3 days and counting...

I officially leave in 3 days! I can hardly believe it. If you know me, there's no doubt that I have NOT started packing. That will happen on Wednesday. Tomorrow is reserved for last minute shopping...and of course our epic team meeting. We'll finally ALL be together again for the first time since April. *sigh*

I am really looking forward to this trip. I know there will be a lot of work involved but I will also get to see God work a lot. :) That makes it all worth it.

Seeing as this is probably my last shot at internet/blogging I have a few things I'd like to say.

I absolutely, positively, 100% love my team. God has blessed me with the best people. Thank you, Jesus, for Your care and provision. And thank you to each of my team members for allowing Christ to work in you. This team would not be the same at ALL without each one of you.

I am a little nervous, I'm not going to lie. As the day approaches (3 days!!) I am getting a little more nervous. It is not reality (in my mind) until I start packing so I have been able to hold anxiety at bay. Once I start the packing (Wednesday morning) it will all become SO REAL. :)

I am a procrastinator, I admit. However, I want to say thank you to my friends here who have been helping me prepare in countless ways. From physically (advice on what to pack) to spiritually (those friends who have written me letters of encouragement to take along), I greatly appreciate each one of you. I will miss each and every one of you while I am gone.

God has been preparing my heart in a lot of ways. I have become much more compassionate, it seems. The other day I drove by a homeless person and didn't even acknowledge him because I was in a hurry and I wasn't sure if I had cash on me. That made me cry as I drove away. I acted as if he wasn't even a human. I couldn't even look at him as I drove by. How horrible is that? I have been praying for the hearts of those we are going to work with and build relationships with. Please be praying for them, also.

The next three weeks of my life are not going to be easy, relaxing ones. No doubt we will have our good times, our shared laughs, and our great memories, but there will be hard times. Please be praying for my team as we depart on this journey in faith. I know that all of them aside from me have been on over seas trips such as these before, but I just have this feeling inside me that it will be different from anything any of us have ever experienced. I am very excited to share in that with my team and very excited to share it with YOU when I return!

I will have very limited internet access (I am not counting on anything more than once a week) while I am gone. If I have time, I will post a short blog. If not, please forgive me. My priorities will be e-mailing my family and those who have requested to be on my e-mail list while I am away. My e-mail will be coming from a different e-mail address which I have yet to create. As soon as I create it, I will send out an e-mail to those who have requested one.

Please please PLEASE keep us in your daily, even constant, prayers. We truly would appreciate it more than you could comprehend. God's grace is enough for each day and I will truly be relying upon it. I will miss you all.

3 days...and counting...

For those in the RIVERSIDE AND NORCO area, we will be having a send off/prayer time/worship night on Wednesday night at 7 PM at Norco Baptist Church. Please come see us off if you have the time and wish to do so. :)

For my friends, you know I will be calling when I get back to share stories and getting together with you to show you pictures. For those of you who got ahold of this blog through my dad, I will send HIM pictures through e-mail to then forward to you. I appreciate your encouragement. Sometimes he goes ahead and passes on comments from you all. :)

Listening and waiting...

I'm a big fan of the Upstream Battle guys. I mean, really. They are doing this amazing thing this summer. Fighting for the rights of people who are being treated like objects. I've been a faithful follower of their blog, as well as talking to Ethan briefly recently. Currently I'm listening to a voice update from them.

Their blog always makes me think. God is providing everything they could possibly need. He has been SO GOOD to these guys. I can only pray for that same faithfulness during my upcoming trip. But that's the thing. God WILL provide for me in the same ways. Whatever I need, He will provide to those who are faithful to Him.

Faithfulness.

That's what I'm striving for in my walk with Christ. Faithfulness is, when all goes wrong, you are still giving all glory to the Father who created you. Faithfulness is when you have lost the one most dear to you and you still carry on knowing that He is still good.

Faithfulness.

Sometimes this word sounds funny to me. Maybe because I have a hard time living this out. Maybe because I am a human and sometimes being faithful to myself (being selfish) seems so much more appealing and rewarding at the time. But in the end, that is SUCH a lie. It will never be more rewarding to serve myself than to serve the God I love and the other people He has placed in my life.

Faithfulness.

As my trip approaches (just 7 days now!!) I am getting really sad to leave "home." I understand that my only true home is in Heaven but of course, being a relational person, I have totally become faithful (in a sense) to the ones I love and care for. I don't know what I would do without my friends and family, especially as they have supported me in this trip. I get nervous thinking I am leaving them for 3 weeks to SE Asia and then another week to New Mexico. But again, faithfulness. If I am faithful to my God, He will continue to provide.

In preparation for my trip, along with an accountability decision I made with my pastor's wife, I am memorizing John 15 before I leave on my trip. So far I have learned the first 19 verses. I have 8 left to learn. Sometimes it gets hard because I realize that each verse I learn means one less day before I leave. That's nervewracking. I am so excited to see God work and I am so excited to see how He uses our team, and yet, I am so scared to leave those I love and to deal with the bugs and critters and heat (as wimpy as that sounds).

