"Come walk with us... the journey is long"

So, I have been trying for the past week to sum up my feelings about all of this into a blog and right now words seem to be failing me. Instead of me attempting to convey what exactly is going on in my head, I figured I would share a poem with you that I feel very accurately describes not only how I feel, but the journey I am currently on. This poem was read at the very first day of training for Young Adults in Global Mission

Passover Remembered... by Alla Bozarth-Campbell

Pack nothing.

Bring only your determination to serve

and your willingness to be free.

Don't wait for the bread to rise.

Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing.

Be ready to move at a moment's notice.

Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind-

fear, silence, submission.

Only surrender to the need of the time-

love justice and walk humbly with your God.

Do not take time to explain to the neighbours.

Tell only a few trusted friends and family members.

Then begin quickly, before you have time

to sink back into old slavery.

Set out in the dark.

I will send fire to warm and encourage you.

I will be with you, in the fire, and I will be with you in the cloud.

You will learn to eat new food

and find refuge in new places.

I will give you dreams in the desert

to guide you safely to that place you have not yet seen.

The stories you tell one another around the fires in the dark

will make you strong and wise.

Outsiders will attack you, and some follow you

and at times you will get weary and turn on each other

from fear, fatigue and blind forgetfulness.

You have been preparing for this

for hundreds of years.

I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way

and to learn my ways more deeply.

Some of you will be changed by weathers and wanderings

that even your closest friends will have to learn your features

as though for the first time.

Some of you will not change at all.

Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves

and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth

who feel abandoned by you.

Some will find new friendships in unlikely faces,

and old true friends as faithful and true

as the pillar of God's flame.

Sing songs as you go,

and hold close together.

You may at times grow confused

and lose your way.

Continue to call each other by the names I've given you

to help remember who you are.

Touch each other,

and keep telling the stories.

Make maps as you go,

remembering the way back from before you were born.

So you will be only the first of many waves

of deliverance on the desert seas.

It is the first of many beginnings-

your Paschaltide.

Remain true to the mystery.

Pass on the whole story.

Do not go back.

I am with you now and I am waiting for you.

Sorry the post is so long, but I felt this poem needed to be shared. It sums up all the things I will learn on this journey and also some of my biggest fears about it as well. I know the road God has called me to take will not always be easy, but if I hold strong to my faith in Him then nothing is impossible.