Click the "Submit" Button

I just bought a plane ticket. Yeah, I'm crazy. I am off in January to El Salvador (San Salvador) to do an International Rotation. OK, this is exciting.....but there are a few resons I am scared. Not fearful.....i guess I'm just nervous. Number 1: I don't speak spanish. Number 2: I don't know a ton about really being a good doctor. Number 3: I am going alone (physically, i mean).

Jon and I are about to go through a little rough spell. He has to move back to Georgia in January to finish up his bachelors at Emmanuel. Virginia Tech has tacked on some unforseen issues with a French class from high school Jon was supposed to have credit for....well, turns out he doesn't and no one told us. To avoid more uneccesary semesters, Jon only needs one more semester at EC to finish up. So here we are. A winter apart.

So, I figured I would see if God would open up the doors for an International Rotation in El Salvador. My application was turned in late, and 4th year students have priority. Well, I still got in. HAHA! Isn't God cool? He is going to stretch me, though. I know for a fact that I totally am really bad at being by myself. Especially in foreign countries. When i spent the 2 weeks in Peru all alone, It was pretty intense. A month will be hard. But I can't help but think of my BFF Jana who is currently in Calcutta, India serving among the untouchables. She is all alone. I am praying so hard for her. I know how hard it is. She is so strong in the Lord, but it is still hard to be alone. I'm praying for more pink toilet paper, Jana.....

Anyways, I was really nervous hitting the "Submit" button on the delta flight for El Salvador. Medicine is hard, and i know being there and not knowing all i should is going to rip my heart out (as is the fact that I alone can't do much). I am going to travel to orphanages with kids that have AIDS and take care of them every week, as well as rural areas all over the San Salvador area. That is incredible. Its crazy the positions God puts us in. But then there will be me....alone. The devil knows where I am weak. He could use that whole month against me.....if i concentrate on the lonely part I won't be effective.

Loneliness is one of the easiest places to Submit to the Lord, I think. No distractions. But a big distraction can be the loneliness itself.

I just sent cards and llama bracelets to the 2 campers that I had as a counselor at the Royal Family Kids Camp this summer. They are foster kids.....and the loneliness they deal with is more extreme probably than i have ever imagined. Those kids in the orphanage are lonely. Those kids in Calcutta are lonely.

Well, I hit the Submit button on the flight. Submission is hard sometimes, and I think once I get there and sit with the people God puts in my path, I may realize I am not so alone after all. That the reason God has put me there is to be with the lonely, keeping both me and them in fellowship to show each other God's love. We were made to be in fellowship with one another, and God never fails to put people in our paths. And those people never fail to make a huge impact on our hearts. We should keep clicking that submit button, and the lists of fears we make won't mean so much in the power of God's will while we are being used by Him.

Isaiah 41:10
"For do not fear, I am with you"












<-----------My BFF Jana