The next year of my life is completely unknown to me right now, where I will be staying, what I will be doing, where I will be living. A big part of me just wants answers. I want to know where in each country we will be serving, I want to know at least one other person going on this adventure, I want to know who we will be helping, I want to know what I am going to eat and I really want to know how I am supposed to pack my one and only backpack to weigh just 30 pounds for the Asian airlines (Really Asia? I’m still waiting for someone to tell me that this fact is a joke). What I do know as of right now is this:
-I will be living out of one big backpack for a year packed with things such as a tent, sleeping bag, my own silverware, plate and bowl, clothes, shoes and everything else I could possible need in a year. (Mind you I have been camping once in my life where I woke up and found myself sleeping on a dead rat leaving me traumatized. Therefore I had to chat online with an expert at the store to help me pick out my gear online because I am so totally clueless. So I would say I’m off to a good start!)
-We will be eating off of $4 a day! I am so so nervous about the food. Give me rice all day every day but please please don’t make me eat some poor little random animal and take offense when I can’t even look at the meat you have been preparing all day. Ugh I’m not looking forward to this situation; guess I’ll start the prayers now.
-There are about 50 of us July 2011 Route 2 kids who will be split up and travel in groups of 6 or so. We will be living and working together with a contact in each country, serving them to the best of our abilities, however we can.
-There will be times (possibly a month at a time) where we will not be able to contact home or update our blogs. I think that this time is where the most growth could potentially occur, separation= true time to hang with the Lord.
-AIM's goal is that we would learn to live dependent upon God and that our lifestyle would reflect simplicity and focus on the task ahead of us not the comfort we live in, therefore we will be spending the next 11 months sleeping on the floor (with some possible beds here and there depending upon where we are) in our tents, wrapped in sleeping bags, and living out of our backpacks.
Then there is another side of me that accepts all of these unknowns as part of the adventure. The big guy upstairs knows exactly what is going on and I am choosing to rely and trust that His great plan is about to unfold, and all I have to do is wait a few short months for summer to get here. In the meantime that leaves me continuing to learn the lesson of keeping your heart where your feet are. Goo I can never seem to learn this one. I’m praying to keep my heart and feet grounded here amongst my family and friends, not taking this special time for granted as I prepare for the next year.
