Flying Away This Weekend!

Well, I leave for Greece in four days! Which is crazy to even think about because I began planning for this trip my freshman year and it was just something exciting I talked about every once in a while and now its actually happening! I have a great mumbo-jumbo mix of emotions flashing through me at different times during these last days, many of them do not even have anything to do with actually being IN Greece, but rather, making sure I have everything I need to get INTO Greece from my flights. The excitement comes and goes. I love fantasizing about what my daily routine might look like, and how different it might be from the one I’m used to. I’ve thought about my daily habits and how those might change in such a different setting. I’ve thought about habits I want to keep, ones I want to break, and new ones I want to try. Re-reading through my goals and expectations sheet again, I was reminded of a few of those goals, but also saw where some of them have changed, or where expectations have already been met! For example, I had big expectations for the ISA program and how well their communication would be during the “don’t freak-out” stage of arriving in a different country and trying to find the rendezvous. But! I have been provided with so many directions and backup directions that I don’t believe even my overthinking brain has been able to come up with a tragic scenario where I don’t know what to do next. So that is very comforting:)

I’ve also gotten the opportunity to chat with a bunch of the other students who are in the ISA program with me! I’ve loved this part because I have already found a few students who are on my flight to Athens, and knowing I can find other people really helps me feel more secure and less alone. It’s also given me an opportunity to realize all the different types of American students I will be with on this trip, which is kind of a cool culture thing of it’s own. My roommate in Athens will be a girl who attends UCLA for example, and MLC is very very not like UCLA I am sure, so it’ll be interesting to see how we both adjust to ACG from our differing experiences at our home universities.

In my free time recently, as I’ve thought more and more about my trip, I’ve really found that my biggest goal is staying in tune with my faith life. It’s the number one most important thing. If I am not grounded in my savior, then I am not grounded at all. While I’m over there, I will not get the opportunity to go to chapel services twice a day, or even regular Sunday services. The friends I make will be encouraging I’m sure, but probably not with the same reminders I’m accustomed to getting from friends of the same faith. In this, there is both a challenge and an opportunity. I will need to challenge myself to stay faithful in my prayers, my devotional life, and worship life. I will need to set aside time to hopefully livestream a chapel service a few times a week or especially on Sundays. The opportunity in this though, is that I can really let my light shine. Maybe I could start a devotional group or even just use my faith to help encourage or comfort others. I feel so blessed in this area also as I realize the kind of history I’ll be able to see. Not only just regular amazing history, but Biblical history! I’m very excited to get to see places I’ve only ever read about, and I’m excited to learn even more than what I already know about those places and the people who live there. I know that if I put myself out there during this trip with the knowledge that Christ is at my back, I will get way more success and experience out of it. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for me and how he will use me according to his will for my life during these next few months!