I realized I haven’t blogged in a while, and I have some exciting new news!! We will be departing the United States October 2nd, headed to Guatemala!! As of now our route for the year will be:
October- Guatemala
November- Nicaragua
December- Costa Rica
January- Philippines
February- Malaysia
March- Thailand
April- Cambodia
May- South Africa
June- Swaziland
July- Mozambique
August- India
How awesome would it be to celebrate my 24th birthday in South Africa!? It’s so exciting to have an idea of where we will be headed this year, but I am constantly reminding myself, this is the plan as of now, but it can always change… Our mission goals at each location will be different depending on the need there, as well. The theme of this year is FLEXIBILITY, which will be a wonderful stretch for the planner within me. 🙂
So far, I am halfway funded for the trip, and it’s been a great process seeing how God provides in some of the most unexpected ways… through strangers at the UPS store, being encouraged by a woman in a deli, seeing the generosity in people financially helping with my trip… the list continues. I’ve realized that when we step out and make ourselves vulnerable to change and uncertainty, God can teach us things that we might have missed had we stayed in our comfortable routine.
The past few months have been an interesting time of change for me. I moved home at the end of June. I have been extremely blessed with time here with family. My brother left for college last week, and it’s been weird for me to not be gearing up for the school year as well, whether it’s preparing myself to be a student or preparing for students. The school calendar has been my life for the past 18 years between elementary, high school, college and teaching. Another big change was visiting my college town last week. It was SO nice to go back, I love San Luis Obispo and my friends there… but it was different. Lots of people have moved away, my “normal” routine had changed, I was a visitor in a place I used to live. I started to realize that even if I had stayed, life would look differently now than it had even a year ago.
I’m not sure how I’m going to handle the changes that this coming year is going to entail. Right now, I am so excited about it! And I see these changes as an adventure, and an opportunity for growth- for exposing myself to things I would never experience otherwise. I pray that I would continue to be accepting and open to these changes (cause we know there will be a lot!). My friend Josh said as I was leaving, “Be sure to enjoy every minute of this trip.” That is my desire, to truly take in every moment of this coming year, to let it change me and to be okay with that.
Sunset in San Luis Obispo
