Packing, Cleaning, Reflecting, Then GOING!

It is hard to believe that already 6 days from today, I will be boarding the plane to go to Paraguay. Everything for the trip has basically been accomplished in ONE MONTH!! I’m not really sure how I could ever choose to not see the Lord’s hand in this! He has accomplished some pretty amazing feats through this trip!! I’m so thankful for His faithfulness, and the faithfulness of His saints. What an awesome picture of His power!

Today I will be shopping, gathering the last few things I will need. I’m so glad I have an awesome sister, Jennifer, and a lovely little niece, Sawyer, to accompany me today. Shopping is always better when you’re not alone. And, I can say that because I don’t have any children of my own. 🙂

My awesome pastor is also going to spruce up the ‘ol laptop, making sure she’s all ready to make it through a month of Language/Culture learning. I’m so glad I know people that know what they are doing in this area. Because I am sure if I were left on my own with fixing my computer, I would kill it.

Being gone for a month doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, and then I think about all the cleaning that needs to be done with the things I am leaving behind! I’m sure my ‘rents don’t want piles of my stuff lingering around the house when they will not even be touched for 30 days. That may be a bit much. And, it’s never fun to come home to a mess, either. I have to make space on my bedroom floor so that when I do return, I will be able to fit my suitcases in there. Ha ha!

I’ve also been thinking about the things that will continue to go on here at home for that month. I will miss my family terribly. I’m so thankful that the Lord has placed me with them, but that makes it all the more hard to leave them!! And I know I will also miss my wonderful church – who are family, just in a different sense. Sometimes, that’s kind of hard to swallow, that I may come back in a month from now and many things will be different.

But then I remember what a privilege it is to serve the Lord, and what an awesome experience I am about to embark on. I will be able to see the Lord in ways that some will only ever dream about. I will see His guiding hand and protection that people will never have the opportunity to know. I will grow closer to Him because He will be the only familiar thing to me while I am down in Paraguay. 

Now, my favorite verses are coming to mind. Philippians 3: “⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in^[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

So, I’ve had people ask me: Why are you doing this? Don’t you know that it’s dangerous down there? Aren’t you going to miss your family and friends? Won’t it be very different? And to that I say, yes, my life will be different and not what I dreamt about when I was a little girl, but the Lord has given me an awesome privilege to KNOW HIM and MAKE HIM KNOWN – and that makes everything worth it.