Really guys, I don't think that this trip couldn't be life changing.
Are my expectations too high? I really don't think that I could traipse around the globe, seeing the needy and abandoned, for 11 months and smoothly transition back into life as I currently know it. I see this trip as an investment in the kingdom of God. Does that sound weird? I think this trip is going to impact me so deeply that I impact others around me because of it. I'm not sure what that impact looks like, but I am sure that I wasn't born on this side of the world just to splash around in the pool of life's pleasures. No, no. Not I or you were born here without some kind of mission.
There's an entire hungry, dying world out there! And I'm sleeping under a duvet tonight! And I'm writing this on a computer! On my lap!
I think I'm going to see the earth in a wider perspective. I'll shake off my tunnel vision of North America and see the world for what it is… diverse and lush and dirty and heartbreaking. And spinning. Still spinning.
I think it will become increasingly hard to sleep under this duvet after having seen devastation that I'm sure I will see on this trip. I think it's going to give me some sleepless nights wondering "why" and hopefully a fuel and energy to stop asking "why" and start asking "how" and then a desire to see it to completion.
I want to get shook in my core and then planted in the same thing that shook me.
I will want to share these stories afterwards, shake others, encourage the planting of others, always anticipating the harvest.
I expect to have dirty feet and hair that begins to "dread" itself. I expect to sing a lot, take 40 000 pictures, and cry. I expect to be a blessing and to be blessed, challenged, and inspired. I expect that I will get schooled numerous times in various knowledge and skill sets. Setting up my tent will likely be the first experience of this.
I expect to fall in love, deeper and deeper, with the God of man and nature, compelled to tell that love story for the rest of my days. I expect to see the world for what it's worth.
