MIssion trip???!!!

It looks like my prayer for the end of the year mission trip is going to become a reality. Still feels like a dream to me though - I still cannot believe how easily my church leaders consented to let me go. I was expecting some objections from them (last year when I asked for permission to help out at TeenStreet- a youth camp that I really believe in, there was lots of hemming and hawing and it took them forever to decide - only to finally tell me 'no').

The missions organisation whose covering that I'll be going under says that there are several possibilities that are definitely open (previously it was quite uncertain). It looks like there'll be quite some preparations ahead.. applications to fill, newsletters to prepare, looking into prices of the flights, getting visa and stuff, researching about the country and culture of the place that I'll be going to.

It just seems rather surreal to me at this point of time. I've been wanting to go for a trip like this for most of my life and the door finally seems to be opening. A part of me is afraid and wonder what's going to lie ahead of me - I'll be away from home again for two months in a totally alien culture. I'll be away from friends and family that I love and far from all that is familiar (missing weddings of some close friends too :(, spending Christmas and my birthday away from home). A small part of me wonder if the trip is going to fall through due to whatever obstacle that lies ahead. Another part of me is just very excited - I hope to really be able to take this opportunity to widen my horizon and perspectives on God - to perhaps supplement my learning in STM. I hope to also work out my calling through this trip. Therefore I am at a point where I feel like I'm standing at a precipice - scared to jump and yet excited as well.

Am also reminded of my own sermon(that was miraculously prepared in 6 hours in the wee hours of the morning last nite) about trusting in the Lord and worrying. *sigh* It's definitely so much easier to preach it than to do it.