What will 2011 bring?

I feel like it has been awhile since I've really posted on here.  I can't believe it's already January 18, 2011.  I feel like Christmas was ages ago.  I guess a lot has happened since then, too.  Andy and I are getting more prepared to leave Boston and move to Tempe, Arizona as this new year gets under way.  We've settled on the moving date to be somewhere in the first week of June, and we're starting to get things in order...  like ordering a moving pod, thinking about what we'll do with our cars, finishing up our newsletter to send to family and friends...  Something else we can check off our list is attending our church's missionary staff training, which was this past weekend.  It was five full days of teachings and talks that our Arizona team, the Indonesia team, and some other staff attended.  The training got me simultaneously excited and envisioned as well as overwhelmed and sobered.  

Andy and I are leaving Boston--our family, friends, beloved church, great jobs--to plant a church and share the Gospel with lost and searching people of Arizona, in faith that God will start a movement among Arizonians that will ultimately send people out to the four corners of the world so that those who do not know Jesus might come to know him.  WOW.

That is crazy!  I get to do this?!  I can't do this!  I'm not capable!  Oh but for the grace of God, I am.  Thankfully, God does not call the equipped; He equips the called.  So, Andy and I are on a journey of seeing the God be glorified in America's southwest.  I feel humbled and honored to be a part of this call.  Ever since I was a sophomore at BC and attended CFCF's annual missions conference, World Mandate, I caught the "church planting bug".  I knew that I couldn't keep this saving message of the love and grace of God to myself.  I knew that I would one day drop everything and go.  Somewhere, anywhere.  I am just thankful I get to do it with Andy.  Not to mention with some of our closest friends.  The missions movement we belong to always talks about making "lifelong friendships through sacrificial living" and about living life with "marvelous comrades."  God is so sweet that way.  He doesn't call us to do things all by ourselves.  He has given me marvelous comrades to walk life with.  Yes, we have to also say goodbyes throughout life, but I know that the friends I make in Christ will be friends for all eternity.  It's fun!  I will probably be posting more about this journey in these next few months.