At the Waterfall of Life

Today marked my last day at home in the U.S., and I feel like I am at the edge of the waterfall of the rest of my life. Maybe that is exaggerating a bit, but tommorow morning Dad drives me to O'Hare in Chicago where I catch my plane to Argentina. I am heading into the unknown, but have the comfort of knowing a place is being prepared for me there ; I have a family in Argentina who I will live with (I will be living with a young couple who have a two-year-old daughter); I have the prayers and love of my family and church here, and most importantly the comfort of knowing God will be with me.
Last Saturday, October 21, our RAD group had a commissioning service next door to our house in Chicago, at the First Church of the Brethren. The pastor of the church (Orlando Redekop) gave us a blessing as did other RAD staff, and Jordan and I each shared about 5 min of reflections. A prayer with candles was said for each of us, and I was overwhelmed with a sense of love for my fellow teammates, and an awareness of the ways God had changed me in the short two months.

My mom was able to be at the commissioning, and then returned me to Elkhart, where I have been busy packing for 8 months (a headache, really!). This morning, my Connection Team (Alan and Eleanor Krieder, Marty and John Bender, Paula Snyder, and my parents) had a breakfast at my home. Yet again, I felt the presence of God, as I shared what I had learned, and was surrounded in prayer:

- Faith isn't about reaching a destination of perfect "holiness". It is acknowleding your weakness, your need for Christ, and striving to follow Christ's way through all of life.
- Being a leader is less about taking control, than it is listening, encouraging others, loving with the love of God. I'm not always meant to be in control.
- Church can be as small as six. The tuesdays and thursdays the six of us meant to pray for each other and spiritually guide one another were profound and holy. I also realized I can have a family away from my home family.
- God has a call for my life that is bigger than any of my ideas or plans. I just make God laugh when I try to plan out my life, because really, God is behind the steering wheel.
- It takes 3 1/2 hours to ride the Blue "El" (train) line from beginning to end. (Not the most important thing I learned in Chicago, but I sure did get a good taste of the city )
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Lot of learning done. Lots to go. And now, to bed. Yikes! I've got about 42 hours of traveling starting at 8 am tommorow morning. Well, greetings next from Choele Choel. Peace

my email address: andreakraybill@yahoo.com