while I wait for my biscuits...

I just decided something.  But before I can explain what that something is, I must explain something else.
On Saturday, I leave for a 9-day mission trip to the Appalachia region on Tennessee.  And I totally wish that I could take my (nonexistent) laptop and find internet cafes (which might also be nonexistent) and blog while I'm there, because it will surely be an experience that I want to write about.  But, as laptops and blogging aren't really in the schedule of this trip (and i'll let ya know what is later on), I am going to write my blog posts in my handy-dandy notebook.  Then, when I get back I will post them with the dates that I wrote them!  It will be grand :)
So, now that I've made that promise, let's hope I remember to make good on it.
So, back to the itinerary (boy that's a hard word to spell), that doesn't include me updating you.
We leave from here on Saturday morning, at 5 STINKIN AM.  Which you can tell I am just thrilled about. And we drive all day Saturday in 12 passenger vans that will be only half filled with people and half filled with duffles and sleeping bags... and hopefully sleeping people.  except for the drivers.  Anyways, we drive all day that day, stay in a hotel that night, then reach our destination after more driving at approximately 3:00.
This is where the order of things gets fuzzy and I only have a vague idea what's going on.  So let's use bullet points.
We'll be :

• staying at host homes of people from the church we're working with (supposedly like 8 ppl to a home)
• eating meals at the church
• putting on a baseball camp for the kids there
• door-to-door evangelism 
• prayer walking
• finding out the needs of the community since we are the first group to go there this summer

And that's all I know!  Well, actually, there are some more things that I know.  We leave on Friday, not sure what time of day and start drivin.  Stay in a hotel that night, then drive to the Creation Museum in Kentucky - look around - back to the cars, visit the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, eat dinner with the homeless (that'll be cool!!!), stay somewhere that night, then drive until we get home the next day.

And I know something else too.  I know that in spite of my unpreparedness and imperfections and awkward blunderings, God will be working.  He will be moving in the soil of the hearts of the people in Tennessee.
We did this exercise at our last meeting where we gave up our expectations to God.  That's not something I usually do.  I give up fears and anxieties (and not even very well), but hopes?  expectations?  Then I realized that if I am expecting God to work in only the ways that I want Him to, I'm limiting Him.  he's so beyond anything that I could hope for or expect.  And He knows what needs to happen and what's going to happen on this trip, which is so much better than anything I could plan.
Please pray for us while we're there!
I am terrified by bugs, but I know that God is bigger than them.  Please pray that God will not let it limit the ways that I can serve and that I can trust Him to take care of all my needs.  Also, please pray that our team will be unified.  It's a big one, and there is so much opportunity for dissension and splitting.  But, in order to effectively reach these people, we must have a common goal.  And, finally, please pray that we will be courageous, and attentive to what God is asking us to do... and obedient.
Thank you!  I might get to post again tonight, but packing takes first priority.  duh.
and now, my biscuits are done :)  here I come, breakfast!