According to my calendar, it's already August 14?? We've had a super busy summer but it's mostly been busy because we've seen a lot of people and gone a lot of places--a good busy!
But now we are down to a month left until we leave for Texas for our training. Training (otherwise known as Onboarding) starts Saturday, August 14, and we will be in our dorm the day before to get settled in. Onboarding will last around 8 weeks. There are only 3 Onboarding classes each year and any crew members who are serving for 10+ months are required to take the class. I think this is great from a practical standpoint, but I also like the idea of spending 2 months training with and getting to know some of the people that we will be starting this new phase of life with.
During the first 6 weeks, we will be at Mercy Ships headquarters in Lindale, TX. The training will cover a lot of different areas, including:
Learning more about the Mercy Ships organization;
Discussing why we do missions from a Biblical perspective;
Examining our own spiritual lives and studying the Word with our classmates;
Recognizing our own personalities and how to successfully live/interact/work with 480 other personalities;
Study how best to serve the poor (i.e. not "hurting by helping"); and
Undergoing Basic Safety Training (first aid, CPR, sea survival, firefighting and fire prevention, blood borne pathogens).
After those 6 weeks, we will fly to the Congo! Our tickets are for October 22. The entire team will fly out together and we will spend 10-14 days completing some sort of project (painting a school, adding a room to an orphanage, stuff like that) on the ground before we board the ship. This is another way that Mercy Ships gets involved with a host country from a non-medical standpoint. It also is a great way for us to get to know the Congolese--whom we will be serving the next 10 months!
Knowing that this is all just a month away definitely produces mixed emotions. On the one hand, we are so excited that this is all we can think about. On the other hand, we know there are going to be a lot of goodbyes up ahead and so we try not to think about that part too much. And on the other hand (or foot I guess) we have so much to do in the next month that we can think about it too much and end up stressing!
So when all is said and done, we need to come to God in prayer.
Please join us in praying that we do not lose sight of what God has called us to--we are definitely excited and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are going where God wants us. But in the midst of stressing about packing and saying goodbyes, it's easy to wonder if we're doing the right thing.
Please do pray for those goodbyes! Honestly, goodbyes are what occupy most of my thoughts right now and I know there will be many teary days ahead (to be perfectly honest, I'm tearing up writing this). We are so blessed by our family and friends here and I'm always reminded by this quote when my thoughts go this way: "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." I love this quote because it's a reminder to look on the bright side. But those goodbyes are definitely hard and we're not looking forward to them.
Please pray as we get packing. We have a lot of sorting to do--what gets thrown away, what is given away or sold, what to find a temporary home for, what goes into storage, what comes with us when we fly, and what will be shipped to us later--you get the picture. Pray that we use our time efficiently and that we use our space even MORE efficiently! :)
However, despite writing all that, packing is NOT our focus for this month. We want this month to be all about PEOPLE. So PLEASE, if you want to hang out, shoot Jordan or me a text, write an email, or leave a comment. :) We want this last month to be full of fun memories of our friends and family!
