Five Months

If all goes according to schedule, I will get on a plane to Lima, Peru five months from today. It has been a year since I heard God calling me to Peru and I began pursuing the opportunity to work with Word Made Flesh Peru. It many ways it feels like this process has been a practice in patience because at the end of last summer all I wanted to do was to start my life as a missionary. I am grateful for the time I have had over the last year to begin dreaming and thinking about what life in a new culture and context would actually look like. I am grateful to spend my summer working with high school students and getting poured into by the staff at Forest Home. As I look forward to the next five months, I see a three page check list of things that have to be done before I can even buy my one-way plane ticket. I feel overwhelmed by the all the little things like writing a will and assigning power of attorney just in case something happens to me. I feel anxious and nervous as I begin raising support. I feel sadness when I think about all the things I will miss over the next three years like birthdays and weddings and babies being brought into this world. In all the fear and doubt that clouds my thoughts, I am confident in the calling God has given me and know He will provide peace and comfort as I seek Him in this process. Now that I am back from camp, I have more time to focus on checking things off my list and start processing what it will look like to say goodbye to so many people I love. I would ask for prayer as I begin raising support and begin putting together a support team that will handle various aspects of my time in such as prayer and administration. I pray that I would be attentive to God's voice as He leads each step I take in this journey.

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:8-10