Mom on a Mission

Knowing she would be leaving soon for a three-week mission trip, Debra* sat holding her five-year-old until he drifted off to sleep. Both were crying and full of fear as it had been ten years since Debra participated in a mission trip without her children. But this summer she made the personal decision to go with an AIA women’s basketball team to Brazil.

“I was very hesitant of leaving my children. They are my three little hearts and leaving them felt like removing a part of me,” Debra says. “It was hard but I knew once I got out of there I would be OK and that God would somehow provide the grace that I needed to get through this.”

Although Debra would be leaving Noah, 10, Elijah, 9, and Jonah, 5, in the competent care of their father and grandmother, she was still anxious about being away from them for three weeks.

“I was fearful of them not being taken care of the way I would, just knowing their needs,” Debra says. “I was especially fearful of leaving my middle son who has Down Syndrome. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who understands his needs and I was very fearful of him wondering and worrying about where Mommy was.”

But with the encouragement from her husband and the help of a modern convenience, Debra was able to let go.

“My cell phone made me feel that comfort of knowing that they were just a phone call a way, it pretty much saved me to be honest. We talked daily. My five-year-old would call to tell on my ten-year-old and visa versa,” Debra says.

A missions trip over 5,000 miles away from her children was not the only new aspect of the experience Debra would be facing as this expedition would be her first women’s tour after 16 men’s baseball tours with her husband.

After being recruited by the AIA women’s basketball department to be the “team mom” and a discipler for this summer’s tour, Debra looked forward to spending time with college-aged women after so many summers spent with young men.

“The biggest difference between the men’s and women’s tours would be hormones and emotions. There was a lot more relational intimacy with the girls,” Debra says. “This team was such a precious group of ladies who were such a joy to be around and the relationships that I built with each girl on the team was amazing and so sweet for me.”

The team had the opportunity to share their faith at each game and at several children’s basketball clinics. As a result of the tour three players accepted Christ and Debra and her teammate’s experienced new personal growth.

“Just being able to step out of my comfort zone and realize that although I am a wife and mom first, I can still be used by God in the lives of others, and that I do have something more to offer than ‘just being a mom,’” Debra says.

“I also grew in realizing that my children will be cared for just fine because ultimately God is caring for them,” Debra adds. “I would encourage more mothers to go on mission trips to be refreshed and allow God to use them in the lives of others.”

For more information on the AIA women’s basketball tour in Brazil, please visit http://www.athletesinaction.org/TeamBlogs/author/Basketball-Brazil.aspx.

By Elaine Piniat, AIA summer intern in the communications d epartment.

Elaine.piniat@athletesinaction.org

*AIA’s policy is to use only first names of staff members in online stories.

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