We were asked to write a blog about how we felt before leaving on this mission trip.  Here is what I am expecting...

 

I expect to be changed, and not the kind of change the politics talk about...real change

I expect to cry...alot!

I expect to laugh even more

I expect to see God working in my life, the lives of my team members, and the lives of the people we will meet

I expect to be homesick, but have a new group of friends to help me through it

I expect to experience culture shock going to Africa, but more coming back to America

I expect to become closer to God then I have ever been before

I expect to meet lifelong friends

I expect to have my heart broken

I expect my broken heart to be renewed by the people I will come in contact with

 

I hope that God will abolish all of my pride

I hope that God will reveal the next step in my life to me

I hope that I will learn how to tell others about God, and have the courage enough to do it

I hope that I can see people through God's eyes

 

I know that this trip will change my life.  I truely do expect to have more of a culture shock coming home then going.  Going from people who praise God for the very little they have to people who curse God for not having enough (even when they do) will be a very big shock to me.  God has already been changing me in many ways and I know that he will continue to do so.  I pray that I am listening for those whispers that God sends revealing the important things to me.  And most of all, I pray that I have the faith to listen to them and act upon them.