Nervousness? Uncertainty? Excitement? "Should I really be doing this?"
Yeah, all of those things crossed my mind as I began to send out my letters for fundraising. I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting myself into until I got the full description packet for the trip. Am I pumped to go and serve in Egypt? Absolutely. However, when people ask me how Egypt will be, I usually say something along the lines of: "It will be kind of like what I did in Ethiopia a couple summers ago--except for it being on steroids," or "You know the show Survivor where they drop you in the middle of an unknown land? It's kind of like that, except for with spiritual goals."
The most confusing responses I get when I say that I'm going on a mission trip to Cairo, Egypt, is the "Oh, that will be fun!" Inside I disagree, but outside I agree, adding that it will be challenging and rewarding. I guess I don't blame them for saying that--they don't know that there are whole societies based on recycling large heaps of trash (and neither did I before this year). But for me, fun is golfing as the dew is on the ground and the sun is lifting above the horizon. Fun is taking a nap on a rainy day. Fun is not going blindly into a foreign land, living in poverty for 6 weeks and trying to fathom how bad the situation is in the garbage cities of Cairo. Eye-opening, challenging? Yes. Fun, no.
That sounds like what Jesus did, though, eh? Going into a foreign nation, becoming poor, living in some pretty bad economical situations, and being viewed as an outsider, a traitor, a threat to society. Oh yeah, and then dying on a cross? It makes what I'm doing look like a vacation to Cozumel.
