Seven Days and Counting!

It's hard to believe that this time next week I'll be on a plane headed for South Africa! In some ways I feel as if I'm so ready to be there (at least my excitement level's ready), but in so many other ways I'm not ready at all. God has been faithful through the entire process leading up to the trip, though, and it has been good to remind myself of that recently.

Lately, I have been wondering why God is sending me - of all people. That nice little friend called "Doubt" has crept its way in, and I've started wondering why someone like me is going to share Christ's love with this unique group of people in Africa. I have a hard enough time believing that God loves me, and I'm traveling half-way around the world to try to show other people that He loves them, too. How's that going to work?

I have slowly come to realize that the reason Mr. Doubt has crept in is because I am trying to do this on my own. No wonder I am experiencing doubt! There is no way possible that I could share a love as powerful as Christ's without Him being the one to do it.

It is so good to "rehearse God's past faithfulness," as my pastor says, when I start to doubt things. "God's past faithfulness is the best predictor of how He will work in the future." Just this morning I was reading one of my journal entries about how this whole Africa trip even came into existence, and it's amazing! He has perfectly orchestrated this whole trip. Seriously - everything about this trip shows how present God is in our day-to-day lives. Doing this has reminded me that if God was faithful in bringing this trip about, He will be faithful to carry it out according to His perfect will.

I am definitely still worried about getting in the way on this trip. So often I try to take control of my life, and do things on my own. It is a daily thing for me to surrender my life to God and what He wants to do with it. When you think about it, I would appreciate you praying for us on this trip. Please pray that we would learn how to daily surrender our lives, and that Christ would be the only one getting the credit while we're there.

Thanks for all your encouragement and support! And I hope you have a great rest of the week :)