Preparation.
“Are you ready for an adventure?”
A question Pat McLeod, Cru staff and one of the veteran missions leaders to South Africa fervently asked the group.
I looked around as discreetly as I could and tried to read the room. Despite the nervous excitement most seemed to have, overwhelmingly the response to the question appeared to be a resounding ‘YES.
‘Yes, Pat. We’re ready. Get us to the airport ASAP!'
Honestly, that question scared me. A LOT. I wasn’t sure if I was ready. I wasn’t even ready for that question! In fact, the only thing that I knew for certain I was ready for was my bed! I felt like I could sleep for a month (maybe two…)
The last few weeks of grad school had completely worn me out. When graduation finally came, I felt like I crawled across the ceremonial stage. Before I knew it, I was holding my second degree in my hands and smiling for an unending stream of photos...a few days later, I was in New Brunswick, New Jersey at my alma mater in support of my father and watching the sitting President of the United States address the class of 2016...less than a week later, I was living in a frat house with 20+ students (not including the frat boys!)...two weeks after that I was “running through the 6 with my woes” and just a few days later, back in Boston preparing for a month-long missions trip in South Africa.
My life was an action packed screenplay with nonstop plot development moving me along while mentally I felt pages behind.
“Are you ready for an adventure?”
No! I was absolutely, positively NOT. I was actually still recovering from the “adventures” of the last two months.
But my body, sitting at the South African missions briefing in Park Street Church crammed among Cru Boston staff I knew, students from Boston I kind of knew, and many others who I had yet to know, said “YES”.
The financial support that had incredibly rolled in without that much effort on my part echoed that "YES".
And (most importantly) God, who’d once again, looked at my original plans and laughed heartily also said "YES”.
So I found myself once again in motion. On a T to Boston Logan Airport, on a plane to Frankfurt, Germany and two lengthy days later, in Johannesburg, South Africa where I realized it was far too late to not be ready for an adventure. I was already there.
So I prayed. I prayed hard and I asked God to change my attitude and help me to not be bogged down by the weight of everything I knew I was carrying with me into this project. I prayed that I would rely on His strength and His strength alone. I’d seen Him turn things around, providing energy, favor and grace in moments where I felt I had no business having that peace and I knew that if I held onto that and trusted that in this moment, that He would come through once again.
And so prematurely homesick, excessively anxious, exhausted from travel, I buckled my metaphoric seatbelt up tightly and said “Yes, Lord. I am ready.”
Let the adventure begin.
