{30 days} of thankful : day 28

i mentioned recently that there are some pretty exciting opportunities for growth + service + purpose that are in the process of coming to fruition. so this evening, i'd like to share about one of them.

tim + i are going to venezuela!

not for good, but for about 10 days, which feels like quite a long time i must say. the US passport agency has cashed our checks for expedited passports; our bosses have given us time off; and plane tickets will be bought any day now.

we'll be going with a very small group from our church, to serve alongside a pastor in valencia, venezuela, with a focus on the university there, which boasts a student enrollment of over 52,000. to be honest, we don't know a whole lot more than that.

except that we felt a call to GO.

i'll be honest: there isn't much in me that actually wants to go to venezuela. i know next to nothing about it, and i recently commented to tim about how south america as a whole just isn't on my radar. at all. but, sure enough, the Lord has been preparing our hearts for this for a while, just without letting on how things would play out. we have felt restless, desiring to grow and serve, recognizing a need to be UNCOMFORTABLE. our practical selves found many reasons to dismiss the idea of going on the mission trip to venezuela (oh, did i mention the trip is in about 5 weeks!?). you know, things like lack of time off from work, not speaking spanish, tim's fairly new job. and slowly, those things were chipped away by people who probably didn't even know the impact of their words.

a week and a half ago, i found myself crying my way through the sermon at church, tears streaming down my face. tim had left church early for a soccer game, so i was sitting by myself trying to hide my sniffles. but, i just couldn't get out of my mind the call to leave our comfort zones for something greater. my brain was in no way thinking venezuela, but at the same time the Lord was working on tim's heart to where he came home and said over dinner that he just knew he needed to GO. everything he said rang true with where my heart was, with what i've been thinking and unconsciously knowing for a while. i think i'm going, too. part of me doesn't actually want to, but it seems right.


our decision hinged on open doors: on getting time off (tim has been granted a few days of unpaid leave & i have enough pto accrued to use) and on quickly acquiring passports. fortunately i realized that i would, in fact, have to get a new one (fyi, turns out you have to buy a new one when you get married, even if your previous one is only 2 years old. cool, huh?)... and the estimated time for expedited passports is 2-3 weeks. just in time.

so, we shall be off! march 3-10. i'm excited to share more as we prepare and learn about what is in store, and as we GO and experience whatever good works the Lord has in store. we speak about 25 words combined in Spanish, so it will be far beyond our own talents and skills and strength to do anything of value in venezuela. which, i think, is exactly as it should be.


katie anne