I am finally *almost* on my trip! This will be a week of busy preparation sprinkled with good family time. Before I know it I will be on a plane to Cambodia, followed by a month in Thailand, the next month in India and to top it all of a month in Atlanta, Georgia. There are so many emotions that I have running through me. Mostly, I am excited to meet up with my team for the first time since training camp in October. Also, I am excited to meet all the people we’ll be doing ministry with – the contacts we have in the nations, the people we’ll be ministering to, even the people in the markets! – There are many other emotions I expect to encounter on this trip other than excitement. I definitely expect to encounter tears, hatred for the evil that is being done, culture shock, even a time of brokenness. I have the weirdest emotions going into this trip than any other I have been on. The other trips have been interacting with orphaned children, performing skits, or preaching from a podium, which were all fantastic and trips I felt led to do.
But it all gets extremely personal.
I will talk to people who will tell their stories to me, stories that will make me want to vomit.
Stories that will make me scream into my pillow when I get back to my room.
Stories that are worth hearing.
Stories that these girls and guys need to tell, because it will be their stories, and they have no one else to talk to outside of their hell.
And in that moment, LOVE will touch them in a way that they have not felt, if ever at all, in a very long time.
That is why I am packing my backpack. That is why I am sleeping on airplanes. That is why I am eating weird food. That is why I am leaving behind family and friends for a few months. To LOVE on these people. They need to hear this message worse than anyone I know, and that is why I will be leaving in t-minus one week….and counting!
