Ever since my first short term missions trip 6 years ago the I have been praying, seeking, and expectantly waiting for God to send me on a trip that is longer than 11 days…well that day has finally come…It has come in a mighty way and rocked my world, AND I HAVEN’T EVEN LEFT YET!
But now that the time for me to go is vastly approaching what come next?
Well…. A lot as I quickly found out.
There is no real order to the following, just a bunch of things that have to be planned, purchased, sold, moved, given away and anything else you could do with stuff or that would need to be planned, worked out, or scheduled while one is gone for 11 months.
First off, I need to also buy a lightweight tent, sleeping bag that folds up super small, a sleeping matt that will serve as my mattress for the next year, durable clothes that wash and dry easily, shoes that will protect my feet and not kill them, a hammock for lounging around and reading books, and a water cleanser.
Learn how to wash my clothes in the sink and maybe the river (I might go down to the Arkansas river next week and practicing beating my dirty clothes with sticks till they are clean again, who knows I might learn something).
Find a new home for Dexter my cat. My fetch-playing, hello-greeting, people-loving, go-easy-let-me-do-whatever-to-him without biting except for giving-him-a-bath cat…or dog as most of my friends call him.
Figure out where to store all of my random stuff that I have accumulated over the past 22 years that will not fit into… you guessed it… a little hiking backpack.
I need someone to buy my motorcycle. Come on Craigslist!
Figure out how to get roughly $13,000 in the next 6 months.
Eat all of the American food I can, this includes Tex-Mex of course. Then exercise off the food off so I can stay fit, health and be able to do the next one.
Be able to run/jog/ride on someone else’s back for 3 miles with a full 50ish pound Backpack in uneven terrain in under 50 minutes. (which I can currently do, but I want to be able to do it faster and be less fatigued afterwards).
Train someone how to take over my job and then well…I will quit just before I leave. I was beginning to think that I was going to be here forever.
Drive to and from Georgia for training camp June 8th – 18th. I could fly, but where’s the fun in that?
Break my apartment lease. Ouch…Enough said…
Luckily I already have a passport with an expirations day well into the future with 8.5 empty pages (We are required to have at least 8).
Get my first vaccinations ever in my whole life. A yellow fever card is required for some of the countries we are traveling to.
Fill my kindle with good reads.
Find out what I need to do with my driver’s license since it expires while I am gone. I do not want to take the driving test again at the DMV when I get back home. (DMVs Deliberately Moving Very Slow)
Explain to my bank that I may need to access money in any country of South America over the period of 11 months.
Buy a small reliable computer. MacBooks look expensive…
Download all movies and all music and maybe even Minecraft into said computer.
So basically I need to buy an entire camping ground worth of items and fit it into a little hiking backpack. Speaking of hiking backpack, I need that too.
Oh and I need to become super good at packing up my whole life into this one little backpack.
I am probably forgetting some pretty important things, but this is a good start. I have exactly 4 months from today before my launch to get everything done stateside.
Prayers, advice, hugs, words of encouragement and blessing are much appreciated and much needed. Please please please don’t be that person that thinks it would be awkward or weird to send me a message or call me on the phone or send me a letter. You may just be the person God has called to be a messenger, to be the hands and feet of God! Don’t let you mouth be silenced if you have something to say.
God’s chosen hands and feet to the people of South America
Nick Buford
