Just about ready

Today is Thursday and my flight leaves, God willing, this coming Sunday at 6:20 AM. Am I ready? I'm not sure, but I know that God is able to make all grace abound to me, so that having all sufficiency in all things, at all times, I may abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8). So yes, I guess I am ready. Please pray for me, that God would go before me and prepare ways for me to serve, and that He would keep me, body and especially soul, while I am there.

This past week has been full of getting ready to go; I feel like I have done more prep work in this past week than I have throughout the entire summer. God's grace flowing through people around me has been the steam driving the engine up this hill as I prepare to go. A prime example of his grace was a new debit card arriving in the mail today. I opened a new account Monday with Wells Fargo so that I would have an ATM card from a large bank in India. When I first called the bank, they weren't sure if they could get me the card that soon but they put a rush on it anyway hoping that it would come today. I looked through the mail today with the mindset that it would be in there and I'd have it for India or it wouldn't be there and God would work something else out. It wasn't in the mailbox. That's fine, I thought, maybe tomorrow? God kept me from being anxious about it (which I am prone to do) and not two minutes later a UPS truck pulled up with my debit card. I know it's not a huge thing, but it sure was encouraging to me. Please pray that God would continue to strengthen my faith--not so much that everything would work out smoothly for me (I want that too) but more that I would have unshakable faith no matter what comes my way.

Other things to pray for:
-that Christ would get praise for himself through my life
-my group from St. Olaf
-the Indian people I will work with, that I would be a Gospel light for them
-that I would not have bouts of homesickness
-health and strength
-patience
(more to come)