A Great Adventure

Remember that time I accepted a job...with a real salary? and benefits? and vacation? Well, 'tis no more...maybe!

I've been thinking a lot about this job with the development team at St. Paul's.  I talked about my concerns and hesitations and said I was about 95% sure I would take it...unless God clearly wanted something else.  Scott said he would take the "95%" and call it about a "60%" for now.  I'm glad he did that.

On Thursday I went to Panera with the FOCUS team director on our campus, Dan.  Dan was an intern at St. Paul's and now is in his third year with FOCUS.  He asked if I was considering being a missionary, if I was open to it, what my thoughts were, etc.

I said I was thinking about it and had been since I went on SEEK.  I was really happy when he didn't feed me the you-should-be-a-missionary-because-you'd-be-good-at-it line that I've gotten (I don't know...that line just doesn't do it for me).  Well, he said that but followed it up with a "I've heard you say four or five times, 'That makes me want to be a missionary'."  Oh, he's totally right.  It's what I want to do.

I could work 45-55 hours a week sitting at a desk, making mailers to send out, depositing thousands of dollars, doing data entry, Google stalking.  Yes, Google stalking.  In the development world they call it "prospecting"...strangely sounds a little less creepy than stalking--same principle, different name.  It's essentially finding everything you can about a person and who they've ever given any money to and how much it was and making a guess about how much they might give us.  (Which kind of sounds like it might be right up my alley.  It also kind of sounds horrible--as in I think it would get old after I found all the interesting stuff...in five minutes.)

Anyway... I was thinking about what I would say my biggest concern or reservation about being a missionary would be.  It was easy for me to quickly think of a few for the St. Paul's job.  I had to wrack my brain to come up with this one for FOCUS, "I really really like winter and will be kind of sad if I get sent somewhere that doesn't have a winter."  REALLY? That's all I had. Yes, I would have to raise my salary.  But that doesn't scare me.  If Jesus wants me to be a missionary, he'll help me find the money to live--maybe even enough to start making those car payments to mom and dad again! ;)  I could end up on a team with people who don't get along that well or a campus ministry that doesn't mesh well with FOCUS. (I think I've been living in a dream world at St. Paul's cause everything works so well together...)  But those things don't scare me.  My job would be talking to people about Jesus, leading small groups, hopefully drinking tons of coffee, praying with people, sharing the Gospel...and. so. much. more.  If that doesn't sound like a dream job!?!  Why on earth would I want to sit at a desk for 50 hours a week if I could do all of that?! 

The title of this post is "A Great Adventure".  It's called that because of something Dan said on the way home from SEEK.  He was asking me why I think people don't want to apply to be missionaries.  I didn't really know.  He said he hears all the time--and I've heard too--I want to be a missionary (or intern, etc.) because I want to give back to something that has given me so much.  And, yeah, that can be part of it.  But, if that was all it is, It'd be a bad reason for me... I've put my time in; I think I've paid my dues.  He said people should want to be missionaries because it's a great adventure.  I really want a great adventure. 

If you have any insights, just let me know!  And, prayers would be appreciated.  The interns and Father are praying through the intercession of my girl, St. Philomena, if you want in too! :)

**By the way, I'm working on the application tomorrow and the interview weekend is Feb. 22-24th.

Adventures in O'hare

Standard procedure is to arrive at the airport about three hours early for an international flight...or so I thought. It took all of twenty minutes to check my baggage, say goodbye to mom and Emma, go through security and find gate M16. The flight was delayed thirty minutes. So, I was sitting alone at the gate three hours and ten minutes early with nothing to do. Apparently only about ten other people felt it was important to get to the airport early. I read for a while but got a little restless. In the spirit of the big adventure that I was about to embark on, I decided to go on my own adventure in O'hare's International Terminal. I learned a lot. For example, the terminal has many weird wooden statue things. It may or may not be modern art--which i don't like. I deciphered two of them as a wooden board with a kidney in it and a pretzel made by someone who had never made a pretzel before. Who knows? There is also a sweet fire safety exhibit for kids that was also interesting for adults. On my adventure through the terminal i decided that someday I will fly first class so that I can get into one of those lounges reserved for those passengers. As I wrote this I was sitting on the ground between a plant and a garbage can. I can only imagine the fun that lay behind those tinted doors and signs that say, "First Class Passengers Only." (The only problem is that I will never fly first class, so I am in the midst of planning an attack to sneak into the lounges.) Finally, the best part of my adventure was counting the steps it took to get from gate M1 to gate M21 (the whole terminal). Now, I know why you are wondering why I counted that. But, I ask you, why not? Nevertheless, I know I'm weird...but it was fun! Well, two check bags, three bathroom stops, a $2 bottle of water, a $5 Rolling Stone magazine, a 99 cent book called 40 Fascinating Places of the Bible, and over 1400 steps, it's time for my adventure to begin! Well, actually, I still have an hour to wait.

(This post was written on my departure day Aug. 23. I couldn't post it until I made a blog and had Internet access!)