Hong Kong 2011 (Pre-Trip)

Hello Everyone,

In less than 7 hours, I will be meeting at the church and then going to the airport for my 3rd mission trip to Hong Kong. It is the night before and I am looking at my bag of supplies, my personal bag, my carry on bag, and downloading some last minute books for my Kindle. I have a nagging feeling like I am forgetting something, and I am sure that I will. I don't intend to, but it is a Scott Lemons tradition to forget at least one thing on a trip no matter if I am going across town or across the world.

So, what are my thoughts? Generally on pre-trip journals, one talks about their goals on the trip, how they are feeling, what they want to accomplish, etc.

What I am looking forward to:

I am looking forward to seeing my team members open up the prayer cards that have been written for them by their friends and family. I am looking forward to seeing them open them up before we leave, and hear the stories of when they opened up a letter of encouragement just at the right time. I am looking forward to being with my fellow Christians. Not only my friends from America going on the trip with me, but my friends across the world who love Jesus and his people. I am looking forward to seeing the kids laugh, play, and learn important truths. I am excited to see how God will work in and through the volunteers to minister to the kids and community. I am looking forward to eating real Chinese food and seeing architecture, artifacts, and stepping into a country that has an extremely rich heritage.

What I am anxious about:

It is a really long flight to Hong Kong. I got some bad motion sickness last time and two of our members last year got really sick. I know one was influenced very much by the plane ride because I was there! I'm also not looking forward to how my body reacts to the time-change. I'm hungry at weird times, I get tired at inappropriate times, and I'm not a fun person to be around when I'm tired or have to deal with unexpected change (It's how I'm wired. Unfortunately the people closest to me get the brunt of it. Thanks for sticking with me even though I can be a pain!) I'm also anxious because I know that even though this trip is somewhat "easy" because our main responsibility is just VBS, it is very difficult spiritually. I could tell even the months leading up to this trip. I have been faced with so many different things personally that have been distracting me. There were times in the past couple weeks when I have even felt like throwing up my hands and saying, "I quit. Go on without me!" Yet I know that there is a reason I'm going and there's a reason why each of the individual people are going on this trip. We just got to have faith. On the plus side of this, I know we have a lot of people intentionally praying for us on this trip. Sometimes you need people to pray for you when you do not have the strength to do it yourself.

Well, I better get back to what I was doing. Hopefully all this stuff will calm me down because I have to get up REAL early.

Have a great rest of the day, and keep checking back for more updates!

Scott