So... I'm going back

I'm sure that this is coming as a huge surprise to you, but this summer I will be going back to Estonia to work with our partner in Tartu with students.  This will be my fourth journey to this country, and a lot of people, that has become very close to my heart and for some of you reading close to yours as well.

As you may or may not know, I felt called to take a step back after my last trip in 2009, and in that time felt God's calling me to spend an incredible time in Kenya serving an incredible group of people who have a vision for their community and lives and have partnered with 410 Bridge to serve as the enabler in this journey.  It was an incredible experience, and in it really caught more of a vision myself for how Risttee and GlobalX partners as well.

So.  I was in the same place at the end of this last year.  Kenya was amazing.  life changing.  deeply profound in growing my faith.  and... I fell in love with the people.  But, no clear call to go back.

So... I'm not sure, do I take a year off?  Do I go somewhere else?  Waiting on God for direction can be a little frustrating (at least for self-starters like me), because I am 100% on his timetable, and not mine.

And then around late January... looking at the GlobalX trips.  I just felt.

Estonia.

English Camp.

And in a process of praying, talking to people at church and over coffee, and stop-and-starts, I am excited to say that I'll be going back to invest in the same group of kids that I had the privilege of pouring my life into in 2008.  The only catch is...

It won't be looking like English Camp.

The students are planning out a week of "Adventure Camp" which both scares and excites me.  I love new experiences and this will be a new thing for me.  At the same time, English Camp was awesome.   I won't lie.  It was such a great experience investing in these kids... many of whom have stepped up and become leaders in the Risttee community as I found out the year later.  This excites me to no end because I know that if positive change can occur in a culture (and I believe that it not only can but in God's grace will) it will happen through this generation that we are investing in this year.  Having poured time and energy into this group over the last 4 years, I truly believe that.  I wouldn't be in, I believe, if I didn't.

So - I'm sitting here at Starbucks thinking about what I'm going to write to my friends and supporters about this trip, and thought it would be best to let myself do a little stream of consciousness on this blog that has been dormant for a year.  I hope that you read the stories from the past, and get excited about what "could be" for the future.  Because these students, while they live in a culture that still has many remnants of the darkened world of Soviet communism remaining, have a light in their lives that we want to in some way help to further ignite.  And this light... what John calls the "light of men" that lives within them... can spread.  And I pray that it will spread, and lighten up a dark world that needs to know hope.

More to come... :-)