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Shopping for Trust

Community-Refridgerator

Missioner-in-training Dae Doseff’s first reflection from formation touches on what life is like in the community house where the missioners-in-training live with our volunteers and other residents.

Trust is one of the most difficult things for me to do in life. Trusting myself to make good decisions, trusting that God’s plan is going to be better than mine… NOT EASY. This is something I am learning to do while in formation. I will not succeed in mission or in my life if I cannot trust.

A peek in the community fridge

Here in the house we all have to trust each other. This week, my house chore is the privilege/responsibility to do the grocery shopping for the house.

Shopping for a community of 12 people who have never lived together before is challenging to say the least. We talked to everyone about what to buy, wrote lists, gathered our reusable shopping bags, and headed off to the store, with everyone trusting us to bring back enough food to last us a week.

My innermost control-freak was glad that I was one of the two selected to go shopping so that I could make sure we got the right things, but the doubter in me second-guessed every choice, wondering if it was really what the rest of the community had been hoping for. In the end, we had to trust our judgement to make these decisions for everyone else.

In the end, some of our choices were better received than others. But we also learned from the experience, how to better communicate together in the future, and that making mistakes doesn’t necessarily make us untrustworthy shoppers. We were able to pick up a few more things that we needed as the week went on.

The kitchen of Casa San Salvador

One aspect that originally attracted me to Franciscan Mission Service was the possibility of serving in Kenya. As I struggled with God’s call to mission, and the placement I had hoped for becoming unavailable, I was tested to trust God in a bigger way.

Through many tears and conversations, I had to remember that I have asked God to lead me in life, and that he brought me here, not to go to Kenya, but to serve him by serving those who need it most. I have to trust that he knows me better than I know myself, and that his plans are better than mine. And I’m now excited to be trusting in God’s wisdom and guidance as I prepare to go serve him in Bolivia!

Born and raised in Columbia, Md., Dae Doseff is a graduate from Longwood University with a degree in English. She most recently spent a year teaching English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia. With a passion for history, dance, and diversity in culture, she looks forward to serving in Bolivia.

We prepare and support lay Catholics for two-year international, one-year domestic and 1-2 week short-term mission service opportunities in solidarity with impoverished and marginalized communities across the globe.

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