neither of us would trade this experience, we very much miss our modern conveniences from home.  Some are the most simple things we take for granted, like a hot shower at the end of a day, or being able to use the water that comes out of the faucet to brush your teeth. Others are bit more life-impacting, like having a choice of when/where and what you want to eat, and having consistent electricity (necessary for air conditioning on a 95 degree day!).  None are meant to leave you “without” intentionally, but are done rather out of necessity.  For we are not “living” in a world with many of the conveniences we take for granted.  And the limited use of the resources we have are a major luxury, not to be used wastefully.

But with all of the minor inconveniences we have experienced, and as much as they start to quickly wear on you, and start to push you outside of your comfort zone, they are still, in reality, very minor.   And today we realized just how minor they were.

We started today very much like the last few days.  Up by 7am, breakfast at 8, and on the road at 9am.  Prepared with nothing in our pockets except lint.   And as we left, armed with nothing, nothing could have prepared for us for what we were about to walk into.  

Our day was divided between visiting the hospital for sick and dying babies and visiting a center for the severely disabled and abandoned.

It was powerful to spend the morning holding and playing with babies stricken primarily with Tuberculosis and/or malnutrition.  However, physical discomfort came from tired arms and emotional discomfort came when we had to put them down and say ‘au revoir’ and their lungs turned to screams and faces turned to tears.

While visiting the babies was an emotional experience, the afternoon was beyond words – the epitome of being outside our comfort zone and quite simply, terrifying. 

Since nobody from our mission team had been to the center prior to this visit, nobody had any idea what to expect.  As we entered the center and approached the children, it was vividly apparent how apprehensive everyone was during the first 5 minutes of the visit. 

Kristie:  “Having no past experience working with people with disabilities to this degree, all I could think about is, “What do I do?”   Luckily, I was surrounded by courageous people who showed me the way.  As my boss used to tell me, “Fake it ‘til you make it!” so that’s what I did.   Eventually I was able to just relax, be my self, and have fun.  There was no greater joy than seeing the smiles on their faces.”

Melody:  “My initial reaction was emotional grief, sadness and heaviness of heart seeing the severity of the physical handicaps of the residents.  I didn’t know what to do, and yet somehow once the first the touch; the first smile; the first laugh happened, the sadness and heaviness turned to joy.”

God works in amazing ways.  We were brought to these two locations today to bring joy comfort to the children we encountered.  However you have to wonder, throughout this mission’s journey, whose lives will be most impacted.  The individuals we meet, or us. And what possibilities will be opened up to us by learning to live so outside of our comfort zone.

Kristie Sullivan & Melody Healey