adventures and invasions

  “One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” — William Feather

      The day started out at 4:15 am, with me gracefully falling getting out of bed and saying, "don't hit the snooze button, don't hit the snooze button..." The time had come for me to head to Georgia for orientation with AIM for Africa. I got ready and with a full cup of coffee in hand I headed to the Austin airport to catch my 7 am flight to Atlanta, wondering the whole way what the rest of these people were doing up at this hour. I parked Lola/Stella (my car) at the long-term parking and headed on in, exactly at 6 am, ever so proud that I packed everything in a carry on bag in hopes that I would save a few minutes time with my check in.Well little did I know dear friends that this is where my adventure would begin! You see in all of my preparation I was missing a very valuable piece of information. Did you know that Mondays, from 5-9 am, is the prime time to fly? Well I applaud you if you did because I certainly did not and at 6:52 am as I was still at security check I was most surely praying to my Pops for the security people to hurry their behinds up. It was finally my turn and I went through the new fully body scanners. In the clear, right? Oh no...see curly haired chicks always wear bobby pins and apparently bobby pins register with those things. So after 5 more minutes of being checked and basically having to re-dress myself, I made it to the gate. I was the 2nd to last person to get on, they locked the doors, and away we went......ahhhh to rest now or listen to a bit of  The Civil Wars....

......yeah right. Not on this adventure. To the left of me I had a self proclaimed expert with a Russian man who did not understand most of what the guy was saying and to the right of me a couple who decided to hash out their marital problems as flight entertainment. So for a solid 2 hours I was able to find out way too much information about things that my brain never cared to soak in. But alas, I arrived at the Atlanta airport and we were actually early. I hop off as quickly as one could and head to transportation where Mr. Ray, the coolest shuttle driver was waiting for me. Mr. Ray was a true gift from my Pops. As we traveled the 30 minutes to Peachtree City, he educated me on each town and about his life...a total awesome one by the way. As we arrived in Peachtree, Mr. Ray said, "now make sure you watch out for them golf carts." I simply said, "thank you Mr. Ray, I will." Not fully knowing how serious he was. I checked into my hotel and seeing that it was 3 hours before orientation started, I asked the desk clerk what there was to do. She handed me a map and told me to take the golf cart to the shopping center and look around. Again, with the golf cart. I took the trail to the shopping center and that's when I saw it. That's when I finally understood what Mr. Ray was talking about. They were everywhere. Blue, green, and red ones. 2-4 seaters whizzing by from place to place as if this was normal. This Texas gal was invaded by golf carts! I later found out that Peachtree City, was a pre-planned community with about 100 miles of golf cart trails. They are so serious about this that even teenagers get them instead of cars. If you know anything about me you know that I get excited over the smallest thing so sure enough I spent the next few days doing as much investigation as possible and the situation never became old!

But all this isn't even the good part. That came at 4 pm, when I finally met the 9 other people that I would be investing the next 2 1/2 days with and then meeting the 3 teachers who for the past countless months I have only known by email. Thirteen people total, from all different states, different backgrounds, different stages in  our lives. So many "differents" but none of that mattered because we were all there for one reason. The similar heart that our King gave us for Africa. And because of this one similarity the 13 of us would spend the next days laughing, crying (just the girls of course), praying, and seeking God together. We read scripture, watched videos, read materials, ate, and then started all over again all with the attitude of "prepare our hearts Father."

My time in Georgia flew by so quickly and the question that I have been asked the most is "do you feel fully prepared now?" And the answer is absolutely not! My teachers were excellent, prayer time was effective, scripture was soaked, and friendships were made, but the answer is still no and I am completely okay with that. You see, I firmly believe I won't be fully prepared even as I head on over to Uganda. That's where I lean on my Pops and trust in all of who He is and what He has planned. That no matter what I do He will continue to show me all the ways that I still need Him. I.LOVE.THAT!

So thank you Georgia, for some pretty great adventures but more than anything thank you for teaching me how beautiful this stage of the process can be!

Greatest prayer request: That God would begin to adjust my vision to match His.

P.S. The trip back home was just as adventurous but that's for another time. ;D

Enjoy the pics!

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They even get their own parking spots!

That's where I'll be!!! 

Aren't we a legit looking group!