Travel the World.

So, in a little more than twelve hours I will be on my way to probably one of the biggest adventures I have taken so far in my life. I am extremely stoked for this and cannot wait to see what happens. I will be going to Liberia, which is in the armpit of Africa. West Coast for all of you that are geographically challenged.

I dont know how I feel about it right now. I was explaining to Julisa (shes my girlfriend, I like her. :)) That I kinda feel like a soldier might feel flying into combat before (maybe on a different scale) they land. You know like when theyre in the helicopter or in the bomber about to drop out like in band of brothers. You have all this training that you go through and then its drop time. Its time to actually get your boots muddy, and go.

I am all about that. I mean boots were meant to get muddy, really. I mean if you see a guy wearing shiny boots, you know he either A.) just bought them. B.) Is afraid of the mud.

Catch my drift?

I think through this whole thing God has been teaching me how to not be afraid of the mud. Which is kind of weird because fear has never really been a huge issue for me. I have always been the risk taking one. The balls to the wall guy (girls its okay if you dont get it). The "oops shouldnt have done that one, but it was fun!" kinda guy, The "hey watch this..." guy, The guy who's life could be modeled after, "pain follows stupid.", and so on and so on.

I am all about risk, I really am. Sometimes i look at the mud and jump right in! Well... most of the time... And when I heard about the trip to Liberia, the risk involved, the mud involved, I jumped right on in!

But there is something about this trip that captured right from the start. I can honestly say that there were times when I believed that I was not supposed to go, that we had 2 months to go and yet I still only had 250 out of the 3500 i needed. There were times that I was sitting in the hospital because I reacted to a vaccination and had difficulty breathing. I look at it now and think,"Man, someone really did not want me to go on this trip."

On the flip side, i can also honestly say that it was utterly dumb of me to think I wasnt supposed to go on the trip. I mean how else can someone describe raising $3000 in 2 weeks? You cant. How can someone describe the phone call I got that went something like this:
Them:"Hey Collin, I just want to let you know that I just got a bonus from my job and am going to pay for the rest of your trip."
Me: silence...
Me: silence...
Them: "Collin?"
Me: "Are you serious?"
Them: "Yes"

Well there was a little bit more meat to that but that was the jist of it. I got that call the day before Christmas. Which was 4 days before I had to leave. insane.

INSANE.

I really wasnt planning on writing a blog tonight. But I think that sometimes I just sit down to write and it just flows out. You know like a... yea I got nothing. Think of something that flows a lot and smoothly too, and then just pretend I said it.

So I leave you with this. I leave tomorrow at 1 PM to go to Liberia. This is a risk. I love risk. Liberia is in the armpit of Africa. I am a little anxious. Pain follows stupid. I am bad with analogies. God works in mysterious ways. Dont be afraid of the mud. Probably shouldn't put "balls to the wall" in a blog ever again. I have a neat girlfriend. She is cute. She got me a hammock for Christmas, and its awesome.

So, when you think "what if God doesnt pull through for me on this one..." Think, "What if God does pull me through this one..."

There is a world of a difference between the two, and the difference can change your life. Pursue that. Pursue it hard. Pursue it SO hard.

Its been fun friends. I love you all dearly, and I can not wait to tell you guys the stories that happen while I am over there. I will bring back a T-rex for you.

~Collin

OH.

Check out our daily blogs from when we are over there at:

www.weliberia.blogspot.com

www.servicetoservants.com
-To read this one you have to click on "Team of 14 heads for Liberia"

PEACE!