GROWING UP JASON ~ The Mission (Patreon)

Before leaving for Venezuela in the summer of 2019, I had been struggling with Ailana’s modeling career. I’ll soften my thoughts now, looking back, to say it felt off. I’ll give you a more honest discussion of what I was thinking in another chapter.

I had also been struggling with a deep—and reasonable—feeling that, with college complete, I needed to set aside some significant time for Christian service. Dad knew a man who, at that time, led work-mission trips, and he had one leaving that summer for Venezuela. He needed an assistant and had asked if I wanted to be it.

So, for good reasons, I felt pulled to go. And for reasons I couldn’t fully articulate, I felt like I needed to go.

Ailana’s posing for the anatomy book jolted me. I know she knew that, and we were dealing with it. When she decided to take the money to pose for some ad work for an augmentation clinic, I couldn’t get my head around it.

I joined the mission trip.

It was the best decision I ever made. On one hand.

On the other hand, it was also a critical blow to my relationship with Ailana. That decision ended something that had been growing since the fall of 2011.

A few details about the mission…

The leader of the trip was a man named Steve McDonald. He was a 59-year-old baby boomer, an ordained minister who’d rather have a tool belt around his waist than a tie around his neck.

He was a man who could look at a building supply yard, think about a church ten miles away that needed the porch repaired, and pull the supplies to do the job without a list.

The first lesson I learned—with which I’ll end this chapter—was that work ethic didn’t get left on the baseball diamond.

I played shortstop and second base from the time I was ten all the way through college. Somewhere, I managed to transfer my sports dedication to the classroom.

Steve created the opportunity for me to further transfer dedication and game-time intensity to work in general. It might seem that this first lesson is disconnected from my crisis with Ailana, but it was—and is—nevertheless a key part of who I am.

Be your best you!

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