Commissioning

Today at church I went up on stage with one of the pastors for the church to pray over me. It's been really encouraging how my church has supported me. I never even had to ask for it; word just got out that I was planning on going to Pakistan, and they came to me and said "we want to support you however we can." Which I thought was really cool.
So today I went up on stage and looked out at the congregation while they stretched out their hands to pray over me and commission me to go off to Pakistan. It was really overwhelming, and I was glad the pastor didn't ask me to say anything, because I was on the verge of tears as it was, and I don't think I would've been able to speak.

After church, there was a missions lunch. I gave a power point presentation which was basically all about me - just about myself and what has gotten me to this point, so it was really easy, and actually almost fun. The group was pretty small and I knew almost everyone there, so it was really relaxed. I usually get pretty nervous talking in front of people, but this was good.

After me, a couple who had gone to Mexico talked about their trip, which was interesting. The wife is a teacher, and she's been going to Mexico during her summers every year for 17 years now, which was pretty encouraging to me, because that's kind of what I've always planned on doing - teaching during the year and going on trips during the summer. It was good to see someone else actually doing it. And that way, you get to develop relationships with people and still keep up with them over the years, not just go on one trip and then never see those people again.

I leave on Wednesday! Tomorrow will be busy, but then my sister is coming up on Tuesday, so we'll all get some time together as a family before I leave. Maybe my next post will be from Pakistan!

Itinerary

My flight itinerary came in the mail today. TEAM arranged my flights through a travel agency they use, so they figured it out and booked it all for me (which is quite nice!).

I'll be leaving from here on July 30th, flying to LA, then to London, then into Islamabad. It'll take a long time, but flying to the other side of Earth really isn't that complicated. I mean, I'll only be on 3 planes, and 2 of those I'll be getting on in the United States, which is easy; and I've been to Heathrow before, so I feel relatively confident I'll be able to find my gate there (even though it's a bloody huge airport!)

Coming back (May 31st), is just one stop in London, then on to San Francisco, which is even easier! I'll be sad to sit in a car for an hour, but at least I'll be home :)

But really, the only vaguely unknown or frightening thing about getting there is getting picked up at the airport in Islamabad. But hopefully some friends will be there to greet me. If not, well, what good is worrying?

Only 22 days!

No Sweat

I knew I didn't need to worry about my visa coming. There's a perfect time for everything, and all the paperwork up to this point has gone so incredibly smoothly, I had no reason to fear that I wouldn't get the visa, too. After all, how could I have gotten this far, just to not be able to actually go?
so, praise the Lord! The visa came this morning! He knows what's up :)

Shots

I just got 4 shots to prepare me for going overseas. I met with a doctor at a travel clinic in Los Gatos and we compared lists of recommended shots. I ended up getting Hepatitis A & B, Polio, Tetanus, and am going to be taking Typhoid pills all week. I decided to just get all 4 shots today, rather than 2 today and 2 next week, to save time (and gas!). So I got 2 shots in each arm, and my shoulders are a little sore, but so far it's going fine!

The doctor I met with is from India, and, after going over the shot-business, he looked me in the eye and asked why I'm going to Pakistan. I told him the short version (I want to teach overseas, met a missionary family with kids at a school there, so I decided to go), then he got very serious and told me that he considers Pakistan to be the 3rd (or 4th) most dangerous place in the world for foreigners to travel - with Iraq, Afghanistan, and maybe Colombia (or was it Congo? but I think he threw that one in just to get some of the focus out of the Middle East/South Asia). He told me, quite sternly, to be careful, wished me luck, and shook my hand with both of his before leaving.

I still don't have my visa, and am waiting patiently, trusting that it will come in time. If it doesn't, it doesn't, and I'll just go as soon as I can!