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!