Not noticing. Not observing.
But really seeing –
with your heart wide open and no exit plan.
I avoided that cost for years.
Said no for all the right reasons.
Too busy. Too many obligations.
“Maybe next year.”
But the truth?
I didn’t want to be changed by what I might see.
And I knew that if I went… I would be.
Then Colin came to me and said,
“Papa, can we go on a LOLI trip?”
And this time – I said yes.
Not to a trip.
Not to a task.
To obedience.
And God met me in that yes.
Not with comfort… but with clarity.
Not with answers… but with a lens.
Because what I saw changed everything.
What I saw was poverty no system can fix.
What I saw was pain too deep for quick solutions.
What I saw was need – desperate, urgent, overwhelming.
And yet…
What I saw was God.
Not in the absence of suffering –
but right in the thick of it.
In the prayers of a mother who had nothing left but faith.
In the laughter of children who carried joy like it was oxygen.
In the hands of volunteers reaching out with purpose.
In the feet of teenagers walking dirt roads like the weight they carried mattered
I saw a teenage girl who, in just fifteen years of life,
has lived with more clarity and calling
than many adults live in a lifetime.
I saw people – of every age, every background – sweaty, tired, joyful – working side by side.
Not for credit.
Not for photos.
But for the glory of God.
I saw the body of Christ – sweating, singing, serving.
And through all of it – I saw Jesus.
Not the version we package in programs,
but the Jesus who walks dusty roads, touches the untouchable,
feeds the hungry, and speaks to the forgotten by name.
What I saw changed me.
And it’s still changing me.
Because seeing with God’s eyes doesn’t just change what you notice – it changes who you are.
