Mixed Emotions

Mixed emotions always come the night before leaving for Ghana. This is my 4th trip to Ghana, and my last trip to the States for a year. This trip has been amazing! Awesome quality time with some of my favorite people in the world.

And yet, leaving always brings strange emotions...excitement for the adventure ahead...expectation in seeing my kids again...and sadness in leaving behind my friends and family...the connection that you feel with just being with ones who know you WELL.

I'm honestly a little scared of what is ahead of me in this next season. I think that I'm going to be challenged in new ways, but I also sense a season of rooting myself in Ghana. And that frightens me a little bit. For so long, I have been able to avoid burnout with the six-month window of time that I stay in Ghana before a short return to the States for some much needed R and R. A year is a lot longer. And there's no telling what it might hold.

But there is also the excitement of not knowing...of possibilities...of coming into "new imaginings" and seeing come to life. I pray this year will just be one of great filling. I pray for new friendships and opportunities...and freedom. I pray for the one above all. For freedom...in all possible ways...I want this year to be a year where freedom reigns.

So, I guess my fears about this upcoming years aren't unfounded, but in the midst of all the possibilities, they seem...small.

Tomorrow, I'll leave once more to Ghana to be embraced on the other side with my family there knowing full well that I am loved and supported here. Mixed emotions, yes. But, ready? Yes.

When I was first called to Ghana in January 2009, God told me to "Trust and Obey". So I will continue to do that. In obedience, I will walk forward in what he has in store for me in Ghana and I will trust in his full provision, grace, love, faithfulness, and peace for the days ahead.