My Mission Trip to Nepal
While Nepal is known for its breathtaking mountain views and picturesque hillside villages, it’s also a source country for young women who are subjected to human trafficking. This March, I will be attending a mission trip to Nepal in support of Our Daughters International (ODI), whose mission is to bring an end to human trafficking and keep the women of Nepal safe. The nonprofit asked our church to come in for this specific mission, as they have a longstanding presence in Kathmandu and have built trust in the community.
I will be traveling with nine other men with the goal of offering our undivided time and attention to local women, sharing friendship and demonstrating the love of Christ. Our group also plans to meet with men in the community to discuss their role as it relates to family and women, and visit the Nepal-India border stations to witness how the ODI staff surveils the border crossing and searches for and rescues trafficking victims.
While human trafficking is a global crisis that’s bigger than me or the group I’ll be traveling with, I feel strongly, as men, there is more that we need to do to try and be advocates for women everywhere – in as many ways as we can. We are just one of many groups that have gone into this region, and will continue to go, to offer support where we can. And while I fully recognize that this is just one trip, I feel certain that I’m called to continue in this work, and I want to learn the things I need to do that I can bring back and share with my community.
Over the past eight years, I have gone on three other mission trips with my church – two medical mission trips to the Holy Lands, and one trip to a small village in Kenya, where we were immersed in the village and the culture of the areas we were supporting through the local partner organization embedded in that destination. For my trip to the Holy Lands, we worked with Seeds of Hope to create a small medical office that enabled local women to meet with an OBGYN, parents and their children to meet a pediatrician and for all ages to meet with physician assistants, nurse practitioners and other nurses.
These trips mean a lot to me personally, and even though I am just one person, I believe we can all make a difference with our time, our money and our attention. You can visit my profile page on ServiceReef to read my story, and if you feel led, you can donate to a cause that combines faith and service to help make life better for the women in Nepal. And even if you don’t donate, I hope you find something that calls to you personally and use your time and influence to work toward creating positive change.