Tonight is the Night!

Happy New Year Everyone!

First, thank you so much for your prayers already. We have been blessed by so many of you already and we are truly grateful.

We leave tonight at 10:45 PM. We fly 14 hours to Taiwan and then about 3 more to Cambodia. I plan to be heavily drugged! Our (actually MY) first prayer request is that we actually make it to Cambodia and that the plane stays suspended in the air. As I was packing, I was starting to panic about all the pounds I was added to the weight of the plane and how on earth does it stay in the air?!

I felt convicted this past week. I have been so worried about the trip.... getting sick again, or the kids getting sick, worried about the in-country travel and accommodations, worried about whether or not we would have a hard time adjusting to the time zone, basically just worried being there in general. I kept worrying about all these silly (and not so silly) little things. I found myself praying only for me and only for our family. I felt convicted. The trip is not about me. It is not about the kids. It is not about Pat. It is about giving our lives to others even when it is not comfortable or fun. It is about loving others even when I don't feel like it. It is about serving a God who had loved me in a such a way that I cannot even begin to understand. It isn't about me.

There was a great article in Parenting Magazine this month about how we can raise globally minded children. It talked about how we take for granted that our rate of HIV in the US is so low, how we don't worry about catching Malaria when we have a mosquito bite, how we have clean water to drink and so on. There have been some people who have questioned why we would take our kids on this trip and questioned the "danger" we might be putting them in. I guess we feel that we should not be immune to such things. These things are a global crisis, we are called to love everyone, and the best part is we can help change things one life at a time.

One of my favorite quotes is, "Let your heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." That is sincerely my prayer for this trip. It is easy for me to worry about so many things and get so wrapped up in myself. I want our hearts to truly be broken.

So after you pray for our flight, please pray that we are ready and willing to give ourselves fully to this trip, that we would have endless amounts of love for the Cambodians, and that God's love would be revealed to them.

We hope to update with pictures often, I know photos are more exciting than my words!

Love and Peace to you all!

Kacie for the Van Winkles