¡Falta Un Día!

For those of y'all looking for a quick update:
Yikes! It's 6:00 a.m. on Friday June 5 and I leave in about 23.5 hours. I have LOTS to get done today, things to wrap up here in the States (I like calling it that) so that I don't have to worry about them in the DR. God's continued to be gracious to me in all things. I've continued to feel encouraged and nervously excited, getting affirmation here and there about different concerns on this side of the Gulf of Mexico. I've been talking to myself and to Goldie (our dog) in Spanish for about a week now, just to practice so I won't be shaken and stirred when I arrive, and I have to say that I'm not nearly as worried about it as I was a week ago. I've even begun to think in Spanish! (I wonder if Goldie does...) Well, to make this shorter for those without a lot of time, prayer requests inlclude:
-Safety on the flights
-God picking up where the Spanish drops off and making good steps towards fluency in the next 6 weeks
-Mom and Cody, of course.
-Humility
-That I would remember it's not about me, but about God, the Dominican people, and the other staff and intern. Always.

***

For those of y'all who have a more luxurious schedule, here's a longer entry to entertain yourself/let me yammer on:
It's 6:00 a.m. on Friday June 5. This time tomorrow I'll be 30 minutes into the Delta 1854 flight to Atlanta, Georgia, after which I will then fly to Santiago, Dominican Republic where I'll arrive at 12:58 p.m. Ha. I always think it's funny when schedules are so specific...like we're gonna land at 12:58 p.m. I think it's a good omen, however, because 58 IS my favorite number ;)

Anyways, I can't sleep! I am debating whether I should lie here for another hour and a half or get up and start working on my To-Do List for today. At the beginning of the week there were 40 things To Do. I've done probably 38 of those, but then another 15 or so have been added. Will I get everything done? Maybe. Will it matter? Eh, not that much. To illustrate the feeling, however, for you Nintendo 64 fans, I feel like I'm climbing the stairs that take you to the first Bowser, but before you've gotten the required 8 stars, and the stairs just go on forever. Cody and I thought when we were little, before we had mastered Mario 64 and were still struggling a bit, that if we could just climb those red stairs for long enough we could circumvent the 8th star and cut straight to the Boss. Wrong. Plus, the time it took for us to pursue those infinite stairs in vain was more than enough for us to have figured out how to get that last star... I would have hoped that by 21 I would have learned that lesson, ya know, Do it right the first time, don't waste time. Sometimes I find have, sometimes I haven't. Really, though, I think a lot of life's about progress, 'cause who ever gets it right every time? If so, I'd like to meet them. (One day...)

Well, so I don't actually want to bore anyone or post into the infinite where it'll never get read--I'd rather save it for my impending book. Keep your eye out. Expect it to be on the shelves sometime in the next 10 or 30 years, depending on when I feel I've reached some sort of conclusion.

So I'll just say this: I'm super excited and nervous to be leaving tomorrow. My prayer is that I would just walk by faith, continue trusting God with perserverance, adhering to James 1:2-4, which say to consider it pure joy when you face trials of various kinds, for the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect in you that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. My prayer is that in trusting God I would be humbled, relying not on myself and nor focusing my thoughts and energies on myself, but on those around me whom I have been called to serve. Whoever would become great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matt 20:26-28)