Saturday

It's 7:50 am. And I'm up - have been for a bit over an hour. Not all that normal for a Saturday, but I woke up around 6:00, rolled over in that "no way in hell - I don't get up this early even for work" kind of way and slept another 30 minutes. At 6:30 I woke up with the urge to pray. Snippets of dreams clung to me, and various friends weighed heavy. So I lay there and talked with Jesus for a while, then turned on a light and finished my first book of the year. (I'll add it to my sidebar later today or tomorrow.)

Moved to the couch and have been catching up on blogs and emails for a while, with an episode of Grey's Anatomy season 3 playing quietly in the background.

Here's how today looks. In a minute or two, I'm going to shower, and then I'll get dressed, and do my hair. I'll probably make tea, and have a mandarin orange for breakfast. I'll figure out what I can wrap a gift in, and then I'll load my journal and Bible into my purse, grab the gift and head out the door.

With a quick stop for gas, I'm going to drive for just over an hour, to the small town of Canmore, right up in the rocky mountains. I'm headed for the home of some friends with a two-fold purpose. The first is to hang out. (the gift is for their kids - 3 of the 5 five children on the planet that I can handle being around for more than 10 minutes!)

The second is that earlier this week it was decided that it would be good for those of us who live relatively close (though in 3 different towns or cities) to each other, who are all headed for Malta within the next week, to gather and talk and pray for our upcoming trip.

Somewhere early this evening, I'll get back in my car and drive home.

I'm feeling relatively at peace this morning - a novelty after the last few days of exhaustion and stress. The temptation upon waking early was to settle right back into that same exhaustion, but peace seems to have won for the moment. This is a day that could be passed doing many things (and there are many things that need to be done before I leave Calgary on Thursday morning) but I am going to pass it with people I love, in a little town in the mountains that I love. I am going to pass it in prayer, and laughter, and relationship. And then, later this week, I'm going to join those same friends in embarking on a month long adventure of prayer and laughter and relationship on the tiny island nation of Malta.

The nerves about the trip have subsided (at least mostly) for a time, and today I'm just going to stand in awe of what Jesus has done in the last year. If you had told me a year ago that I would be preparing to spend a month overseas, with the growing possibilities of several more trips in the coming months and years, I probably would have laughed. I would have laughed at the idea that someone I've met in person only twice could become a dear and very important friend. I would have laughed at the idea that my heart would be opened to the nations and broken for the world beyond the North American borders. (Actually, if you had told me that last one, I probably wouldn't have laughed. I probably would have cringed.)

I'm sitting here in awe. In awe of the way my relationships have expanded. In awe of the way my world is expanding. In awe of the way my heart has expanded. In awe of the answers to many spoken (and unspoken) prayers are being answered.

I leave Calgary in 5 days to begin a whole new adventure with the things that my heart is passionate about, with the people my heart loves, accompanied by the God who has overwhelmed me with things for my heart to be passionate about, and people for my heart to love.