It's Actually Happening

It's kind of crazy actually being at orientation now. Its been hard to really believe that in just a couple months I really will be going to Uganda to do missions work for 2 years, and being here makes it all of a sudden seem much more real, much more like it's actually happening. And it's kinda scary. I'm about to go to an entirely different culture, live in an entirely different environment, be away from every one dear to me and everything with which I am familiar. It won't be easy, and the more real things become the harder it looks.

I have also recently begun to better understand the responsibilities I bear through my position. The IMB, my family, my church and partner churches, the older men and women who've said to me "You give us hope for your generation," those who look up to me an respect me, those who wish they could be doing what I'm doing, my team in the field, both the lost and the believers in Mbarara, and Jesus are all counting on me, and I fear letting them down.

Yet I find hope in knowing my strength comes from Christ, that it is not I who live but He who lives in me, that it is the Holy Spirit who will be working through me, not me working on my own power. And as much as it's scary, it's even more exciting. After all, that which is scary tends also to be quite exciting. The opportunity I have, the work I will be able to do, the impact I may make, the people I will befriend, the places I will go, the things I will learn, and the depth in my relationship with God I may achieve are all very exciting. So while the scary aspects of living overseas become more real, so to do the exciting aspects of missions work, and that's exciting in of itself.