NEVER reverse the van

This is one thing I learned this week even though my team doesn't get a van. The last week has been a whirlwind & amazing & low & loving & just good ol' times with old friends & lots of new.

Amber & I had a fun trip to Chicago area & got to visit with some good Spoke Folk (SF) friends & then had a long time in the airplane on the ground b/c of weather & other fun traveling stuff. We finallyl made it to Minneapolis though to meet up with the wonderful Jeremy Nilson. I actually got to see my good friend Luke from CAP in the airport as well which was really exciting. He's on an international team this year.

I can't even remember everything from this week 'cause it's been lots of long days. Amber (my friend from Ft. Wayne that's on the Great Lakes team & also mentioned above) randomly got paired together as prayer partners which is funny 'cause we've known each other for nearly 6 years & there were 50some other people that we'd never met. Today the CBTs (Community Based Teams) had to leave the traveling teams so that was really sad. We are now in Stillwater, MN for our training for the next week and a half & the other teamers are at Camp Luther Dell. The benefits of being on a CBT is we will hopefully be able to see a few of the other teams when they're on the road.

Life is good 'cause God is good & He amazes me every day with his love. Off to evening worship!

Habari za ashabooi?

That is Swahili for "How are you this morning?" However, I have always been better at speaking foriegn languages & not so great at spelling so I am almost sure that I did not spell it all right.

Life is a bit crazy right now with being home for the week & organizing my belongings here only to pack a chunk of them all up again & leave for 4 months. I'm uber excited for what God has in store for my team & I though. Despite all my aprehensions & anxieties, I know that this is God's thing & not mine entirely. I say entirely because I do believe in free will. A good friend of mine said to me not too long ago that in life we have to work with what's in front of us at each moment & do what needs done to the best of our ability because at the end of the day the only person we have to deal with is ourselves & if we did our best then that's all we can do. He of course said it much more elegently.

I'm going into this year with Youth Encounter with joy, broken, skeptic, loving and learning to love deeper, wanting to get into the hearts of all those I work with and live with and learn their stories, & relying on God to lead the way & have faith that I won't lose that confidence in God.