Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Summer

It is finished! One of the most difficult semesters of my educational career is finally done! Time to relax and recuperate for a while before starting up at work for the summer.  So here is where the trip stands as of the beginning of summer.

There have been a few changes over the course of the semester that will change the trip significantly.  First of all, Dr. Norton's wife will be having a baby this September!  Needless to say, she and the kids will no longer be joining us on the trip unfortunately.  Dr. Norton will only be able to join us for certain countries now rather than joining us for the whole trip.  I believe that there will be certain classes or portions of classes that we will wait to take until Dr. Norton is with us.

Also, there has been another slight change to the itinerary.  We have added Bolivia to the list of countries we will be visiting!  After landing in Peru we will be bussing over to Bolivia to do some work there.  That will put our country list at nine: Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Ethiopia, Hungary, Peru, and Bolivia.

Now begins the summer of waiting and prepping!  Time to begin accumulating the small amount of gear I will need and getting that all packed up.  Time to begin working so I can cover the extra travel costs.  Time to spend time with family and friends that I will not get to see for a few month after I leave.  This summer will be a time to reflect on God's grace and all the blessing He pours out on us,  especially the blessing of this opportunity to "See the World and Share the Word," my new personal motto and mission for this trip.

So this is where we stand at the beginning of the summer.  Hopefully things will not change too much between now and August 5th, our departure date.  If anything changes before then I will be sure to let you all know here!

Blessings in Christ!