Day seven, sixty three remaining: I found out Thursday night from Pastor Steve that our trip to the Far East is now scheduled for October 6 - November 3. This is one week later than I have been speaking about in this blog. So now we have sixty three days until we leave, not fifty six. Good for me from a planning and preparation, but slightly disappointing on a personal note. The daughter of good friends is getting married on the day we return from Vladivostok. Perhaps we'll arrive back in time that I can make it to this very happy occasion. :) This change in plans reminds me to cultivate faithfulness and flexibility. My times are in His hands...
I've never been away from Greenville to another country for twenty eight days. True, we went as a family to the western US in the fall of 2000 for thirty days in our motor home with four small children. And we went to Argentina in the summer of 2003 for 3 1/3 weeks to visit missionaries from our church. But this is different. This is Asia, not South America. This is Russian, not Spanish.And all this without my sweet and supportive wife Cheryl, on whom I have come to depend for the logistical details of life. Especially travel logistics. Preparation for our trip includes consideration of budgets, flight arrangements, passports, visas, itinerary, luggage weight limits, clothing requirements, computers, cameras (my brother suggests bringing a spare!), books/commentaries, coordinating teaching subjects with Pastor Graham, reading/studying Russian culture, acquiring at least a minimal amount of basic Russia vocabulary, etc. I can understand the temptation to do lots of preparation without prayer, as though the trip were simply a logistical operation and not a Spirit-led missionary enterprise. Prayer: God grant me the insight to know that the "weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ..." (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
Tomorrow: Why go?
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