3 days until I board a plane bound for England.
The problem with something like a blog (in my analytical brain, at least) is, of course, that I journal my own story and expect others to read and care...it's just a lot of focus on me that I'm not too comfortable with. But I'm about to set off on an adventure that's sized a little too big for me, and I'd be an idiot if I didn't recognize that I'm going to need lots of prayer to face it head-on like God is giving me the opportunity to do.
So here's the plan: On January 7th, classes begin at the University of Birmingham UK, where I'll be attending. Leah, Kevin, Natalie, and Robert have been in Bham already for a couple of months getting adjusted; they are half of the team, and are settling in as missionaries to stay for a few years through a CMF organization called Globalscope. The other half of the team are students Patrick, Josh, Aubri, and myself. We will all live in a house recently secured (about 2 minutes from the university entrance) and try to figure out how to build up a campus ministry in England from scratch.
Here's what I've gathered from English friends and others who have visited/lived there: the country is overwhelmingly secular. Church is a state-run affair; citizens are born into it and consequently don't take it too seriously. Faith/religion in general is something that never comes up in polite conversation (as taboo as politics and sex for the Brits), and there is, in general, a pretty heavy spiritual depression and lack of hope for the future, particularly in my generation.
Those of you who are committing to pray for me...I am indebted to you. Thank you for taking our family ties in Christ seriously! I need you; I am not worth anything to the Kingdom of God as an isolated individual. It's only Jesus working in me and the protection and encouragement of your prayers that allows me to be an instrument that He can use, and I don't ever want to forget that. Thank you. I love you.
Here are some areas where I specifically need prayer:
-Sleep. I sometimes feel like Satan attacks through insomnia and disconcerting dreams, and I'm nervous about my ability to adjust to a completely new environment enough to sleep well when I hardly can in my bed at home.
-Safe travels. Plane from Chicago to London, train from London to Bham, all on my own.
-Class credit and direction academically once I arrive. Still a confusing process, though God has worked most of it out, amazingly enough.
-Peace for my family as they let me go.
-My heart. Homesickness, people I will miss...that I will know how to be fully present, building relationships (the sole reason I am going), while maintaining existing relationships. It's hard to say goodbye, even for only 6 months.
-Discipline in reading the Bible and sitting quietly, listening.
-Music. That somehow there would be a way for God to continue to use music in my life to speak to me and to others. That I would be able to write like I have this semester, since it frees up my soul and teaches me so much.
My big Christmas gift request for my parents this year was a pair of red Chuck Taylors. High tops, of course. (There's no explaining.) Just doing a lot of thinking these days about all the ground I'll get to walk in them...and you have to understand, I have had a crazy desire to travel my whole life, travel anywhere and everywhere. I'm thinking about what a privilege it is to trek the world on a mission to love people in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm thinking about my faith ancestors who treked in sandals, in bare feet...a long legacy of adventurers. And I'm thinking (as I often do with this whole Chi-Nash life I have going on) about the concept of home.
I didn't try to come up with some goofy metaphor on purpose or look for a moral to justify my Christmas present, I'm just following my unpredictable train of thought, and it took me here: I know where home is. I'm reading about it in Hebrews right now. Some people live in the same place their whole lives and never know home with their full being the way that this nomad does...and I want to change that. I'm thinking that maybe my ruby Chucks will help remind me to share home with the people I meet along my journey.
Because, you know, there's no place like it. ;)
