Always Learning...Always Growing

I am still learning a lot as I prepare to teach in Hungary in the fall! One thing I have learned is that you never stop learning or growing. Just because you go off and do a challenging 11 months overseas where you give up "everything" and stretch yourself further than you thought you could go spiritually and physically, DOES NOT mean you are done. I am by no means complete or "spiritually mature." God still wants to stretch me and continue to push my faith past the limits of where I THINK I can go.

As I am preparing for Hungary by support raising, I have also learned that things will not necessarily go the same way, or as smoothly, this time around as it did for me on the World Race. A lot of things are different from last year. For instance, I gave myself less than 6 months to prepare whereas last time I picked the very last trip possible (allowing for at least a year of support raising). In preparing for teaching overseas, I felt like I needed to put things more in God's hands this time and trust that deadlines mean nothing to Him and He will provide. So far I have failed to trust in this provision at least twice a week as I look at my low support account. He continues to remind me every day...TRUST...TRUST...

I had also started really early last year sending out support letters, speaking to churches, etc. This year I have not sent out as many letters yet or spoken to any church congregations yet. From the beginning of this process in January I had decided that I would not stress as much over the support raising aspect of "going" and would make sure to leave room for God to work. My fear, though, is that I have not done all I can on my part when I should...and still I worry about the money. After being sick this week (not feeling able to do anything), realizing that I have 4 months until I leave, and only having $1,000 in my support account I feel like it is time to start working harder and praying harder. When I prepared for the World Race, my support came in pretty easily. This time may be different...and I need to be okay with that.

Another struggle I have faced this time is that I am used to the way things have been done in the past with support raising and working with AIM (having gone to Kenya in 2006 and on the World Race with them). As I begin to work with Teach Overseas, I am starting to see how they run things differently, not worse but just different. Coming on, I think I assumed and acted as if their processes were the same. So I am having to relearn and adjust my support raising according to this. For instance, with AIM, I was able to have all supporters send their support directly to AIM (they actually preferred I did this). With Teach Overseas, I automatically did this, but I learned that when I do I have no way of knowing if someone noted they will support me monthly or that they will support me in prayer. Oops! This has been a source of worry and frustration for me in the last couple of weeks. It just means more work in contacting my supporters and letting them know about this slip-up.

When I went on the World Race, we immediately had to learn to give up what we know and what is comfortable to open our eyes for what God wants to do in and through us. Looks like I am still learning how to do this. Bring it on!