It’s crazy how time can just fly by!! It feels like training camp ended yesterday and now I look back and it’s almost a month later…. Well anyways, it looks like we will be launching to Thailand on January 7th which is really exciting!!! A part of me feels like it’s too soon and I have so much to get done by then, and then a part of me wants today to be the 6th so I can go tomorrow. It’s strange, I feel like I’m flying into the unknown. I know God has a definite plan for all of us going, but it’s like I’ve selected door number two and Bob Barker has already given the little hint of what could be behind the doors, but I’ve yet to see it. That’s how the post-training camp period feels. I’m excited, I’ve heard so much, I’m so ready, and yet a little voice in the back of my head is laughing, because what I imagine the trip will be like doesn’t come close to measuring up to the reality; which honestly makes me that much more excited.
Well, since camp I’ve been going into more details about my trip to my coworkers, and in one of the conversations we got on the topic of living in our tents for some of the mission sites, and one of the guys turned to me and said, “why would you ever want to live in a tent, even for one month?” My first gut reaction was to say, “I wouldn’t.” For all of those who don’t know, the first time I ever slept outside in my entire life was this September, and the second time was October at training camp. But the situation reminded me of a parable we talked about at training camp. We read Mathew 13:44. It reads, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” When I think of this verse, I imagine a guy digging in a field, finding the treasure, and reburying it. I pose the question, why would you ever want to dirty your hands by digging in a field? When he asked me why I would ever want to live in a tent, I just laughed it off, because I hadn’t even considered the tent an issue. Looking back, my answer should have been, why wouldn’t I? Why would I not give up my bed when there’s something more valuable at stake? I promise you, the man who discovers treasure is not concerned with the dirt on his hands. That is what the World Race is to me. It’s about moving towards God and searching for something so great, so valuable, that any inconvenience is insignificant.
