20 Hours til Galveston!

Tomorrow I am flying to Dallas, landing around noon, and dropping my computer off at work (for it to get fixed!) and then making the 6 or so hour drive down to Galveston, Texas. If I haven’t already told you, I am going with AIM (Adventures in Missions) to do hurricane relief work. I have been told I will be doing mostly house demolition (about 4 feet of water damage – so gotta remove all that moldy stuff) and helping residents move their stuff out, cleaning up wreckage, distributing supplies, and probably some prayer walking and evangelism.

I have had mixed feelings about this opportunity. When I first got a communication from AIM asking for volunteers, I was instantly drawn in. I almost went on another mission trip with AIM and so I am familiar with their organization. But the details seemed to fit together so quickly and easily that I was almost skeptical [When I write this now, like 2 weeks later, I’m thinking to myself “duh, that was so God”]. I was critical of myself and my motives for pursuing the trip. I felt like without some HUGE calling or commissioning that for some reason the trip wouldn’t be glorifying to Him, that working for the sake of working (and having the availability to do so) was just…coincidental and good Samaritan-ish.

Until today. Praise the Lord. I was praying about the trip, and feeling quite unemotional about it. I could feel myself withdrawing, conserving my energy the way I do as I gear up for most big, energy consuming trips and activities. (Its like my body has to build up its reserves.) So I was praying about the trip, and wondering a bit more about what to expect when I got there. That’s just it – I don’t HAVE expectations! Aside from listing what I *think* I might be doing at the beginning of this email, and knowing I am sleeping in an old gutted funeral home and showering in an R.V., I actually have no clue what the week will be like.

I feel like I heard God say, “and when you get there, that’s when you’ll know. I’m saving the passion of the trip right now, as a secret from you, because when you get there is when you are going to fall in love with what you are doing and I am going to use you beyond what you think your limits are.” And that made me REALLY excited about the trip. That’s when I knew – and that this trip is the right thing to be doing.
Narrator: And then Christy smiled, content in the Lord.

And if you are now humming the “That’s when you’ll know” song from Enchanted, I’m sorry. If it is any consolation, I am too.