Day 1: The Journey Before the Journey

So as I'm sitting at LAX alone at 6 something in the morning, I can't help but think: How the heck did I end up here? You know the saying: It's not the destination but the journey there that counts. Well, in my case, the journey before the journey had as much significance in my life as the journey itself. So where to begin? In a nutshell, the year leading up to the GP was a crappy year. Never before had I experienced so much frustration and failure.

Exactly one year ago at the end of summer 2009, I thought I had had the best summer ever. I had a paid internship, the Lakers won the NBA championship, I bought all whole mess of crap, hung out with friends every weekend, etc. Going into the school year, I was convinced it would be good year. I was no longer a leader in my IV chapter so I thought I would have time to serve the local community, hang out more with people, focus on school, and so forth. I even told myself I would get an even better internship so that the following summer, so that the following summer would be even more lavish and exciting.

A few weeks into the year, I felt God putting an inkling of an idea to go on a summer missions trip but quickly scoffed at the idea. I had already planned out my summer, right? Wrong. In the next few months, I got rejected or didn't hear back from all the internships I applied to; I failed miserably in my plan to do community service around Berkeley; my grades were substandard; I became so wrapped up in my own struggles that I forgot how to care about others; and anger and frustration quickly boiled up in me.

I eventually resigned myself to my fate: I would have to go on a missions trip. At InterVarsity's missions conference, Urbana, I decided to check out missions organizations to see which one God wanted me to partner with on but I sure as heck didn't really want to partner with one. I stumbled upon the IV GP booth where I talked with a man. At the end of our talk, he did something no other missions organization did: he asked to pray for me. That really stuck with me.

When I got home from Urbana, I checked out the GP website and saw Kenya as one of the locations GP teams went to. This might sound stupid but I picked the Kenya GP simply because my favorite speaker at Urbana was a Kenya pastor (Oscar Muriu). And so I applied and got accepted onto the team. I was on my way to Kenya.

A few months and many, many support letters later, there I was in LAX. Now just because I was on this GP team didn't mean I was any less reluctant to go on missions as I was months ago. Even on that day, June 5th, I had no desire to go to Kenya, let alone serve there. Even that night before as I ate my last meal in America with my buddies, I thought to myself: Man, I'd rather just stay in L.A. this summer and do nothing...but I've already told people I'm going and I've taken their donations so I guess I must go.

That's how this foolish one ended up in LAX that day on his way to New York to meet his team. To say that I was unprepared in every aspect would be an understatement. I was totally ready to wing this missions trip. And so the pre-journey ended and the real journey began as I boarded Flight VX404 to JFK Airport. I had no idea God had so much in store for me...