I leave for Guatemala so soon – Thursday!
I found out my team, the Joybombs, will be doing ministry in the small village of Santo Domingo Xenacoj in the center of the country! We will be working with GO! Ministries, which does a variety of community building and outreach activities and focuses on education and feeding of orphans. We are super pumped about this – I mean SUPER PUMPED!
Being so close to launch, there is a nervousness and excitement that has come. I decided to think about the things I'm most nervous about and the things I'm most excited for during the race. 11&11, since we love that number at the Race. 🙂
11 things I’m nervous about or dreading for the Race:
1) Missing out on a year of updates and friendship from my stateside peeps
2) Lack of hot showers
3) Getting sick
4) Never getting alone time
5) Saying goodbyes at the end of each month to each ministry
6) Never knowing what we are doing until we are about to do it
7) Mystery meat
8) Having very limited funds
9) Facing fear and discomfort continually
10) Language barrier, especially in Asia
11) The inevitable getting frustrated with my squadmates (it happens to us all…)
But these are 11 things I am very excited for:
1) To spend a whole month in each ministry/country
2) To spend a year learning from and getting to know my incredible team and the whole squad
3) For God to grow me personally – in faith, in work ethic, in integrity, in love, in sacrifice, in servanthood
4) For my team and squad to be united and grown together as the Church, as Christ prayed
5) To step out in faith and see God show up
6) To be involved with such variety of ministries and nonprofits
7) To be forced into dependence on God – for Him to be my strength
8) To fall in love with the people we will serve and meet
9) For the Spirit to lead me to encounters, or divine appointments, with people to just let Jesus’s love overflow onto them
10) For deeper wisdom and understanding of poverty and the world
11) For healing, restoration, salvation, revitalization, and hope to come with power in our lives and the lives of those we will interact with
"For these light and momentary afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." – 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
I think those minor fears and missed comforts from the first list are worth being without in lieu of the second…
What fears of yours are getting in the way of things you hope and dream for? What is getting in the way of your joy? It's a new year – give those questions some thought to start off 2014.
Pray for us as we travel to Atlanta (tonight!) and Guatemala on the 9th!
