What a week!

Last week was very intense for our team...so intense that I have not had a chance to catch up and write about it until now! It started with Monday night, Matt and I spent the evening with Gregory, the other male on our team. We got together to go over a fundraising presentation that the team would present on Tuesday to the church we all attend. Tuesday morning we got together with Jenica, the other female on our team, and did the same with her. Much of the rest of the day was spent printing and binding packets with information about our team and Ipswich for the people we would share our presentation with. Tuesday evening went great, the group of people that makes up the missions committee at our church (Southern Hills Church of Christ) was very encouraging. After our presentation we decided to have a little chill time as a team, so we went back to Jenica's house and played darts and drank tea. This was Jenica's first time to play darts (even though she owns the board!), and she was a tough competitor. It was a fun day, but tiring.
Wednesday night was spent making mini pavlovas. If you've never had the privilege of eating pavlova, you're missing out. It's like a really fluffy meringue that has whipping cream and fruit on it. We piped and baked over seventy-five pavlovas Wednesday night. No it wasn't just for the fun of it, we needed them for Thursday night. Thursday night we attended what Abilene Christian University calls "TeamQuest". It's a night where the current mission teams that are training through the Halbert Institute for Missions get together and have booths where they serve food from their country of interest and get to know students who are interested in doing mission work but need some direction and/or encouragement. The evening was spent dishing out pavlova, vegemite on crackers (another treat if you've never had vegemite) and getting to know students. One thing it taught me is that even though we are the ones in training, the ones who need money, the ones who will be making many life changes, this mission is not about us. It's about God. Even though we're in this vulnerable place, He still wants to use us to share our stories and encourage others to join in God's mission around the world. Once again, a good evening but a tiring one.
Saturday night we had the honor of meeting Gregory's mother, father, and sister. They came from out of town to visit him, and we got to introduce ourselves to them. It's not easy meeting each other's parents, because we know the reason we're meeting is because we will be traveling half way around the world with these people's children. That's partly what this blog is supposed to do, give parents and other family members a chance to get a glimpse of how we're preparing, what we're nervous about, what we're excited about, etc. I hope it helps a bit.
I just got back tonight from a meeting that was hosted by our team's mentor. Gary works at ACU training and mentoring mission teams that will be going to Central and South America and the South Pacific (did I mention he's also a professor at ACU?). He is a great mentor who is passionate about sending people where God wants them to go. The purpose of this meeting was to connect those of us who are training to do mission work overseas with people who know they want to do the same thing in some form or fashion but don't really know where to start. I might sound like a broken record, but once again it was an encouraging yet tiring evening. I think it's time for bed!