Thoughts

It is a crazy thing; thinking about leaving everything familiar behind for a year. It produces random desires in your heart- sort of like "stopping to smell the roses": a new appreciation for day to day stuff that has always been taken for granted. God gives you fresh eyes to view everything.

So, in pictures, the things I am going to miss the most while away for a year:

Family

Places

Things

(Okay, so maybe not at all on the last one!)

Struggles

For all you who are praying for me as I get ready to leave in a month; here's some of my current wrestlings:

- My mother's health isn't very well right now- the docs are maybe talking about doing a dangerous surgery right around the time I leave.

- Realizing that a year is a short time, but a lot can and is going to happen in this next year for me and especially those I am leaving behind.

- My support is at 70% and must reach 100% in 2 weeks.

- I am facing all my fears and failures head on as I am preparing, so it is quite humbling to realize that nothing that happens over there will be done by me- HIS strength is perfect!

- I need to purposefully be seeking times of solitude and rest to prepare my heart. It is so easy to bypass all that and just try to spend as much time with friends and family, busying myself.

In all honesty, I don't feel ready for this trek across the world. But each day God offers hope and by day's end I feel a bit closer to being ready than I did when the day began. I am so in love with my Gentle, Transforming Savior!