[ Uganda, Africa Mission Journal – Entry 2 ]

MABANK, TX – MARCH 9, 2012 – The day has come, almost. After a few hours of fitful sleep, Jill and I will be headed for Uganda. Now we won’t be there for two days, but we will be on the way. Jill says she has been really nervous, especially about being away from the kids for over a week. That’s not all she’s been nervous about. All the preparations, making sure every detail is taken care of, has made her a ball of nervous energy. And that’s why everything has happened so smoothly, for me at least. She also says I’m probably not nervous at all (but she’s wrong), and that I’m more adventurous than her. I don’t know about that either. After all we’re both going. But I do know this does feel like an adventure for me. More because this is a door God has opened for us that wasn’t anywhere in the far reaches of my mind as something possible. That I would never even have thought of on my own.

So, we’re leaving tomorrow to see what God has in store for us. We’re doing a lot of leaving. We left the dogs in Houston with my mom. We left our children with their grandparents at the lake. We’re leaving our home, our state, our country. We’re leaving what we know, what we do every day, and we are a page without writing. I can’t wait to see what God writes on that page. That’s the adventure for me. That’s also what makes the nerves set in – the not in charge, not in control of what’s going to happen next, nerves.

Okay, take a deep breath. It is the day, and what God wants to do with it is better than anything I thought I wanted. That’s the way it should work. It should be easy to let God be in charge. After all, He’s God. He should know what’s best for us. But we are always getting in the way.

This time, though, I’ll just take what comes, and leave what I want behind.