Leaving and Going

Over the last few months I have come to truly feel the difference between leaving and going. Yes, I could use them correctly in a sentence, but I had never really thought about the difference between those two words. They both are used for starting at one place and ending up at another. Leaving focuses on the point of origin, while going generally focuses on the goal. I'm leaving Wisconsin; I'm going to Sierra Leone. I'm leaving friends and family, and I'm going on a new adventure where new friends will be found. I'm leaving the culture that raised me; I'm going to the one that will continue to help me grow. Moving to a different country as you can imagine is so much more than going or leaving - it's 100% each of those, a full 200% (no, I wasn't a math major ;) ). The past couple months I have mostly focused on my leaving - spending time with friends and family, while making sure I'm ready to go - packing and repacking. But soon I will be in Sierra Leone, meeting with colleagues and new friends, and my focus will shift to where I'm going - a new country, a new job, a new chapter in my life. Am I ready? Not sure. Can you ever be truly ready to leave everything you know for two and half years? Maybe or maybe not. But I'm going with the love of those I'm leaving, and I'm leaving with the hope of those I'll come to love. I'm leaving and going with the knowledge that I am not alone because God has promised to always be with me, because He has given me the greatest of family, friends, prayer warriors, and supporters, and because of the faithful brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone. I will miss my loved ones from home 100%, but fortunately I'm bad at math, so I have another 100% to be filled up that I'll miss whenever I'm back in the U.S. God has called me to the ministry of Bible translation in Sierra Leone because He was and is 200% - 100% human and 100% God. He humbled himself to become like us to die on the cross, so that our sins could be forgiven, and He wants the Mende to know it too in their own language. So ready or not, God is ready.