Give Me Your Eyes

Hola! I’m excited to share about my upcoming trip to Arequipa, Peru in November with Medical Ministry International (MMI), which is a non-profit Christian organization. http://www.mmint.org. I will be volunteering for a week from Nov. 21 to 28 with a team of 25 physiotherapists and occupational therapists from different parts of the world to provide services at a medical clinic there. Some team members will also have the opportunity to travel to more rural areas to provide services as well.

It has been a hope of mine to be able to go to a developing country to volunteer. Growing up in Canada, I have never had to worry about being able to afford healthcare, or having enough to eat, or finding shelter. Of course, one hears in the news and am reminded about the “starving children in third world countries” if there is extra food left on the plate at the end of a meal; however, there’s a difference between knowing about something second hand and knowing it through experience and seeing it yourself.

Take for example living in Vancouver, people would comment about how multicultural the city is. I heard it quite often when I lived here during high school. In fact my high school did a survey once while I was there and I believe there were over 20+ languages that students spoke at our school. However, it wasn’t until I lived in Australia and experienced overt racist comments directed at me from complete strangers (albeit only a few times in couple years, most people were lovely) that I came back and appreciated the mosaic of cultures and general acceptance and curiosity people have here as a whole.

In the same way, I know that there are people who live in poverty, who struggle to get enough food and go to bed hungry, people who aren’t able to afford health care or an education, people who live with injuries and disabilities, but hopefully by going and meeting them in person I can develop a greater heart for them and have it translate to how I live my life in Vancouver as well. One week is a short amount of time to make a difference, but I hope to share a bit of the many blessings God has given me while I’m there.

The song by Brandon Heath, Give Me Your Eyes sums it up quite well.