He will provide. I just need to trust. I need to be faithful, for "apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5b)

Someone sent me a letter recently and on the back they wrote, "I don't know why, but I felt like putting this verse for you." The verse is a simple one and yet one that has continued to encourage me for my trip. It is Proverbs 3:26 which says, "for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught." He is the only thing which I can truly have confidence in for He is the only thing which will not fail.

Here's something I found that has really helped me. I wrote each one of my fears on a sheet of paper. Then I progressed to find a verse that dealt with each of them and wrote it next to my fear. It is something I can go over, read the verses, and remember once again that God is sovereign.

7 days. :)

Simplicity

Today was an interesting day in the computer lab. When I went to work, I had the normal Friday mentality. This mentality consists of, "It's Friday. Two people will come in and they'll both be gone by 6. No work for me really." Wow was I surprised!!

At the good ol' college there is a huge soccer coach conference going on. Should've read that sign out by Public Safety. Haha. Anyway, there are TONS of British guys and some women coming in today. It started out with one, then three or four, and by 6:30, almost EVERY seat was filled. Crazy, right? Well, being me, I got shy. I love a British accent and they were all so sweet I didn't know what to do. I ended up only saying "hi" at most to most of them. Then I regretted it. I mean, I had wanted to talk to them. I'm prone to creating friendships and so I wanted to talk, but I didn't. I let my shy tendencies (which only show up once in a while) overtake me. And, of course, some of them were cute. ;) At first I didn't really mind...and then...

Most of them left and then there were 2 guys left. Both of them were older (30-40s). Then one more came in. He sat down and asked me how late we're open. Since he was the first one I truly interacted with, I got up the courage to talk to him. I asked him what they were here for. He told me they are all soccer coaches. I told him that's super crazy because there were so many of them. He laughed and then went back to what he was doing. One of the other two men came to my desk and told me he made a mistake on his e-mail and wanted to know if I could help. Of course I can! :) I walked over with him, looked at what he had done, and showed him how to correct it. He shook my hand, finished up what he was doing and started to leave.

As he walked by my desk, he shook my hand again. He told me I am an angel and asked for my name. I told him, and he responded by saying, "My name is Antonio. Thank you so much!" and then proceeded to kiss my hand. (Yes, daddy. He kissed my hand. It's ok, don't freak out. Love you!!!) ;) It's the simple things really.

I suddenly minded that I hadn't struck up conversations with more people. It bothered me that I hadn't taken a few extra seconds, worked past my shyness, and talked to them. I missed a lot of opportunities to be Christ's love to these guys. That may sound weird, I know. But really, we're called to be Christ's love to people. I had about 50 opportunities to do that today. And I only took 1 or 2. I was truly ashamed of myself.

How often do I actually stop to help the old lady who dropped something? It crosses my mind EVERY time I see it, but how often do I really do something about it? How often do I see someone in need of some help and actually offer to help? Again, it crosses my mind but it doesn't get done as many times as I think of it. I tend to be naturally disposed to helping others. It's part of me. But I should be doing it much more often. Today was a lesson. A lesson to quit losing those opportunities.

II Corinthians 5:14-15, "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

20 days. :)

So near - and yet...

Everything is coming up! My trip, one of my best friend's birthday, fundraisers, seemingly everything!

As far as my trip goes, I become more and more excited as each day goes by and as I learn more and more about the God I love and serve and the country I am headed to. My excitement is hopefully contagious! Every time I spend time with anyone from my team, I am more encouraged. And each time we spend time as a team, it's so refreshing. We are, however, missing someone from our team. Bryce is at home in Nor Cal and it is definitely felt that he isn't here. At our last meeting, we all brought it up. We really miss you, buddy.

As the trip gets closer and closer, God is revealing more and more to me. I have been learning a lot about myself and what I hope to see on this trip. I recently bought a Bible to leave there with someone. I'm really going to be looking for opportunities. Man, this trip is becoming so exciting and we haven't even left yet!!! Once we leave I know I'll be going crazy with excitement and anticipation and just plain ecstasy. That was a lot of emotion packed into a sentence, I know. I just really can't wait. Each member of my team has made a special place in my heart and I don't know what I would do without them. Even Anthony was saying the other day how we are such a great team. I couldn't agree more. There is no internal conflicts and it's amazing how God's been working in each of us.

One of my goals before leaving for my trip is to read through the book of Psalms. I know that it doesn't seem like that big of a task but sometimes I get so caught up in other things, whether they be helpful towards my trip or not, that I forget to spend time with God. Yes, I said it. I am NOT perfect. Haha. Sometimes I feel like people think I am but really, I struggle SO MUCH because I get so busy during the day that I choose to do other "relaxing" things in the evening than spend time with my Creator. He deserves so much more than that, yeah? That's part of why I have set this goal. It will keep me in the word each night. Also, I have found that I absolutely love the Psalms. They are comforting, reprimanding, and encouraging. I have found many verses that have encouraged me for this trip.

Hope you're all doing well. I don't know truly how many people read this. But I hope in some way it's an encouragement to someone. :)

4 weeks.