T-1 Day to Adventure

Wow... I can't believe this day is already here. Tomorrow afternoon I will be hopping on a plane to Hong Kong. I wanted to take this chance to thank you guys for your thoughts, prayers, financial support and love as I head out on this exciting journey! It has been quite the adventure for me thus far. As I write this ideally, I would be in the Vancouver airport with my team preparing to board my flight to Hong Kong. Instead, I am sitting in the backyard of my family friends’ home hoping that they will arrive home today and can take me in for the night... haha. Surprise!! In my defense I did call first, they just were not around to answer. I do have back up plans in case they do not make it home. Why am I here and not on the plane? I tried to get my passport released from the South African Embassy on Friday and asked them to send it to Vancouver. Next day delivery, it should be no problem. It didn’t get put into the mail until Wednesday, but that’s okay it should still show up this morning it will just be cutting it close. Next surprise, it showed up to my house in Calgary this morning. Thank goodness for my kind and caring parents who will make sure it gets to Vancouver tomorrow well before my flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. I want to take a chance to praise God for His faithfulness and care, I know He is in control and I cannot wait to see what He has planned to use this monkey wrench for His glory! On the amazing, awesome super cool God side He has not being taking a nap and leaving me to fend for myself. For one thing that passport that is coming is complete with the needed Visa despite there having not been enough time to finish the processing!! Also on my flight to Vancouver, I ended up taking 3 bags. One is full of donated soccer gear. The second bag cost me $18.00 not $20. The third the girl warns me is going to cost $100. I take a breath and say that is fine I knew it was coming. She then turns to me and says the computer is only charging me $20 for the bag. No idea why but she’s cool with it and I will take that blessing for sure!! It’s such a blessing!! God is so good and evidence of His hand is all over this trip.  I cannot wait to see what else He has planned to blow me away with!

I wanted to take a second to reflect on how I am feeling and what is going on with me emotionally. There have been a few moments of anxiety about my passport and Visa leading up to this trip. But it is amazing how each time I have turned it over to God and trusted His timing and outcome and He is so faithful. He is replacing my fears with freedom and anxiety with peace. So many people have talked about issues of safety and it is definitely worth concern. South Africa has a reputation and many parts that are dangerous. I have spent time in thought about this and although I recognize the danger, I choose to enter this journey with care but not worry. God is confirming His call to me both in the big things and the small, therefore trusting Him with my safety is easy. I figure if He will be glorified more through my pain or death than the next however many years of my life than I go willingly. But so as not to end on that somber note I have a bit of an update on what I have done since arriving in Vancouver on Tuesday. 

We came out to spend some time with the FISU games Canadian Women’s soccer team. Yesterday we rode tandem bikes along the sea wall! I definitely recommend trying this if you are in Vancouver, the weather was amazing, the scenery was stunning and the experience was a blast. There were many little chances to serve the girls, collecting gear after the ride, taking some photos, serving lunch. It will be nice to be a familiar face once we are in China. The girls are very sweet and I had the opportunity to get to know some of them a bit better over dinner as well. I am excited to see what God has planned for our time in China. Things will be different from other years because they are fairly closed off to religious matters and are not accrediting many chaplains. However, this gives us a different kind of freedom to be around and connect. I am hoping to spend a few days with the South African teams and cannot wait to see what will come from that. While we are there I will not have internet access of my own, nor will I be updating my blog. If you want to follow what we do or contact me or our team we can be emailed at aia.swat.2011@gmail.com

And our blog will be  aiaswat2011.wordpress.com. This site is password protected to protect our team and the work we are doing. If you want access to the blog you can email me before tomorrow afternoon or the team email above. 

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers and I look forward to Sharing with you all when I arrive in South Africa. I am scheduled to land on August 21, 2011 at 7 am South African time.

P.S. I emailed all the contact emails that I had about my blog update so if you didn’t receive it and would like to be on that list please send me an email at rae.bauer17@gmail.com. Sorry if you have already done that but I am using a new computer... thanks Greg... and don't think I have all of the addresses. I promise to get that organized from here on in!

Love,

Rachel