Preparing

‎...reality is hitting and you are walking away from your home for 2 weeks and 2 days. Some of us are leaving our children at home. Work unfinished at the office. Laundry has to be done. Bills have to be paid. Some have a funeral on their mind. Everything starts to close in on you these last hours before you get on the plane. Maybe you are even hearing doubts being whispered in your ear. You are not alone. It is part of the job description and it is not easy, regardless of how many time you may or may not have done this. Be encouraged. Everything will fall into place, eventually. We are warriors in the Kingdom of God. We belong to God. We are on assignment, but.. there is an active enemy that would like to really discourage us right about now. You have been CALLED. You have been EQUIPPED. Jesus Christ is Lord. You are going to do amazing! Keep pressing ahead, full speed! 

Jill Dooney Etter

This was posted by one of my fellow leaders for the Panama trip just this evening.

And I realized that I have such a different mindset than so many others when I travel. Part of it may be that I have been a "carefree" student for the majority of my travels. But for me, I love the opportunity to leave "normal" life behind. I love the adventures and the spontaneity of traveling.

At the beginning of our trip last year, our team leader addressed the things that were distracting us from being completely present in training. For several of my girls, it was hard for them to be away from friends and family and were distracted in thinking about what everyone at home was doing and what they were missing out on. For me, that has never crossed my mind. As I said before, I love getting away from that.

I'm taking almost three weeks off of work. When I get home, my paycheck from my full time job will be quite minuscule. I have rent to pay and school bills to pay. While I know that that is the truth, God has provided in other ways -- such as one job in which I get my first paycheck from working all through June while I'm in Panama.

God has also provided full funding for my trip, plus a little extra to cover some of the items I needed to buy specifically for the trip and for some toys for the kids we meet along the way!

I know not everything will go "according to plan" -- there will be hard days, little sleep, disagreements between teammates, and messy heart issues that we'll all be working and praying through. But I know that through it all, God has His hand in it all. Even though it's difficult sometimes (okay, a lot of the time), I know that God knows what He's doing. He has put me on this trip, on my team, for a reason -- whether it's to teach me something about myself or to minister to someone on my team or someone in Panama ((or more than likely, all three)), I'm following Him wherever He wants me to go.

Until next time,

Amy Lynn

Already Packed

I don't leave until Friday, but my bags are already packed.

I have a lot to do this week, but in the name of procrastination, my suitcase for Panama is already packed! After doing my laundry this weekend, I figured it would make more sense to pack what I needed rather than put it away.

This will be my suitcase's maiden voyage -- as I was returning from Ecuador last year, my suitcase broke and I decided it was time for a new one :)

After I had packed my bag, I didn't know how much it actually weighed. We don't have a scale and so I finally went out and bought a luggage scale ((something I've been wanting for a while)).

I weighed my suitcase today and I was totally surprised when I saw that it only weighed 35 pounds. I'm pretty sure this has never happened to me. I know I'll probably add a few more things to my bag before I leave on Friday, but to be 15 pounds under the weight limit, that's new. I'm usually just barely below 50 pounds, and that's with a ton of stuff crammed into my carry-on, just to make the weight limit. I'm hoping that I can avoid putting much more in between now and Friday and have it be a record for me :)


Until next time,

Amy