And the adventure begins...

I start driving down to Pasadena with my dad and sister in about six hours. Wow. The next few weeks are going to fly by. My dad and sister will drop my stuff in storage in Pasadena after we arrive there on the 30th, and I'll be staying in someone else's place since my roommate and I don't have an apartment yet. Orientation starts on the 31st of August, I'll be job hunting in any free time that I have in that period, and then we leave for our 20 day trip to Manila, Philippines on the 6th of September. Why are we going to Manila? Part of the goal of the trip is to give intern participants a first (or additional) look at what poverty looks like outside of America. We get to interact with a couple who work for Servant Partners and live within a slum community in Manila, which will help to develop our vision for possibilities of what living and working among the poor could look like. Personally, I'm excited about the trip for several reasons. First of all, I love traveling to new places, and the Philippians is especially special to me because one of my good friends grew up there (although not in Manila). I'm excited to experience a small piece of her past. Secondly, my experience in Calcutta, India with InterVarsity's Global Urban Trek was really challenging and hard, and I feel like at points I shut down into survival mode and didn't always respond to what was happening as I would have liked in retrospect. I'm hoping for another chance to respond differently to the people and situations I'll encounter in Manila. If you are a praying person, please pray that our team will have a safe trip and be open to learning, especially learning how to give and receive love within the community of urban poor we'll be interacting with in Manila. Please also pray that these next few weeks will be a solid time of relationship building and friendship development among our intern class. Thanks! I'm not sure how regularly I'll be able to post for the next few weeks, but I shall when I can.