Three Month Goodbye

Two days until I leave for Atlanta with Dad for the day before I hop on a bus from the ATL Airport to Ridge Haven, NC for Pre-Field-Training. This is absolutely unbelievable. This time last year was close to my first week of working at McDonalds on Leadership Project in Myrtle Beach, SC.

It was almost a month after that I first started looking into MTW and its abroad internships, specifically Peru. Fast-forward one year and here we are! My clothes are packed and the last thing I need to do in Huntsville is hike my powerline-cut trail on the mountain one last time.

So, this post will be a "goodbye for three months" kind of post. I'll start with all the friends I made on Leadership Project, without yall's encouragement I would not have pursued this internship so strongly. On LP I was so immersed in true community I was motivated to make strive for the same at Auburn. I loved when yall came to visit and when Suz and I made it down to Furman and Wofford!

And Max, I'm sorry I missed your call! Next, goodbye to all my Auburn friends! I will definitely miss you all while I'm in Peru and I am so thankful for all of your prayers! Landrum, keep the adventures going strong and train Sasser and Jeremy up so they can be on our level in the Fall when I get back. To everyone else studying abroad I can't wait to get together and hear all about London, France, Kenya, Europe, Honduras, and everywhere else!

As for all the Huntsvegas amigos, I will definitely see you all very soon. Suzanne, even though the movie was a good balance, the whole Predestination vs Total Free Will was not what were were all expecting! We'll try again when I get back!

Kelly and Anne, keep the mountain fun and don't play with the children at the park again, kinda creepy. Matt and Connor, I really appreciate yall moving all my stuff into the house while I'm gone, you can both expect pet monkeys from Peru in thanks.

Hold down the 256 and all it's glory while I'm gone! I will see you all in three months, I appreciate all your prayers! If you want to contact me, this is the place to do it. Just comment below and I'll respond! Hasta luego, hasta agosto amigos!

Boxes and Bags

I'm back in the glorious land of Huntsville, Alabama. After six finals, four hours of packing, unpacking, and repacking, Sophomore year ended and I am officially through with the first half of my college career at the wonderful Auburn University.

Packing up for this summer was quite strange as I only brought one bag and my backpack back to Huntsville, the rest stay in Auburn. The one bag I brought to Huntsville is full of ONLY clothes I will be wearing in Perú.

Needless to say these next thirteen days could not be going by any slower. Huntsville is the same as always, beautiful green mountain trails, delicious queso at Little Rosies, and my favorite hymns at Southwood.

It's because of this each day my desire for Lima grows ever the stronger. The subtle and routine lifestyle of Huntsville is good when you are married and raising a family, but for now in my life I absolutely crave adventures, new places, faces, languages, challenges, food, I crave Perú. When I think about things I know I am going to miss and will complain to all of you who read this about after a few weeks time in Lima are as follows:

1. Family and Friends

2. Familiarity

3. Auburn and Huntsville

I find myself in a contradiction because these things are some of the exact reasons I am so excited to be in Peru. The one thing that I know will hold true, remain faithful, and ALWAYS will do so is God. In retrospect, the first half of my college career I have gained many things, and lost almost all of them as well.

Only God remains. The same is true when viewing my first twenty years on this earth in retrospect. God IS faithful, always. So as I pack up again in a mere thirteen days from now a few clothes, my camera and computer, and two journals and a Bible, I know no matter what I plan, what I box up for a purpose, the only thing that will bring me any joy in Auburn, Huntsville, or Lima will forever be my Lord.

Be encouraged, friend, that God knows what he is doing! He knows what is ahead of us, in this we take joy.

Sólo tres meses

Three months until these posts will be AWESOME adventures and stories sent weekly from an internet cafe off the crowded streets of downtown Lima. I can't believe it's really almost here! I'm finalizing my travel papers and its almost time to get my immunizations and as I look back to my posts about interviewing for this current reality this past summer I am astounded at how much time has escaped my grasp. It literally seems like a week ago when I was taking Suzanne's car on my day off on the streets of Myrtle Beach, SC to the cigar shop and then to my park to string up my hammock up on my day off from McDonalds contemplating not only my first interview with MTW and my 'potential' peru internship, but also my sophomore year at Auburn.

If there is one reoccurring them of my time here under the shade of Toomer's oaks it is the fact that God is sovereign and my plans absolutely are not his. In retrospect, my greatest blessings so far have been in the recovery of what seemed to be my in my eyes my biggest failures. What I thought I have needed God has proven to me is nothing compared to my need of him. Tonight my reading for my beloved British Literature class is a section out of Francis Bacon's Religious Meditations (how cool is my major). One line that stuck out to me was "there was never a proud man that thought so absurdly well of himself, as the lover doth of the person loved; therefore is is impossible to love and be wise"

How on earth was Bacon so wise and so gifted in his ability to eloquently write down his wisdom for others to chew on, I know I'm jealous. That quote, "it is impossible to love and be wise" shouted at me from the page. It is so irrevocably true. It makes no sense that God loves us when we continually turn our backs on him, continually doubt his plan, continually rely on nothing but our own weak efforts. Not in any definition of the earthly sense of wisdom is God's love for us wise. But thank God that he defines true wisdom, thank God his love is true wisdom. Without God's unwavering love, my life would be an absolute mess. In preparing for Peru I have to continually remind myself of this love so I will in turn be able to love the people that will be in my life during my time in Peru. Bringing everything full circle I would like to leave you with a big prayer request: That God will daily teach me here in Auburn what I need to know to be able to fully serve him in Peru. In my failures and in my successes that I will be fortified to do the work he is calling me to in just a short three months from now.