Screening day!

I'm not there yet to be a part of this, but I'm so looking forward to it! 187 days until I get on a plane to head out!

She sells sea shells

At Perspectives the other night the speaker read a response that a man named John G. Paton had to the statement that he'd be eaten by cannibals if he were to go overseas and serve as a missionary:

Upon hearing Paton's intention to go, a Mr Dickson exploded, "The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!" To this Paton responded, "Mr Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer."

And also this from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life:

I will tell you what a tragedy is.  I will show you how to waste your life.  Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader's Digest:  A couple took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51.  Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells... Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment:  Look, Lord!  See my shells!  That is a tragedy.

God created us to live with a single passion:  to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of live.  The wasted life is the life without this passion.  God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.

Even though I continue to fall short, I know that I ultimately want this life to not be about me.  There's a bigger picture out there that we can see if we stop and take a look around.  When I stop and ask to see things as they are and not in attempt to gain something for myself or not lose something I don't want to let go of it's like taking off a pair of glasses that have been distorting your view of everything.  You get used to having the glasses on in the day to day and then forget that there's a clearer picture with the glasses off.

The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  Matthew 6.22,23 

Unlikely sources

I started to accept the fact that I will be getting almost 0% encouragement about the trip to Africa from most people I encounter.  It's a funny thing though.  Just as soon as I start to get defensive about it (because it always leads to them telling me how ridiculous of an idea it is or how they'll chop off my head and boil it) the person I'm being short with turns out to be the most supportive.  I was talking to someone at work yesterday and she was so supportive of the whole thing.  It really threw me off guard to have someone ask questions and not be critical.  I have kind of built up this protection barrier for conversations about Africa with people that are not supportive so that their negativity does not affect me like I have let it.  I know deep down this is what I need to do, but to have people continually tell you how ridiculous something so important to you is you begin to question it yourself. 

All this to say that God has continually been preparing me for this trip.  I don't know what some of it means in the big picture, but I trust Him.  And He's provided me encouragement when I really need it and most often from unlikely sources!