So....

A lot has happened. And by a lot I mean a great deal. And by a great deal I mean if anyone is reading this, you'll have to ask me in person because I'm not going to cram it all into this little webspace....

Have you ever been "tasked" by God? I mean have you ever experienced something and heard yourself saying, "Man, it feels like I was built for this." I can now say that I've joined the ranks of those whom this has happened to.

I took a Missions Education Tour of Honduras and Guatemala for the last two weeks. As I posted a little while ago, it was a miracle I even got there because God really showed up for me financially. But we toured different missions projects, both urban and rural, for the two countries and had a fantastic time. No seriously, it was a really great time, I'm not just saying that. Although I would've preferred to not travel so much (seemed like we were traveling somewhere new every day) I can truly say it was a great learning experience. While in a very isolated part of Honduras, I opted to spend a few days with a missionary pilot to see what his life/job was like. I couldn't stop laughing. Not because it was funny, but because it was fun! I couldn't believe someone got to do this everyday. We flew a 6 seater Cessna at 120 knots (roughly 140mph) right over tree tops which is an impossibility here in the states (silly cell phone towers). Then we landed in a village, watched the chickens scurry away from the plane and got rushed by a bunch of village children. I seriously laughed out loud! After speaking with another missionary named John Taylor for a length of time concerning mission work I learned the following:

- Mission work is essentially just obeying the Bible as opposed to my previous view of it being some illustrious and supremely holy calling. Jesus tells us to go...so go already. It doesn't always mean foreign missions, but we are all called to spread the Word somewhere.

- Foreign missions typically requires people who are "jack of all trades" types. Thank God. I thought I'd never find something that would fit that aspect of me. The pilot I stayed with was obviously a pilot but he was also a minister, a 24/7 ambulance, a mail carrier, a handyman and also a father/husband. I like variety.

But the nail in the coffin was not the discussion nor was it the flying. Roughly an hour after speaking with John, I became viciously and horribly sick with food poisoning. No, it wasn't the deer meat I had for breakfast. It was commercially packaged Honduran chocolate cookies. Imagine that coming back up. Ewwww, I'm gross. But that was it. I knew then I had made the right decision to pursue this goal because it was a blatant attack. God was not going to arrange all He had to get me to that place, setting me up to hear about missionary aviation and then tell me this was not something I was supposed to do. But he allowed that to solidify the decision so that when I second guessed myself later on (as I am accustomed to doing) I could remember that I had made the right decision and didn't buckle under an attack.

So I got one of my two goals accomplished for that trip: I heard from God. And I got called. I don't know where to or exactly when and there is a process that might take some years before I'm ready to leave, but I'm going. However, I didn't get to see a monkey (goal #2). Maybe I'll have one for a pet one day...



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