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ZOEgirl on the Mission Field
By Joe Montague
Chrissy Conway of ZOEgirl sat with a young girl in Nicaragua in 2004
and as the child took Chrissy’s hands into her own dirty hands she
marveled at the carefully sculptured nails. Chrissy’s life was about to
be changed forever. Chrissy often tells the story at concerts during
the group’s presentation of Compassion Ministries. ZOEgirl was
participating on a mission trip and little girl’s hands were dirty
because the village she lived in lacked the basic necessities of life
such as clean water. The village people also lacked sufficient food and
medical supplies.
With her heart breaking for those less fortunate, Chrissy and I
recently talked about her participation in ZOEgirl’s mission trip to
Quito Ecuador this past July.
“After seeing the poverty with my own eyes and holding these
children that need so much and have so little I can no longer sit back
and just wait for someone else to go help. God has given me a
responsibility to do anything and everything I can to help these
people,” says Chrissy. In discussing why she undertook her fourth
mission trip in as many years the singer says, “There is a need beyond
comprehension outside of our United States bubble. After seeing the
need with my own eyes I am forever changed.” She goes on to say that
even the poorest people in our countries (United States and Canada)
doesn’t compare to the poverty that some of the people of countries
like Ecuador and Nicaragua live in.
ZOEgirl and Chrissy don’t just elevate the awareness of
situations like this but they also do something about it. In addition
to undertaking the mission trips ZOEgirl as a group sponsors a little
girl in Quito known as Sonia. Chrissy on her own sponsors another child
in Nicaragua named Lilliam.
Every once in awhile I will come across a naysayer who is not
only critical but skeptical of why artists become involved with
projects such as mission trips or organizations such as Compassion
Ministries. Allow me to make an editorial comment here, unless you have
participated in one of these trips yourself or had an opportunity to
speak directly to the individuals to find out what they did and why
they did it do not assume it was about publicity. This isn’t about some
politician looking for a photo op. For Alisa Girard, Chrissy Conway and
Kristin Swinford there were no paparazzi. They were not on this trip to
only use their musical talents but were down in the trenches with the
rest of the families from the United States who gave up their time and
money to help those less fortunate.
Kristin, Chrissy and Alisa ministered to people living in a
city dump and distributed food to the impoverished families. In other
areas of Quito they performed simple tasks such as washing and cutting
children’s hair or washing the hands and feet of children who had never
before had clean water to experience something so simple. The team
served food in a soup kitchen and still at other times ministered to
families living on the streets of Ecuador. All pretty glamorous
activities—NOT. While Chrissy did assist with hauling dirt and gravel
for a church building project she did admit to not assisting with a
roof repair as she joked, “I wouldn’t be good at that.”
In addition to the activities already described ZOEgirl along
with the rest of the mission team’s members put their more creative
talents to use. They performed dramas with a gospel missive throughout
the city of Quito including a retirement home where they rubbed lotion
on the hands and feet of the elderly. ZOEgirl also gave a free concert
in a city park. These efforts witnessed hundreds of people accepting
Christ for the first time.
Chrissy a mother of two young boys says that the most valuable
lessons she has learned through participating in the mission trips is,
“God has given us an incredible ability to change the lives of those
around us, if we would just be willing to step out in faith.”
On a different note on December 27th ZOEgirl will be releasing With All
of My Heart a collection of some of their greatest tunes from bygone
years as well as a couple of new songs. Visit www.zoegirlonline.com
Copyright © 2005 Joe Montague, exclusive rights reserved. This material
may not be redistributed without prior written permission from Joe
Montague.
Joe Montague is an internationally published freelance journalist / photographer.
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