Transitioning

It's a time of transitions. Beware of this post-- it goes all over the place.

I'm halfway done with my college career. Hello, what?


I feel dizzy just thinking about my year. I don't think I'll ever know which hemisphere I'm in or get over any jet lag. I can't wait! I have a wandering heart and mind. I haven't left the continent in two years. I know it doesn't seem like very long, but I'm getting restless. I don't think I'm meant to be here, in the United States. I know I needed to grow up here. I know I'm blessed beyond belief, but my heart longs for somewhere else. Or maybe I'll feel like an alien anywhere. Isn't that how it's supposed to be? This isn't my home. I am a foreigner on this earth.


Sophomore year was hard. Really, really hard. This past semester I took 19 hours. 19. I worked my behind off. And I survived. I did well. And you know what? I think I learned (or started to learn) how to balance my life. I made other things, like bible study, a priority, even when I had mounds of homework waiting for me. I think my relationships improved. I feel more involved, more like I belong. I'm proud of myself for working hard, doing well, and not sacrificing fun or what I wanted (just a little sleep... or maybe a whole lot of sleep). My mentality is that I'll sleep when it's done. Sometimes, that didn't mean much sleep, or any at all (remember this?). But I also know that I could catch up again come summer. I do have all those long flights to look forward to. Ha!


My world is changing. I'll be blogging for the next two months from Athens, Greece, where I'm serving with Mission to the World and seven other interns. I know the basics of what we'll be doing, but I don't know how anything will really go. I'm impressed already that I'm not stressing out. But I'm not surprised. If you haven't noticed, God's hand has been overly obvious throughout this whole process, from Wendy asking me, out of the blue, if I'd like to go to Greece this summer, all the way to my support come through in such a huge way. I've never felt God work this way in my own life, and I cry every time I think about it. In Greece, there isn't much of a sense of planning out daily schedules or abiding by timeliness. God is preparing my heart to embrace that piece of the culture. It's one that should be enjoyed and savored, but if I don't recognize that and learn to love it, I'll spend the entire time antsy, bouncing my knees.

Blogging during this time will be a way not only for me to share updates of what we've been doing and how God's been working, but also for me to ask for specific prayer needs of the people, the churches, us interns, and myself personally.
I'll begin that right now. The team is working on pulling together the last of the funding, but everyone is doing well. What a huge praise that is! We've all seen just how much God can provide, especially in His perfect timing. I think our greatest concern for the moment is packing and travel plans. We arrive for Pre-Field Training on Monday in Atlanta/North Carolina. We will fly out to Greece on the following Thursday. My prayer for the people in Greece is that they accept us. I pray that God is working on their hearts right now to prepare them for our arrival. I want to be able to form real relationships with them, to learn who they really are, to not impose my own opinions on who I think they should be. Personally, I need a ton of prayer. I'll need that prayer the whole time. Preparing my testimony is a daunting thing. I don't 'like' my testimony. It's not impressive, and I don't understand how I can speak to anyone through it. I'm also concerned about the language barrier. I want so badly to be able to communicate. I keep thinking that my two years of Koine Greek have got to count for something! But I don't know the vocabulary and the pronunciation is different and I don't know if they conjugate the same way. Good thing I know the names of all the letters. Ha! I'm hoping that I'll be able to pick it up quickly though.

My prayer requests will change as we move forward I'm sure. I don't know how often I'll be able to blog, but I'll do so whenever I can.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all of your support, your thoughts, your prayers, your encouragement, and your love. Send it all the way to Greece, please?

I am excited for how God is bringing me into this brand new phase of my life. I can't imagine a better transition. I'm saying hello to a new day.

Dr. Byrd began most Greek classes with this word: καλημερα. 'Good day.' Hey, at least I can greet people!

So, καλημερα. Welcome to a new day.