By Liz Grant

When it was suggested to us we write letters to God as part of our preparations for our mission trip, I thought it was a pretty cool idea. So I wrote a letter with all the usual stuff in it. When they were handed back mid week, I was reminded that I had written I was worried about missing the reason or purpose of my mission trip. I asked God for clarity in recognizing and acknowledging my purpose in this trip.

On the very last day , in the very last hours of our trip I received my answer. When the bus we had taken to the AMG headquarters was backing up to park, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Russ with tears in his eyes pointing to a yellow rose in full bloom growing alongside of the building. I knew without words what he was feeling.

Russ’s mom loved yellow roses…even now, you will often find one carefully placed on her headstone. In that moment of unspoken words I felt God’s love and the clarity I had prayed for. That it was always God’s plan at work, that everything was going to be okay. That maybe it’s not about holding on as it is about letting go. That maybe when we’re so busy looking for our purpose we forget that we are often…The Purpose. That maybe what God wants from us is just simply to believe.

The mission trip was a beginning for me, not an ending. I thank God for His grace and patience with me… and I thank Him for yellow roses.