Hopefully the next time I'll be blogging I'll be sitting in Maputo in my new home listening to all 350 kids playing outside my window. I've had lots of questions and conversations over the last month regarding how I decided I was going to do this whole thing, how I found Iris Ministries, why Mozambique and africa, ect. They are all really cool stories that I've shared with some of my closest friends that were walking with me during the times I was going through them. Others of you only know bits and pieces. I hope to share them here in the next few weeks as I am getting settled in. Tonight I'll respond to the most frequently made statement: "I can't believe you are doing this, just picking up and leaving everything here and moving to Africa for such a long time comittment. You must be so brave."
What precisely am I leaving behind? Ok, I know friends and families. And there are things I'm going to miss, moments, and days, and events, but besides that there's nothing really. I have a job that doesn't really have a ladder to climb...not that that kind of thing has ever meant anything to me. I just mean I'm a nurse. I love working in the hospital. I love what I do. I don't wanna go back to school. I don't want to be a manager. I'm not working towards anything but vacations and retirement. I don't have a house. I don't have a family. I don't even have a pet. It's just me and well....stuff. Stuff that now resides in a nice plush storage bin outside Nashville. It's not that long. It's just ONE year (maybe more) of my life. I'm not MISSING out on anything. This time next year I'll just be a year older...whether that be here or in Africa. Time works the same way. If anything, I'd be missing out by NOT going to Mozambique.
I don't feel brave. Not at all. But I'm not scared and I haven't been worried or freaked out during this whole process (ok, after my initial 6 month hissy fit and the occasional moments, days, or rare weeks). I've never been so sure of anything. It's nothing I had ever considered doing in life. It was not a goal or on the neat lifeplan I had mapped out. So when God revealed these plans they came as a little bit of a shock to me. But His plans were so clear and unmistakeable that they couldn't be denied. Ever since I said YES, there has been nothing but confirmation after confirmation and an amazing sense of peace. I have left everything completely in His hands throughout this entire 18 month process and He has delivered each time. I have been given this peace through Him and it is in that I rest. So if you felt so sure that this is what you were supposed to do, then you would have the same feeling. I know God will finish what He started in motion. And I'm not worrying about the details. I'm just on for the ride.
And now you are too...since you're reading this. Watch for more. Next post will probably after I arrive and then I hope to update you at least weekly. No promises though! Thanks again to all of you for everything. I could not do it without you. Know that you are truly apart of this all.
PRAYER REQUEST:
- Safe flight and travels
- quickly settling in to the changes of everything involved of moving to a new place much less one on another continent in a 3rd world country
- language acquisition and communication through charades in the meantime
- good community after I arrive with the other missionaries on base (especially a few close girls to walk with)
- adjustment to my new role/job as nurse in the babyhouse (i've been working with babies under 6 months for the last 5 years....the babyhouse is 40 birth to 5 year olds)
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