With wings on my heart
I think it must have started when I was young, my love of other places. My parents encouraged reading (required may be a more accurate definition). It was well known that every holiday came with a book of some sort. I began traveling the world with and through those books. They ruined me! After I began reading, nothing was ever the same. As I got older, I began dreaming about visiting those places I'd only ever seen in my dreams. It became my obsession.
I went on my first missions trip to England when I was 13. I instantly fell in love. England captured my heart. It was a place I had been dreaming of visiting since I was 7. The trip only confirmed what I already knew, I LOVED ENGLAND! I feel like the rest of my life was built on the dream of someday returning.
Kenya was a learned love. It wasn't a place I dreamed of visiting, or a country I knew a great deal about. It simply existed on the map as another place I could check off. When I was originally asked to go on a trip in 2009, I said no. I didn't feel a burden for the country and didn't have the desire to go. Lucky for me, the team leader didn't accept that answer. After making a deal with God, I found myself on a plane headed to a place I thought I wasn't called to. I couldn't have been more wrong. I have never fallen in love with my surroundings as quickly as I did in Kenya. It stole my heart and I have never been the same.
I feel as if my heart has grown wings! I can no longer restrain my urge to fly to the distant lands that are calling my name.