Two Days!

Hello everyone! In just two days I will be leaving for John Carrol University in Cleveland for two weeks of Orientation before heading out to Chuuk with the rest of the FSM crew. As packing gets finished up I am filled up with a mix of feelings and emotions. I think about 60% of it is general excitement over everything, 40% feeling of trust in everything going on as part of God's grace, and 10% fear/anxiety of wondering if I have everything I need or if I packed things I won't need, along with the usual anxieties of wondering what I'll be teaching and what it's all going to be like. But most of that fear and anxiety has subsided and is replaced by the peace of trust and excitement. A very special thanks go out to a number of my friends who have gone abroad or spent time doing post-grad volunteering and helped me cope with some of my fears about leaving. The past few weeks have definitely had ups and downs, and I think it's leveled off for now and will probably change again (in a positive way) as orientation goes on.

It is a complete relief to have fundraising over, and also a blessing to know how many people are supporting me on this journey. Thank you to those who have helped contribute with financial and/or spiritual support. It really means a lot, in so many ways I can't explain.

Once I get in Ohio, I will probably not be able to be in contact with anyone via the internet (I may be able to get on once or twice, maybe), but don't plan on hearing from me! If you do, think of it as an unexpected gift (for both of us). From there, on August 3 I'll be leaving for Chuuk, finishing the travel on August 5 (local time). I'll let you know the time difference once I get there, I think it's 13 hours, it may be 15...Once I'm in Chuuk, I'll be trying to update here once a month, but it will probably be more or less pending especially interesting things to share and electricity/internet availability on Chuuk.

To end, I'd like to share a brief prayer quote which has meant a lot to me over the past number of years (and was a bit of inspiration for the title of this blog, since I have no clue where it's going to go). I hope it will have meaning in your life as well:

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God

We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end withour delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of progress
that it is made by passing through
some states of instability ---
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually --- let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don't try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and cirsumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete."

~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ; "Patient Trust"