Christmas time!

Dear everybody,

In the spirit of this most wonderful of seasons, I have decided to reflect on the things I am grateful for. Life has not been easy, but it has been exceedingly good, and in some ways I feel that that is what Christian life is like.

Preparations have officially reached "Hectic" status. Thank God for my mother though, who helped me remember all the things I needed to do. I can't tell you how many times I came to her and asked what I needed to be doing next, and she knew off the top of her head. She's like a superhero, she is.

Also I need to be grateful to my father, who lent me the insane sum needed to buy a plane ticket, so that I could get my visa in time. That was very much helpful.

And finally, Thank you so much for your generosity. I can't tell you how much it means to me. I have learned many things already from this trip, but I think the number one thing has been the power of giving with a grateful heart. You all have been my hope and inspiration during the lull of these moments before I leave. Thank you.

What is this thing called Love?

I was not really sure if I was ready for this trip, spiritually speaking, when I started. All I knew is I felt a draw towards it, almost gravitational. God has drawn me to himself through this trip, and also used it to give me motivation to do things I hate doing. He's a clever guy, that Almighty Creator.

He has drawn me to himself in such a way that it's almost romantic. Not the sexy part of romantic, but the part where when you think about that person, you just kinda grin. Y'know? It's nice. And it's caused me to have a genuine love for people, which has been great.

But I've realized that Love, though more important than wisdom, is not wise... exactly. It's certainly not intelligent.

If you love everyone in the world truly, to the point of genuine and consistent empathy, what do you do when people hurt themselves?

Why I believe God exists.

So if you read the post before this, you know that my plane ticket was cancelled and that it was a big crazy disaster and I was at risk of death by panicky drama attacks.

Which is a terrible way to die. Everyone laughs at your funeral.

I lost that ticket, it seems, because I had asked God to make it apparent that He was in this missions trip with me. God, being the loving, almighty god that He is, decided to have a little fun with me, and even more so, my mother.

So Orbitz cancelled the tickets. The $2100 tickets I had already informed people of, the tickets I was basing the next 5 months of my life on. I had to inform Mrs. Thelander (and an email group consisting of about 85% of the english speaking population of Gabon) that I had lost that flight.

They thought that that was just peachy keen, and assured me that I would undoubtedly glean a "cool story" (actual words) from this experience. They also called me bro. (not really)

Mrs. Thelander offered me the name and contact information of a travel agent that they had used in the past. I sent him an e-mail, asking him what he could do and for how much, bla bla bla.

He sent an email back that basically said "I've already done the work for you. I found a sweet ticket for just under $2000, but then I decided that wasn't awesome enough so I found one for $1500. This is the lowest price I have ever seen for a flight to and from Gabon. In fact it's likely a pricing error, but if it's there, we can book it."

Long story short, someone said "cool story bro" to me, and then I found 500 dollars. This paragraph is written with my favorite Denglers in mind. :)

So God is good. And real. And that's what I love about Him.

Be Careful What You Wish For...

...Because you just might get it.

Recently, I have been praying that God make it excessively apparent that it is him ordaining this mission trip. I've asked him to test my faith and make his goodness real to me.

That was dumb.

My flight was cancelled by Orbitz, with little to no notice. I was refunded the money, luckily, and so now I have to start all over again with the flight process, which bumps back the visa process from my main goals.

Long story short, two days ago everything was easy, now everything is difficult again.

Mrs. Thelander gave me the email address of a travel agent. I sent him an email. Travel is confusing.

Please continue to pray.