Except

So do I start with how I don’t know what else to say that I haven’t already said or do I start with how it’s only sixteen days until I leave for Kenya?  Decisions, decisions.  The more people learn about me going on this trip, the more I hear comments such as, “I would love to do something like that except. . .”  Except for the food, the diseases, the animals, the flights, the heat, the bugs, the bathroom conditions, the water. . .and so on and so on.  Honestly, who cares?  Ok, maybe that’s too harsh.  But you can’t live with “EXCEPT” being the main focus.  I’d help that person except for the diseases there.  I’d help that person except for the flight it would take to get to him. 

So hopefully I can come back from this trip and show everyone what I learned, what I saw, and what I felt.  Then maybe next time a trip like this happens, instead of only one from our church going, maybe it’s two or three.  Maybe we fill a mission by just our congregation.  So many reasons to not follow the “EXCEPT” line.

I will admit to being in that line myself.  I’d do this except. . .(usually relates to household chores), but hopefully even for myself this trip tears that from my vocabulary.  Hopefully I don’t look at this trip as a one-time thing to be enjoyed and remembered.  I want this to be a spark that ends up burning away all the “EXCEPT”s I have in my life. 

Sixteen days until I go.  Sixteen days until there is no more chance for “EXCEPT.”  Sixteen days until. . . .

Tony