Getting Hammered

In exactly 145 hours I'll be leaving on my mission trip to India (that's 6 days from now). It's taken a couple of months, but God has finally hammered me into shape (and when I say hammered, I mean hammered) and gotten me strong enough to take this trip. I saw my friends Shelley, Jesse, Tracy and Blair last night and I could actually honestly say that "I'M FINALLY GETTING EXCITED!"

There have been times over the last couple of months that when I would think about getting on a plane and flying 8500 miles away from my family, I actually couldn't breathe - I definitely had some deep seeded fears. Thank God my best friend is a therapist and could help me through that one! Before I leave on Sunday a.m., I will be writing all of my fears on rocks and then I'm going to give every single one to God and then throw them into the river to get rid of them. I'm not traveling with ANY FEAR whatsoever!

I was thinking this week about the 6 months I spent learning Spanish so that I would be more effective when I went on my mission trip to Mexico with my Lifeline students. It's kind of funny that God completely shook me up, changed my plans and now I'm going to India instead of Mexico. I still want to use my new Spanish skills anyway - maybe they'll be impressed that I know so many languages (ha ha).

The week that my team was in Mexico actually doing all of the things that I spent months planning and putting into place was really tough - I was pretty frustrated at God that I wasn't there - but through that "hammering" God has done amazing things and now I know that everything this summer has happened the way it was supposed to. Who knows if I'll ever find out why - but I know that God has a plan and a purpose and I'm done kicking and screaming and fighting to do what I want to do. He is in control.

Just to prove that I have total faith in God and trust him completely - click HERE for a video of the traffic in India - You won't believe it! This is what we'll be in for 8 days - I have to make sure and add that to one of my rocks!