My last 23 days in West Virginia

So I guess the last post titled 37 days was a joke. I must’ve miscalculated. 23 days left in the great West Virginia hills, then it’s “hello snow capped Mounties!” I’m pretty excited.

I can’t believe I’m leaving my home; it’s crazy. What do I even want to do in my last 23 days as a West Virginian…

Well, I’d like to make some money first of all. Tomorrow I’m having a big garage/bake sale and I’m hoping I can at least get $200. I know that once I make it out to Olympia I have enough money to last me till the end of the year, and I’m hoping that in between now and Christmas I can land a good job with benefits, and hopefully use my PR degree that I spent a squillian dollars on. That reminds me… I’m going to be paying back students loans soon aren’t I? shucks.

Outside of trying to make a few extra bucks I’ve made some fun plans with some friends. This weekend is completely dedicated to my garage sale, so not too much will be going on, but Sunday night one of my best friends from school, John Hupp, is coming to town. I love spending time with John, though we usually don’t do a whole lot outside of laugh and talk. I think that’s when you know you’ve got a good friend. You can just sit around with each other, and that’s entertainment enough. So we’re going to head up to my dads for a couple of days and sit down by the river and relax. I’m really looking forward to it.

Next weekend I’ll be heading to Huntington to play a gig. My friend Meredith is currently raising support to go to Nicaragua, and she’s having a big silent auction/ pool party thing. She asked me to be the live entertainment so I agreed. Some friends from home are heading over too so it should be a good time, but I’ll have to leave pretty late that night to head to Morgantown in order to make it to Stonebridge by the AM to lead worship.

I haven’t been to Stonebridge since I left Morgantown, and I really miss it. I think it’ll be weird for me to not see Pastor Russ there, but I know Jason is holding it down, for sure. I’m really excited to hear him preach again. After church I’ll probably catch lunch with some friends and then maybe head back to Parkersburg. This will make my last trip to Morgantown for quite awhile, so it’s going to be hard, but the time has come to make a change. I guess it might as well be a 3,000-mile kind of change, I mean why not? There’s too much to see and do to just sit around Morgantown forever, no matter how much I love it.

The weekend after my last trip to Morgantown I’m heading to the Big Apple, that’s right, NYC. John’s sister Tracy and her family live there, so he invited me to tag along with him while he goes to visit. I couldn’t turn him down.

Then we reach my very last weekend, the 13-15. (I just had to pause and take a deep breath there for a second. Nervous? Stressed? Yeah, a little.) Who knows how I’ll spend these last few days, probably with my family. I know I’m getting a haircut, but that doesn’t mean much. The fifteenth, that’s a Sunday, my church in Parkersburg is having a commissioning service for me. The pastor wants me to get up in front of everyone so they can pray for me and send me out onto the mission field. I think it will be pretty cool. I’ll probably cry, my family will probably cry, but it’s what I know I’m supposed to do. As time goes by I feel more and more content in my decision to pack up and move to the Northwest.

Yet everyone seems to think that this is a very easy transition for me, and I just want to make it clear that this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I mean who in their right minds could say that moving 3,000 miles away is no biggie? It’s huge. Sure, it’s really exciting, extremely exciting, but saying goodbye and moving on from where you grew up and the places and people you feel comfortable with is not easy. I don’t even know one street name in Olympia. It’s definitely not comfortable or familiar to me, yet.

But here’s what I think. I don’t think that we’re not necessarily called to live these ultra comfy lifestyles as some Christians may preach. If you read through the Bible you’ll see that Jesus, and his inner circle of bros, didn’t have easy, comfortable lifestyles. Jesus obviously had it the worst, but was mocked at, spit at, laughed at and crucified all the while knowing He was God, and wanted so much to save the ones that hated Him. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was chased out of cities, stoned, put in prison numerous times and then killed for his faith. There are more examples other than these guys, but when you look at how they lived their lives, it doesn’t really seem so easy. But they loved Jesus and their passion and dedication to Him spurred them on to do uncomfortable things, and I think that’s where I am. It’s scary, but I wouldn’t want to be in anyone else’s hands, but the Lords. I know He’s taking care of me and looking out for me through this transition.

I’ve had people ask me recently “How do you know that it’s God’s will? I don’t know, and I don’t feel like it’s the right thing for you to do.” Well, the thing is, is that we’re never going to know 100% what it is God has in store for our futures (other than the fact that as Christians, we have been promised eternity with Christ in a really super awesome sweet heaven). If we knew 100% then we wouldn’t be taking steps of faith. It’s like Jesus calling Peter out of the boat and onto the water. We must take those steps of faith and learn to trust God. So, that’s what I am currently trying to do. Trust God and take a step of faith. I guess we’ll see how it all pans out. The days are going to fly by.