As promised in my last post, The Nervous List, I present to you the Excited List: here are some of the things I’m really looking forward to experiencing on the World Race. But before I get into that, I want to share a couple updates with you:
1. In the week since I wrote my last entry, my first fundraising goal of $3500 was not only met, but exceeded by over $500! Thank you! God is using you, my supporters, to teach me that he is more than capable of providing what we need. Thank you for your generosity, both financial and spiritual. It’s a little daunting to know that I have so much more money to raise, but because of you all, I’m learning that this is not about me scraping together money so I can travel the world as much as it is about letting God take control of my needs so he can put me where he wants me.
2. I mentioned in a previous blog post that I’m offering World Race t-shirts. I had said that I would place an order for t-shirts on September 15. But I am pushing back the date: if you would like to order a t-shirt, please tell me by September 25. Suggested donation: $20 for one, $35 for two.
3. Soon, I’ll be posting a blog about buying MudLOVE bracelets, which support my World Race. But ALSO, every bracelet purchased provides one person in Central Africa with clean drinking water for a year!! Stay tuned…
All right, enough business (though that is some pretty awesome business if you ask me). Here’s what sets my heart aflutter:
- Arriving in South Africa in January to the shock of summer at a time I always associated with the dead of winter
- Buying different brands of toothpaste
- No more baths! No more baths!
- These 3+ months of waiting before Launch in January. This time at home, where I get to see people and work at the cucumber farm and watch Seinfeld every night and be blessed daily by your generosity and be involved with life here in Washington… it’s just great.
- Wearing Chacos every day. Wearing Chacos with socks every day.
- I have a bachelor’s degree in World Religion. I’m fascinated with how people deal with the infinite and invisible in their lives. I’ve spent a lot of time in classrooms and books learning this stuff, but seeing and living religion across the world… I cannot think of a better way to continue my studies.
- Not only seeing, but living in places I’ve never been: there’s this awesome quote by, um…. well, I can’t find the reference, but he was an ancient Greek, and he said that “For a good soul, the entire world is home.” I hope that we’ll find ourselves at home no matter where we are.
- To be loved by God and others and then to go and love God and others
- Trying new foods
- Let me be more specific: I wanna eat a spider. But on purpose, not like in my sleep or whatever.
- Living in community for a year, and all the blessings and sufferings that come along with that
- New landscapes
- Picking up pieces of new languages
- A sky of new constellations in the Southern Hemisphere
- Worshipping in new places, with new people, in new ways
- Seeing Jesus set us free from sickness, shame, fear, confusion, apathy….
- Elephants
- Digestion problems being a choice dinner time conversation topic
- Wearing new kinds of clothes
- Not writing research papers (that’s more of a thing I’m excited about doing for the rest of my life)
- The inevitability of getting lice and the stories that will result from the adventure
- New friends and family
- Seeing firsthand what Jesus is doing in other places and meeting the people who are working alongside Him
- Seeing miracles
- The experience of being a follower of Jesus in countries where missionaries aren’t allowed
- Taking pictures
- Being able to blog about my experiences. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I am genuinely DELIGHTED that I get to blog, because this trip is not something that I alone am doing. There are lots of people going in January, and far more sending us off. You are a part of this experience and I so want to share it with you as much as I can
- Praying with everyone, everywhere, every way
- I am excited for October. As in, next month. Next month, I’ll meet my squad for the first time (which, by the way, is called Squad B). We’ll live together in a place we’ve been calling Georgessee (almost on the border of Tennessee and Georgia!) and learn and worship and really let the reality of this mission sink in! Then, I’ll have the chance to see some of my dear friends from college for a week and volunteer at the Big Event, an Intervarsity conference in New Jersey… it’s going to be a CRAZY couple weeks.
- My sleeping pad. Yes, folks, turns out, it’s a gem. I’ve been using it as my bed this week. You saw it in the last blog… well, here’s what that situation looks like now:
I am eager to follow Jesus. That’s really what I’m most excited about. And it’s not like I’ve never followed Jesus before. Maybe that’s why I’m excited: because I know from experience that a life lived with Jesus is FULL. This is where he seems to be calling me next… so I’m going, and I’m glad!
