Planes, Trains, and Automobiles... and Subways

Hey!  We finished a week a transportation training!! Woohoo!

So here's the story:

• Sunday. 12pm.  Arrived in Kansas City after Fall break.  Started packing for transportation training.
• Sunday. 10:45pm.  Met with everyone.  Received ten envelopes, each with a specific time to open it.
• Monday. 12am.  Went to sleep in the airport with my cohort. (It rhymes.  I'm sorry.  I had to point it out.)
• Monday. 4:30am.  Opened the first envelope to find out our first destination.  In all caps it said, DETROIT!!!!!!! and gave us a confirmation code to go get our tickets.  But, the problem was that the envelope did not give us our airline.  Therefore, we proceeded to try typing the code into every single airline kiosk in every terminal.  Of course, the code didn't work until the last airline we tried.  Oh, the adventures we have in airports...
• Monday. 2pm.  Opened the 2nd envelope in the Detroit airport to find out that we had to do some sightseeing.  So, I called up my grandparents (who live in Detroit.  what. a. blessing.) and they were excited to come pick us up and drive us around the area.  We had a good time visiting Comerica Park, seeing Canada across the water, and listening to my grandpa tell jokes (the same ones he loves to try out on new people whenever he gets the chance).  

• Monday. 7pm.  Took showers at my grandparents house, ate a homecooked meal (thank you grandma!), and slept in comfy beds. 
• Monday. 9:45pm.  Opened the 3rd envelope to find out that we had a bus ride to catch to Cleveland at 7am.  
• Tuesday. 5:30am.  My really super fantastically awesome grandparents got up to give us muffins and fruit for breakfast and drive us to the bus station.  THANK YOU GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!!!
• Tuesday. 7am.  Left on the bus to Cleveland. Slept the whole way.  mmm.  good stuff.
• Tuesday. 11am.  Arrived in Cleveland.  Our next envelope told us to visit various places in the city.  It was great weather and all of it was within walking distance.  We visited the Indians' stadium, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (just the really cool gift shop part) and we saw some circus elephant parade walk down the street... and another small parade of people followed them carrying homemade signs that wrote, "Save the Elephants! The Circus Mistreats Them!"  Awkward.

• Tuesday. 1:45.  Watched a movie in the mall because we were bored.  "Here Comes The Boom."  It's pretty funny.
• Tuesday. 5pm.  Spent 4 hours in Subway playing UNO.  In that time, we also opened our next envelope.  Our next destination was PITTSBURG!!!!... but not really.  That was just a stopping point before we had to take the next train to NEW YORK CITY!!!!!
• Tuesday. 9pm.  Hannah's friends (who live in Cleveland.) picked us up.  We and our backpacks made a very uncomfortably tight squeeze into the back seat of their car.  Then we spent another 3 hours talking in a coffee shop.
• Wednesday. 1am.  Our train was 2 hours late.  So at 3am, we took a 2 hour train ride to Pittsburg.  ...Coldest train ride I've ever been on.
• Wednesday. 7am.  Took a 9 hour train to NYC.  ...Much more comfortable.  We slept.  We took pictures.  We played UNO.  We went to the snack car.  We slept some more.  We opened our next envelope.  Apparently there was a place that was planned for us to sleep at that night.  But, we didn't have to be there until 9:30pm.  So, we took the evening to walk around Times Square, see Rockefeller Plaza, and eat NY pizza.  We also got to know the Subway system... fun times.

• Wednesday. 9:30pm.  We met at the place that we were going to sleep that night... unaware of future events that were meant to take place the rest of the week.  What were those events you may ask????  *PEANUTBUTTER*  (you will know what this means if you read my blog post about ground school)
• Thursday - Sunday.  We got a lot of opportunities to share the Gospel with people that we met along our journey.  God taught me (and every other student) SO much in that time frame.  

God showed me how much pride and judgement was still stored up in my heart.  He showed me that I was incapable of unconditionally loving people on my own.  My love runs out.  His love does not.  Here's the basic of what God taught me: 

I don't have the all the right words, fluency, or knowledge to share the Gospel.

BUT, God is the one who draws people to Himself, not me.

THEREFORE, I have nothing to fear or worry about.  

My delight and privledge is to be obedient to Christ.

I must share the Gospel.

God has undying passionate love for me and the rest of His children.

He loves everyone He has created and wants to give us His passion for the lost.

He wants us to understand Him more.

I have learned so much about God through letting go of my own desires and feelings in order to share the Gospel.

I am a child of the most high God.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul.

"I will proclaim His name without fear, follow Him without regret, and serve Him without compromise.

To Christ alone be all power, all honor, and all glory, that the world may know."

He is so faithful.

He is enough.

Psalm 103: 1-5 & 8-12

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

........

⁸ The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.