Simply Love: Rwanda - May 23, 2012

[The following post is an excerpt from my journal as I traveled to Rwanda. The inconsistency in the entry title and datestamp is due to limited internet access while I was on the trip. These experiences were documented in real time, and I am posting photoblogs now that I have returned.]

6:00 AM Eastern - en route Indianapolis to Washington, DC

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Mark 14:38

Anticipation. That single word sums up every emotion that I am currently feeling. This anticipation has built slowly since I learned about the Visiting Orphans' Music & Missions trip to Rwanda back in January. [I wrote about how this trip came about in this post, and one of the trip leaders told her side of the story here.] Now, the time has finally arrived. I am no longer in the planning stage but the execution stage. The Lord is the conductor, the team is His orchestra, and after months of rehearsals, it's time for the concert.

As I was waiting for my flight to Dulles to begin boarding, I was reading the the Gospel of Mark. A verse that particularly struck me is Mark 14:38. Jesus says, "the spirit is willing, but the body is weak."  My thoughts began to wander as I dwelled on this verse.  Far too often, I quench the Spirit. I know what God expects of me, but I fail to deliver. I hope and pray that I begin learning to obey on this trip. I pray that I approach any task with a servant's heart, willing to break free from the comfortable, even when it isn't necessary. I pray that nothing I do is for my own glory, but for His. I pray that my spirit will always be willing and that my weak flesh can be overpowed.

In just a few short hours, I will be in Washington DC and will be meeting six of my ten team members for the first time (the other four will be meeting us in Kigali, Rwanda). After four conference calls and some brief interactions via email and Facebook, I've already begun to form relationships with several of the team members, and I am so excited for the bonds we are headed toward! I will be sharing my life, space, and time with these individuals over the next ten days.

There is something about serving with others that establishes tightly knit relationships. I recall that on my last missions trip, I formed the closest relationships while scrubbing a bathroom floor. It is the respect and trust that stems from being on your knees side by side that forms this closeness. I am especially excited for these messier moments; the moments where the flesh might have an urge to take over and say, "no," but where spirit of the team will rebel against the flesh; the moments that may be tough or stressful at the time, but where we have no other choice but to band together, and, with the help of the Lord, pull forward; the moments that we will look back on and smile about.