“My number one main goal is to spread the Gospel because it’s so vital and so important,” Blue Ridge resident Journey Dent said. “I feel like everybody needs a chance to at least hear it even if they don’t accept it. I want to let them know that they have people that care about them and that are praying for them.”
Dent, a recent high school graduate, will spend the next five weeks in Chiclayo, Peru doing mission work at the Morning Star Children’s Home.
According to Dent, she discovered the opportunity while praying for guidance on her next steps in life.
“I found out a few months ago some friends of ours had been praying for some ministry workers in Peru,” she said. “I had been praying for what God was going to do through me after I graduated and I just didn’t have answers so I continued to pray. The opportunity came up and I just felt like that was what God was calling me to do.”
The Morning Star Children’s Home is an orphanage in Chiclayo that was founded in October of 2006 by Florida natives, Tom and Carol Clark. At that time only four spaces for children were available, which were quickly filled. Today, a family of four lives on the second floor of the home and cares for the boys and the first floor is home to the girls, who are cared for by different substitutes who work in shifts.
“I know a few things I’ll be doing is getting the kids ready for school and other stuff,” Dent said. “Really, wherever they need me. I’ll just be able to help in whatever capacity I can.”
She is most excited to see how the Lord uses her during her time in Peru, however she is a little nervous about flying on a plane for the very first time.
“I’ve never flown before,” she said with a laugh. “So I’m a little nervous about that. … I believe it’s a seven hour flight, and I’m making a stop in Panama on the way there.”
Dent is currently unsure of what her future post Peru holds, however she hopes to use this experience to determine if mission work is something she will continue to do in the future.
“This is kind of like, I don’t want to say it’s a tester, but to maybe see if this is what God wants me to do for the rest of my life,” she said.
While Dent has done mission and volunteer work in the community, this will be her first traveling mission trip. The trip will be a solo one and in this instance nothing was pre-planned by an organization or church, so she and her mother, Lisa Dent, worked to ensure the trip could be successful for her.
“My mom definitely helped me,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to do a lot without her.”
Her flight departs Friday, September 27, but before flying out she wanted to thank everyone who had a hand in helping her prepare for the trip, including her First Baptist Church of McCaysville and Copperhill family.
“I wanted to thank everybody for their support,” she said. “My church has been very supportive and giving and my family and friends have just encouraged me as I’ve gone through this, so I really appreciate that.”