Chicago is only a day away. I cannot adequately express my anxiety, excitement and pure joy to be going to the city so soon! Today I spent the ENTIRE day packing, literally. The tropical storm woke me up at around eight and because I am a major planner I began my list of things to bring. This list for ten weeks was probably the longest I have ever made for a trip. Crazy! Then I pilled all of my stuff on my bed...
When I saw the mountains of things I had to pack, I was definitely feeling the pressure of how soon I would be leaving my family and the comfort of doing whatever I want, like all of my other summer have been like.
But after about eight hours of packing, I finally finished! WOHOO. When I sat down and relaxed I thought about my favorite verse which has been a help to me over the summer so far. Psalm 27:14, "Wait for the LORD, be strong and let you heart take courage; wait for the LORD!"All summer I have been waiting and the Lord has given me courage to be ready for the here and now. Though I anticipated what would come, He pulled me back to what was going on around me with the people in my city, Whiteville. But, when I finally finished packing I thought the wait is OVER! Chicago has come, no more waiting. God has prepared me, and now He will continue to grow me so much in my new city for ten weeks!
Also, I have been so blessed to have raised all of my support. Actually, more like God raised it because there was no way that I could have raised that money without Him. Before last week I had a lot of support left to raise, but God provided last week mostly with the support of some family especially my grandparents. I am so glad and thankful for everyone who supported me and most importantly, praise God for His provision.
Since, I have officially packed up everything! I can't wait to spend my last day home in the Southern sun and not worry about anything. Next time I'll be in the City!!
RELAXATION! It has been great. I have enjoyed every bit of being home. So far, I have been home from ECU for about a week and a half, and have not done too much of anything except shop and whatever my heart desires. Rest is definitely been enjoyable. Before leaving school, I told myself that I would not waste away the month I had at home but that I would use this time to prepare for project. I told myself that I would blog almost daily. Obviously, I didn't stick to this self promise. I easily got caught up in the pleasure of not doing anything, especially eating non-stop! At the beginning of this past week I, like every time I make a pact with myself, got frustrated for not following through with my plan. Gladly, the book that I am required to read before project finally came in the mail after many months of postponing buying it and one lost mailing. Quickly, the book pulled me out of my laziness because like clockwork I am past due on getting the report in and therefore have been trying to finish the book ASAP. The day that I got the book, I attempted to fly through it and finished two chapters at once. So when several days passed without even looking at the book and I knew I had to finish it soon, I opened it with that same feeling of defeat today. Good thing I had left off with the down fall of man, right? The chapter that I started on was "The Promised Kingdom". The first words were from Ephesians 1:3-6. Read it! I absolutely love this passage! It was perfect that this idea easily follows the fall of man. Man fell but God had a plan way before we were on this earth. I, a human, felt as if I had failed. Let's face it, it's a daily thing. But just as the fall of man came, my daily failure, there is a plan. Ephesians expresses that God knew me before He even created me, before the world was even created, before sin entered the world! He loved me enough to know me, even though He knows I will fail. He loved me enough to make a plan, to forgive me, to allow me to become blameless. It is easy to get caught up in my failure when I loose sight of who God is and what He has done for me. I am glad that He reminds me of His hope, His Promised Kingdom. Honestly, I live in corrupt world of course I will fail but there is hope in the plan that He fulfilled through Christ. I feel like the more I learn about the kingdom of God the more I realize how much of my thinking is flawed. I am glad that even before project He is already teaching me so much, even when I have mostly only been lounging around and watching movies everyday! Maybe my scattered thoughts make since and become an encouragement of hope. Since the preparation for Chicago has been so eyeopening, I can't wait to see what happens while in the City! On the countdown, only 18 more days!
