Prepping

I'm preparing to go on this mission trip to Columbia/Peru/Brazil/the Amazonas (we technically end up in a small village in Peru, but we hit up all three countries on the way).

What am I expecting out of this? What do I expect to give, to receive? How am I preparing?

My most prevailing expectation is that I will be challenged. On the practical side, we're going to be camping the whole time, sleeping in tents. I'm not much of an outdoorsy person, and haven't really gone camping in around ten years. However, I have purchased the most bug-repellant things that ever were and am looking out windows more frequently in order to get used to this "nature" thing.

In terms of spiritual stuff, I've been working at purifying my mind, at letting The Lord refine me since I've gotten back from Arkansas. I've begun to see people in a different light, seeing in their eyes the eyes of those people I've seen on mission trips in the past, people who cannot seem to get out of the rut they're in, and have therefore allowed themselves to stop growing. I want to stop that. I can't stand seeing people without hope, without a reason to reach for more. That hope lay within Christ, in the redemptive power of His forgiveness. And I forget the gravity of that pretty often.

Fortunately, mission trips are a great way to see that hope embodied, see it at work within a people and culture. And I suppose that that is really my expectation for the trip. To see the embodiment of the hope of Christ rest upon people in a powerful way.

I'm excited to be out from under the belief systems of JBU, to practice working in spiritual gifts again. To pray for hands of healing and maybe actually believe that God could work through me in that. I want to be tested, to be pushed, to be challenged.