We were asked to write a blog about how we felt before leaving on this mission trip. Here is what I’m expecting…
Basically, I expect to be a completely different person after this trip. I am expecting it to be hard and exhausting but I am also expecting to feel the most rewarded that I have ever felt in my life. I expect to witness miracles and completely rely on God for my every need. I expect to meet amazing people after God’s heart and build lifelong friendships with them. I expect to be broken and distressed by the poverty that so much of the world lives in.
I am expecting to get frustrated and annoyed, while having to solve problems without avoiding the issues. I expect to be uncomfortable, physically as in sleeping on the ground but also emotionally and spiritually. Like so many of my team members have already said, I expect to be stripped of my materialism and of what I think I need. I expect to smell and get dirty. I expect to eat some weird and exciting new foods and probably get sick from some of them. I expect to be humbled again and again. I expect to cry and laugh. I expect to miss my family more than I ever have. I expect to miss my closest friends.
I expect to encounter God in an incredible and indescribable way. I expect to feel his heart beating for the poor and hopeless around the world. I expect to be overwhelmed by the presence of God, filled with His Spirit, and captured by His beauty. I expect to get a glimpse of eternity and the reality of who Jesus is to me and to the world.
My personality tends to expect the worst things to happen, but with all the not so fun things that I could think of, it cannot compared to all the JOY that comes from following the Almighty Most High God into the darkest areas of the world in obediance and love. It only makes sense to me to let go of the fear I have about this trip and cling to Jesus with all that I am, but it continues to be a process for me.
Please pray for me to trust God and allow him to change and prepare me for this amazing journey!
