I hope you enjoyed the adorable baby otter videos. 🙂 I may not get to see them again before I leave so, I feel blessed to have the opportunity to document the little guys on my phone…
It hit me like a sack of potatoes on the chest when I realized that I am about at the halfway point of my stay here. When I first moved to the mountains, five months seemed like forever! And now, as the Bon Jovi Lyrics play in the background of my mind (Whooah, we’re half way there, Livin’ on a prayer, Take my hand and we’ll make it – I swear, Livin’ on a prayer), I find myself stuck between fear and excitement.
I assume the fear is of the loss of the present. I have been trying to value living in the now, but “the now” seems to be speeding away. And this scares me. My fear is also of the small things, my own inadequacies, my fundraising, my living situation on the race, my ill-preparedness to run around the world for a year, and also if time passes so fast now, imagine how fast each month will go on the Mission.
Despite the fear, I am thrilled. I have been doing a very good job not thinking about the future more than necessary. But at this point, I am allowing myself to enjoy the idea of good things lying ahead. I visited a future mission team member in Charlotte and it was so good. (I don’t know if we are in the same small group but we will be seeing more of each other). It calmed a lot of the fear because it was a glimpse of the goodness that God has prepared for my future.
I drove to meet Cassady at a cute little coffee shop near the university. When she walked in, I knew I wasn’t going to shake her hand…but I didn’t know how awkward a hug would be. I went for it and it ended up an awkward side hug…haha. We sat down to coffee and bagels with no idea how the morning would go. Pleasantries were exchanged followed by the “getting to know” you topics. And by the end of 2.5 hours we had shared testimony points, deep fears, triumphs, things we looked forward to, and it was like seeing an old friend and knowing that we were going to have an adventure together. Needless to say, the goodbye hug was a lot more natural as I said to my new friend, “see you in five weeks”. Training camp is coming soon!
I was encouraged about both the future and the now. God is in both, and He is taking care of all the details. He just calls me to trust and yes…even enjoy.
