I spent last summer in Bangkok, Thailand. Those two months opened my eyes to the beauty of different cultures and my heart to all the poor and powerless of the world.  

I learned to love people who were as different from me as one could get. As I heard the stories of the prostitutes, slum kids, and refugees I worked with, they were no longer the unrelatable faces of a statistic or cause to me. Instead they became my friends and suddenly didn’t seem so different from me. By learning their stories and coming into their lives, I was able to love them for who they were, wherever they were at. 

Walking away from that summer, there was a shift in how I desired to live my life. I became far less concerned with exactly how I was spending my time and more concerned with who I was loving.  I discovered I wanted to build bridges of understanding between people who were different and invest in people’s lives and stories wherever they were at. 

I now have the opportunity to do this in a new spot on the globe. I will be able to experience what building communities and loving people and bringing hope looks like in an entirely different context than I have seen before.  I will get to learn from those who live there full-time, doing the hard and messy work of restoration and redemption day-in and day-out. I never expected to spend another summer on another side of the globe, but I am so excited to have the opportunity to do so. Through this summer, I hope to be able to better understand this region and use that connection to love and serve all those living there.

The mission of Preemptive Love Coalition is to provide lifesaving heart surgeries to Iraqi children born with congenital heart defects. They provide medical treatment not otherwise available and are working to rebuild the medical infrastructure in Iraq by training Iraqi doctors and nurses to perform these surgeries themselves. This is all done to pursue peace, develop communities, and bring hope where there is none to those they help and interact with. Although I won't be helping medically (yet...), I will contribute to their vision by doing behind-the-scenes work in their office and utilizing my passion for writing and using stories to build understanding between people.

I'm extremely excited to first-hand see an organization use medicine to do long-term community development, something I hope to do myself someday. To be able to go, I need to raise $4500 by March 31st to cover my travel and living expenses for the summer. 

I hope you will partner with me on this journey and the amazing things PLC is doing. Every small donation is so important in helping me to be able to help others. Please share with anyone else who may be interested in supporting me. 

Also please visit http://preemptivelove.org/ for more information on the incredible work PLC is doing. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to email me at aliciach.17@gmail.com. Thank you for all your love and support in my life and for helping me love those God has called me to love!