God, I trust you.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

 Now, here am I.

I don't pretend to compare myself to Isaiah.

I didn't say, "Send me!" immediately, as he did when he accepted his commission. Instead, after receiving an invitation in July from Father Jeff to join the mission team, I went through weeks of discernment and prayer before eventually saying, "Here am I."

If all goes according to plan, the five-man Christ Church Plano construction mission will be winging its way to Lima, Peru, in seven hours. We'll arrive at midnight, and ten hours later, we'll be back in the air for a 90-minute hop up to Juliaca.

Juliaca is a fair-sized port city on Lake Titicaca about 12,500 feet above sea level within, I suppose, a bus ride of our ultimate destination of the Anglican Mission of Saint Mary Magdalene.

I'm  the rookie on the team. All the other men -- John Bock, Rick Krupka, Johnny Rudders and Craig Andres -- have served on construction missions to Peru before. As we have prepped for the mission over the past several months, they have shared their experiences with me so I'd have clue about what to expect.

Yet, as the clock has ticked down to this day, I've tried to set aside my expectations. Expectations give me trouble. I can't think of one thing in my life that has worked out the way I expected..

So, as I sit here this morning, about the only prayer I can think of to say is, "God, I trust you," which has pretty much been my prayer since I raised my hand and said, "Send me!"

Most particularly, God rewarded (is that the right word?) that trust by blessing me with dozens of mission partners -- some of whom I haven't heard from in decades, others who contributed widows' mites, and others who said simply, "How much do you need?" -- whose donations and prayers are making my participation possible.

He also has blessed me with a wife who was unquestioningly supportive when I first asked what she thought about my desire to participate and has backed me every step of the way. Thank you, dearie pah.

On a side note, during my discernment, I dug into the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's epistles to the churches he had planted on his missionary journeys. As I was writing about my sustaining prayer a moment ago, one verse popped into my head:

Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.(2 Corinthians 11:24-25)

I'm fairly sure none of that's going to happen,but still ...

"God, I trust you."