So, i wish i wasn’t such a slacker, and had done this blog before training camp, because i feel like expectations have changed slightly from before and after. Anyways, the answer to, “what are my expectations for this trip?” is tough. The first thing I guess that came to mind was to expect the unexpected, but once you expect the unexpected, it’s expected, so it’s no longer unexpected…right? I don’t know exactly what to expect though because I’ve never been heavily involved in this issue, i’ve never been overseas, and i’ve never been in an experience like this, in terms of living in a community of people this close together, for this period of time before. Here’s just some basic, and possibly general things/emotions I plan on experiencing:
-I expect sometime in the first week (possibly the first day) of the trip, to ask myself, “what the heck were you thinking?
-I expect to be tore up emotionally, and probably weep at some point, over the injustice I see
-I expect, I’ll have to pray fervently for God to take away the hatred I feel for some people I will meet, and replace it with love.
-I expect to be extremely uncomfortable, physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally
-I expect to be used by God, to take back what is his
-I expect to learn, what true community is
-I expect to become closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ
I don’t want to say things like, “I expect my world to be flipped upside down” or “I expect my life to be radically changed”……will it be changed, of course….I can’t see how it couldn’t be. But i don’t want to put expectations on this trip, that my life will be completely altered, where somehow my calling is going to be a long-term missionary overseas, or I will devote my career completely to the cause of ending trafficking for the rest of my life. Could that happen…..absolutely, but if it doesn’t, and that’s what I expect, then this trip might then seem like a disappointment. I do expect amazing and powerful things, because that’s what kind of God we serve, but God will also choose how to reveal these things to me as well as the rest of the squad….and yes I do believe a lot of what we experience, will be something none of us completely expected.
