I am Futuristic. Just ask the results of my StrengthsFinder2.0 evaluation. I admittedly “am fascinated by the future and create detailed pictures to pull myself forward.” I’ve done this for as long as I can remember (i.e. I pretty much could visualize my future children and their coinciding names by the time I was six years old – glad to know this was simply a personality trait and not a certifiable issue.) All that to basically say, I REALLY like to plan ahead.
Don’t believe me?
I was packed for Training Camp three weeks ahead of time, allowing ample opportunity for necessary changes, compiling no less than 10 lists of things I had and things I might be lacking, several weight checks, etc. Get the picture now?
Post training camp, and especially since finding out dates for launch (I’m booked to land in Chicago, IL on Sept. 4, in cause you haven’t seen the ridiculous amount of times I’ve posted it on Facebook), I’ve kicked into high preparation gear!
Bare necessities covered, thanks to generous donations and tons of prayers, I’m now down to the “nitty-gritty” so-to-speak. Last minute arrangements, like figuring out what to do about my phone plan for the next year, alerting banks that I’ll be traveling A LOT – so please don’t shut off my debit card! –, figuring out when I’m going to get to see all my family and closest friends to spend much needed quality time before an 11 month (or longer) separation, and even working out a mental itinerary of “last meals” I’d like to eat before leaving the states, have pretty much begun to consume me. This craziness doesn’t even factor in the CONSTANT running list in my head (and now – thankfully – in the NOTES section on my iPhone) of “overlooked” items that have me in desperate “need” of a Wal-mart run! Hand sanitizer, vitamins, trail mix, tampons, Nutella, socks… Oh My!
Maybe it took God handing me a dose of some unknown “yickiness” that has left me couch bound for the past two days to realize, I need to chill out! In all my hullaballoo, the past two nights’ I’d forgone my daily devotion time. I’ve been so stressed and focused on everything World Race that, as a friend put it, I need to "stop taking my current days for granted.”
God is in my living room in Kentucky just as much as He is going to be in Wherever, The World, in the months to come, and He doesn't want me to just start focusing on Him then. It's gotta happen now, as well.
Bottom line, God will provide. If I show up in Thailand and realize I’ve overlooked some minuscule detail, it won’t be the end of the world. I didn’t get put on an all-girl team for nothing; chances are anything I forget, they’ll have me covered on. I’ve been abundantly blessed with provisions and with funding; meeting my needs isn’t going to be a big deal.
In fact, I look for God to realign just exactly what I feel my “needs” are. And even then, He’ll meet them, exceeding anything I could possibly desire.
He told them to take nothing with them except their walking sticks -no food, no knapsack, no money, not even an extra pair of shoes or change of clothes. -Mark 6:8
Be Blessed,
Ashlee
