We were asked to write a blog about how we felt before
leaving on this mission trip. Here is what I’m expecting….
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I expect from this trip.
I’ve read some of my fellow team members’ expectations to see where they are at
and all but literally pumped my fist in agreement. The truth is that I don’t
like to think about expectations, and in the process of determining what I want
to expect, I’ve come to this conclusion.
To an extent, I’ve let the world tell me that having
expectations is a set up for failure, that if I don’t expect anything I won’t
be disappointed. Now that my mind is clearing from that, I am really starting
to see what damage that mentality can do. I want to expect things from God… for
this and every other venture out into the mission field.
So here is my list of expectations for this trip:
– I expect to be confronted with things in my life that I
need to let go. And I expect God to help me let them go.
– I expect to feel my heart perpetually breaking the entire
time I’m gone. And I expect God to be there to help me put it back together
into a better, more beautiful shape.
– I expect to be challenged through relationships with my
teammates, through circumstances, and through the word of God. And I expect to
come out on the other side with a deeper understand of who God is, what He can
do, and what His body can do when it comes together for a single purpose in
Him.
– I expect to have many “No one I knew before the Race has
ever or will ever see what I am seeing now” moments.
And what I expect to miss while I am gone:
– the birth and first few months of Monstro’s life – my
hypothetical niece or nephew whose parents are preparing to start trying for
their first child. My bro-in-law’s nickname. He made it up, not me. I promise.
– my youngest brother’s high school graduation.
– Zack and Gwen’s yearly visit (the real, live, in the flesh
nephew & niece).
+ other things I am sure I am forgetting right now.
