Leaving On A Jet Plane

Well... I wish I could say this was going to be a super uplifting and encouraging post, I hope it will be but I don't want to make any promises I can't keep. I just want to be real. Truth is I'm kinda sad, a little emotional, excited, tired, ready, and a whole bunch of other descriptors I'll spare you. Somehow putting my thoughts out in cyberspace helps me to process all the mountains of things I'm trying to process. I feel like a computer when the hourglass/color-wheel spins relentlessly. You wait for the page to load and it keeps spinning. This is how I feel my hourglass/color-wheel is spinning and nothing is happening. My parents living room floor has four large suitcases scattered around. I've been relying on prayer, the bathroom scale, and a luggage weight to help make sure my bags are at the right weight. Tonight I put the scales away and just put the stuff in the bag. As my dad said your not going on a trip your going to live. I am carrying 26 pounds of Choral Octavos!! That's choir sheet music for all you non-musuc teacher folks. I've also been rehearsing how I will maneuver these bags through customs. If you know me well you know I am an over-packer to a fault. I have always just thrown a bunch of clothes in the bag and figured things out when I got to my destination. This time I have not been able to do that and the packing process was so not fun. I am pretty much done as of tonight...hallelujah!! Let me just say I have kept the company who produces SpaceBags in business. P.S. I DO NOT like the roll out SpaceBags. Rolling all that air out caused some pretty serious hand/wrist pain and I am no wimp.

There are so many things the Lord has been showing me but primarily about how much this place, planet earth, is not my home. I have driven in my preverbal tent pegs really deep. Several times in the past month I have found myself in piles of stuff. I thought I had eliminated everything preventing me from going unhindered, but I was wrong. Every day the Lord shows me something or some place in my heart that I don't trust him. Every day he says to me, "How much do you want to serve?, What are you willing to let go of?, What are you willing to endure for my names sake?" Many of my married friends tell me that when they got married they realized how selfish they were. Then when they have kids they retract the previous statement and say, "Now I really know how selfish I am".  This whole process of becoming a teacher, missionary, and world traveler has taught this girl just how selfish I am. It has made me reflect on the depth of my relationship with Christ, rely on him more than ever before, and trust in areas I've been trying to be self-sufficient in my entire adult life.

I've been reading RADICAL by David Platt as some of you know based on previous posts. I am living out the Radical year experiment he describes in the last chapter. I finished reading it just before I left and it encouraged and challenged my thought processes. I am so grateful God has given me this opportunity this chance to serve him in this capacity. Matthew chapter 10 also rocked my spiritual world this week.

I'm finishing up this post in a bed in Lima, Peru. My flight got in today or should I say yesterday. The clock is showing 1:35 am Lima, which means my body thinks it is 2:35. I go to my apartment tomorrow. My roommate won't be there until Saturday so I will be on my own to get familiar with the place. The girls that picked us up from the airport are super sweet and welcoming. I am so excited to meet everyone else. I had 4 bags that I intended on checking and was politely told that I could only take 2 ;-) I then proceeded to perform the airport shuffle with my mom and dad as partners. Now we are figuring out how to get the rest of my clothes and teaching materials to Peru and not have to take out a loan or sell an organ on the black market. The ticket clerk thanked me for not falling out and having a tantrum on the floor.

Folks it is humid in Lima. It doesn't even touch Mississippi humidity.

Pray for a smooth transition as I learn how to get around in my new home and get to work in a couple of weeks.

P.S. If there are numerous grammar errors just give me a break. Spell check thinks I should be typing in Spanish and everything is yellow or underlined. I am not editing tonight:-)

Blessings for today