Here I am, on a plane to Atlanta mere hours away from Launch. I’ve opened the cards, said the goodbyes and left the tokens of gratitude behind to my loved ones…and I’ve cried through it all. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I am not a crier, yet I feel like I’ve cried more in this past month then I ever have before.
“Are you ready?” Is a question that many of you have asked me, and the simple answer is no. How could I ever possibly be ready for an adventure like this? How could I ever prepare myself for this God called journey?
Ready? No.
Willing? Yes.
I am willing to go deeper in my faith, willing to take risks in every possible way I can, willing to learn and grow and invest and receive from 50 strangers that are just as crazy as I am, if not more so. I have no expectations for this trip because I find that it’s easier to not put an expectation on God because He will just blow whatever expectation you have set for Him out the water. Eventually, He jut wins all the time.
When I think back to the phone call from Adventures in Missions 7 months ago letting me know I had been accepted on The World Race, leaving home seemed like light years away. Yet here it is, staring at me straight in the face in the shape of a 747 airbus and a 70 liter backpack filled to the brim with basic essentials to survive the next 11 months of my life. All the fundraising, all the conversations, all the prayers, all the long hours to make this happen is finally here and I still don’t believe that something this amazing is happening to me.
“Who am I God?” I prayed the other night, “Who am I to you that You have hand selected me to carry out Your Gospel and to make disciples? To heal the sick and feed the poor in Your name?”
In the midst of my cry out, a steady voice came to me, “It’s who I am through you that you are able.”
While Marisa Leal may not feel equipped, my God does for me, and that’s all the confidence I need. When it gets hard and my teammates annoy me, when I’m tired, when I’m sick, when all I want to do is go home I will remember that it is my God who called me to this, and it is my God who see me through this.
While I’m already terribly homesick and dealing with leaving the nest, I will remember that I am serving a God that has equipped me, loved me, and has remained faithful to me every step of the way, and He isn’t letting go anytime soon.
I also want to thank the people who have made me feel loved and supported as I transition into this next stage of my life. I am a firm believer that the way someone exits one season is how they will enter the next, and I could not have experienced a better exit season. I lost track of how many “Going Away” parties, breakfasts and cards that I have received and it makes this heart of mine glow with love and warmth. I am blown by the blessings I have received as I make my departure.
While the pain of leaving can feel unbearable at times, its the sweet promise of whats to come that keeps me motivated. I will see things, feel things and experience things that people dream of. I will live out my calling and I will be obedient to the season that I have been placed in because the promise is great, and the journey has just begun.
Entering the unknown-
M
