One Week to Lift Off

Well folks, me and Tyler have one more week until we set off for Africa.  We are very excited and are going to miss all of you very much.  We hope to keep you informed about what we are up to while we're abroad through this blog.  Neither of us have ever really done this so it might be pretty boring starting out.  It may continue to be boring. But if you love us you will most likely read it anyways. We bought a video camera so that we can post videos so you don't get too bored though.  Seeing Tyler on video is never boring, trust me.  I think that you can leave comments on our posts and I want to encourage you to do so.  I know we would appreciate knowing you are thinking about us and we would love to hear from you.  I know from past travels that this trip will enlarge our understanding of the richness of our community in knoxville.  We are really blessed to have great friends who care about us a lot.  I know that being absent from that community will make us rely more on God which I am excited about. 

 I am trying to be well prepared for this trip but it is fairly hard to do so (packing some of my stuff would help).  I have never quite done anything as independent as this and it is a little daunting.  I feel very content about where I am right now and I think that helps me put to ease the uncertainty of the future.  I told my friend tonight at work that "I am kind of just waiting around for next week to come so I can go" to which he said "you might not make it to next week".  Oh the wisdom of a cafe 4 server.  Its hard to actually take those words to heart though. Most likely next week will come and I will be on a plane to Nairobi, Kenya.  But my optimism (and probably ignorance) doesn't take the truth out of the statement.  Each day is a gift, if I am on a plane to Africa, if I am skydiving over the swiss alps (we hope to do this) and also if I am getting a terrible tip from an obnoxious guest at cafe 4 in Knoxville Tennessee.  All of our days are filled with the grace of God simply because they exist.  I do not want to forget this.  I want to live this week for the glory of God and I want to live the next 2 and a half months for the glory of God. This perhaps sounds cliche, but I would rather be cliche and following the word of God than unique and disobeying it.  That is what my life will be about, and thats what this blog will be about.  If you didn't know, me and Tyler are Christians and we follow Christ.  Our blog posts will not always necessarily address this explicitly, but I hope that they are saturated with the gospel regardless of topic.

We are very excited for this adventure and what is in store for us.  We hope to see many of you in the next couple of days and get some good last minute hanging out in.  Come by and see us at the reynolds before sunday. If we don't see you we love you and will miss you immensely and will see you in April.