Tony's Entry: Step One

I am going to blog regularly here about my experience from the now till the end of the Kenya trip. Hopefully others from our team will also. I hope to live out the process here so others can see the value of the trip, and want to go in the future. My plan is to take this trip believing it is a journey taken in simple steps, which is my normal way of operating. I probably will agonize over each step and celebrate as God lights the path and allows me to take another step. I will blog as each step is taken.

Step 1

I have made the commitment to go to Kenya on the LHC Missions trip 2010. I believe this trip will be eye opening and filled with opportunities for growth for me and the rest of the team. I expect to be stretched and face things on this trip that will be hard and move my relationship with God forward. I do have fears, mostly for what I am leaving behind. I feel the weight of responsibility leading Camp Daniel. June is a very busy month, preparing for our camps. I do not want to let our staff down, nor do I want to give any less than my best for our campers because of this trip. I have spent much time in prayer and thought, and believe the growth I will experience on this trip will outweigh the issues it will create. I know it puts a huge burden on my wife and everyone else preparing for the summer, I am already praying for God's help in this daily. I go with my wife's blessing, she came to me expressing that she feels this is what I should do, that was the first answer to prayer and the first step of this trip.

I don't find the financial end of the trip to be a hinderance, but finances have never been an issue in my work for God. We give what God wants of us in our daily lives and so I know God will bless me when He sees our need, to do His work. I know I do not have the finances, I also know that almost everyone I have relationship with, supports our ministry at Camp Daniel in some way. I cannot write them letters asking for more help, so I look forward to how God will make this possible, believing He wants me to go. It is a lot of money to raise, I do struggle at times if it is best served being spending money in this way. But it becomes a non issue if I am not striking out on my own to raise it and am relying on God to provide it, if this is what He wants me to do.

I ask for your prayer to have courage to walk into places that God wants me to go, to see what He wants me to see and grow closer to him to be more effective in His work. I ask for your prayer for the entire team, as a trip like this can truly affect our entire church as people come home better prepared to serve God at LHC.