Anticipation

August 29, 2012

Time is an interesting creature. Sometimes it moves past like the blink of an eye and sometimes it drags on so slowly. But regardless of our perceptions, before we know it the future has a way of catching up with the present. It is currently Wednesday. In two days, early Friday morning, I will head to the airport to fly off to Philadelphia where I will spend the next 11 months taking part in Mission Year and living up to its mantra “Love God/Love People//Nothing Else Matters.”

I’d like to set a tone with this first newsletter that will hopefully continue throughout the months.  In my mind, these newsletters might be the most challenging thing I will face, not because I won’t have much to say, but because I will be experiencing so much more than what I can condense onto a page of text.  I also know that what I will experience and learn will not be mine to horde and never share.  I have been given the opportunity to do something that very few people have the luxury of doing.  I can devote a whole year, I have friends and family who have graciously supported me financially, and I don’t have a family to support (I will very soon though.  I’m getting married in August of 2013!).  I must also pay attention to the somber reality that even though Mission Year is almost a year long, time will catch up with me and Mission Year will be over.  It is the things that I learn, the experiences that change me, and challenges that I receive that will endure past Mission Year and can extend beyond myself.  And with all this in mind, I will be taking these newsletters very seriously.

Well, I haven’t even left yet and I have a lot to say, so I’m going to try to wrap this up quickly.  My newsletter will be a place for me to share what I’ve been doing and what God has been doing around me.  I’ll be posting these newsletters on my Mission Year Blog, but I’ll also use my blog as a place to express my thoughts, things I’m being challenged with, and other things that can get more philosophical in nature.  In the meantime, please pray for traveling mercies as everyone who is participating in Mission Year is going to be headed to their assigned cities this week.

With Love,

Michael Mann