Today marks exactly fourteen days until our team, along with fifteen other students, will fly from Nashville to D.C., from D.C. to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt to Sofia. We will arrive in Sofia the next day and will begin training with the entire group for the next few days. This is an exciting time, but it has also been slightly rushed and stressful. In preparing for twelve weeks away from home, I've begun to feel the pressure of the time crunch to see my friends and family, move out of my apartment, finish up my senior year, attend all the graduation festivities, pack, and so on and so forth. Time is certainly running out, and at times it's overwhelming. But lately I've been thinking a lot about the disciples. I often find myself thinking about their call to follow Christ. The image the Bible depicts makes it seem that they just picked up and left all they had. They left their friends, their families, their jobs and their belongings. They didn't have time to pack a bag with everything they thought they might need. They just answered the call, got up, and left. This is quite the challenge, because I too am called to follow Christ into unknown territory. I too am called to be a disciple.
Not only were the disciples unprepared in terms of saying goodbye to their loved ones, but I would imagine they were also unprepared for their future ventures spiritually. They were given no warning about the things they would soon witness. They were just thrown into ministry and they were forced to learn as they went. I have been preparing for this trip for a few months now. I have been praying, doing my devotions, and contemplating the many things I've learned in my mission courses. Yet, like the disciples, I know that in many ways I am going to have to learn as I go. There are some things I just can't prepare for. All I can do is trust that God is with me and that the Spirit will mold me and shape me in my time in Bulgaria.
I am incredibly excited about the three months that lie ahead of me and my team. I spent some time in Sofia last Summer, and the place grabbed hold of my heart in a way no other place ever has. I have a peace in my heart that Sofia is where I'm meant to be, so I know all the anxiety is unnecessary. And three months really isn't a fair comparison to the three years the disciples spent in ministry with Jesus. I will return home to my family and friends in several short weeks. But I know that I will come back a changed person, although I have no picture now of what that might look like. God is going to work in our lives in amazing, and unexpected ways this Summer.
I would ask those of you who are following this blog to please commit to pray for our team as we embark on this journey. There is so much hurt and darkness in the part of the world we will soon call home. Yet, I know that God is already doing amazing things there. We are so lucky to be invited into what He is doing in Sofia already.
Please pray that we will be open to the Spirit, that we will have perseverance, patience, and grace in every situation, and that we will truly live with the love, peace and compassion of Christ in every situation and struggle we face in this journey. Pray that we will lead lives of discipleship each day.
In Christ,
Lauren
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