Expectations

 We were asked to write a blog about how we felt before leaving on this missions trip.  Here is what I’m expecting…

I’m a natural pessimist (justified by calling myself a realist instead of an idealist).  I used this list of expectations as a mental exercise for myself, starting each one negatively and turning them around to reveal my ultimate hopes.  Btw, I was tryin to keep expectations low but ended up w/ quite a list.  don’t be alarmed, my only real expectation is the last one.

• I expect to miss my family and the comforts of home, but to form new family and find comfort in them.
• I expect to be tormented by my frizzy hair in rain and humidity, but to have few reasons for vanity.
• I expect to get sick and feel weak, but to be healed and strengthened by Him.
• I expect stories of poverty, sickness and helplessness, but testaments to abundance of love, richness in spirit and strength of mind.
• I expect to feel powerless in myself but powerful in God
• I expect to let down and to feel let down, but to build up and to be built up.
• I expect to feel misunderstood and at times disconnected, but to grow and connect in powerful ways.
• I expect to be hungry and dirty, but to be full on community and clean with the Spirit.
• I expect to explore countries Amazing Race-style, but to serve countries World Race-style.
• I expect to fall down, but to be picked up by my team.
• I expect to shed tears for injustice, but to fall deeper in love with the world.
• I expect tents, cold showers and bug bites to get old, but the reason for our conditions not to.
• I expect to leave home with doubts and insecurities, but to return with no doubt and every security that this was God’s plan.
• I expect to have moments where I don’t want to join my team, but more moments where I can’t live without them.
• I expect to struggle with language barriers, but to form bonds without having to speak.
• I expect to have days of indifference, but to find daily reasons to make a difference.
• I expect to reveal some of my worst sides, but to be embraced by people’s best sides.
• I expect to redefine legal transportation, but to still arrive in one piece!
• I expect many embarrassing moments, but much laughter to follow them.
• I expect to take beautiful pictures, but to experience beauty that can’t be captured on film.
• I expect to let go of inhibitions but to hold onto my beliefs.