Here We Go Again

Well here we go. As I type this, our entire team (minus Theresa) is sitting in Andy H's living room outside St. Louis. We have had a fun evening of food, games, talking, and movies. Many of us differ on our plans for the rest of the evening...some people are considering staying up all night...in a last ditch effort to begin switching their body clocks to a more Thai schedule...others of us are about to fall asleep sitting up.... Either way, I don't believe that anyone will be getting a full night's sleep tonight. Our flight leaves for LA tomorrow at 8:50am...and we are an hour from the airport...and we are planning to get there 2 hours before our flight.... Yes...that puts us leaving Andy's at about 6:00am. Oh well, this should make it easier for most of us to sleep on our flights I suppose. We are all very excited to arrive in Thailand. It's hard to believe that the trip is already here! It seems like just yesterday that we all met as a group for the first time...but that was over 3 months ago. It's been great to see the friendships develop between the members of our team. The first meeting was fine...but it was not exactly a bunch of friends hanging out together. However, tonight is. I am so very thrilled to have the opportunity to lead these students overseas to experience a new culture and to love on the Thai people. I am anticipating seeing great things happening in Thailand...ranging from relationships being built between our team and the Thais to our team members growing and developing into more complete and whole individuals. Please pray that we will have realistic expectations, that we will build relationships with the Thais, that we will be a blessing to the missionaries, that we will function well as a group, and that we will have a positive impact on everyone that we come into contact with. Know that while we are all very excited, we are also aware of our absence from all of you, our family and friends. We will be missing you while we minister to the Thai people. Hopefully this blog will continue to serve as an avenue for a more intimate connection between our day-to-day activities on our trip and those of you back home that care to know what we're up to. Thanks so much for all of your prayer and support. Happy New Year!