The first time we spoke we were strangers. Without knowing anything about each other, she entrusted her family to me, her finances and her memories, I entrusted my safety, my time and my knowledge. Not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly met with a “dashing” young family of boys…ahem…men, and a mother who carried herself with grace and respect.

My attitude when approaching a session is this…I don’t know you…but what you are asking me to do is so important that after this time, we will be called friends. I asked questions, she was gracious enough to answer. She loves the Lord…so do I…she knows about missions…so do I. Her mission field is so powerful…she gives love to expectant parents who need love. Guidance, gentle nudges, clothes, diapers, ultrasounds so they can see the beautiful life forming within them before they decide to end it, and if they already have…she helps them with forgiveness, because there is nothing too great that our God will not or cannot forgive. Read that sentence again if you need to.

Her house of life is located in the middle of seven…yes you heard that right…seven clinics that serve the opposite purpose. When I dropped off her prints, I got to see the amazing work her ministry does.  We talked, and she listened to me, the ramblings of a tired young mom with high energy young children. She empathized, and prayed for me. I immediately wanted to do everything in my power to remain close to this woman and help her cause. Raising multiple boys, she knows the life of a mother, the angst, the trials, the joys.

Later on her blog, in some of the most beautiful words I have ever read, she described my mission field, your mission field, as a mom who is just starting out. As a mom who still gets up at night, changes diapers, wipes faces and goes to bed exhausted…

“…her mission trips are to the jungles of the laundry room where small children try to climb into the dryer,
or the wetlands of a plastic pool on a muddy spot of lawn.
It means singing hymns to a congregation of three before bedtime, and eating with the natives.
It means being the physician to a patient with a skinned knee, and uttering words of comfort into the ear of the broken-hearted.
It means living with warriors and princesses.”

If I only met her to hear those words, then I am thankful. In discovering my mission field, a cloud of uselessness can hover at times. Watching my husband travel to far away places, talk to people about the Love of Christ and in the worlds eyes be “used”. Or seeing her ministry, literally praying hearts into turning towards life, and nine months later when that child is born, there is tangible evidence of God’s awesome power.

Yet I know in God’s eyes, my mission field is great, maybe the greatest? There are three tiny beings who if I don’t put priority on my calling…will most likely grow to know nothing of the Lord or of their amazing potential. There is absolutely no one better than I to kiss those skinned knees or prepare tiny toddler meals or wipe ever running noses. Me…their Mama.

{Thank you Tricia. I am blessed by your friendship. }

To learn more about the ministry that Tricia is involved in, visit http://alternativespc.org/