The Countdown Begins

You may have noticed a new gadget in my sidebar. We're going to be doing a lot of counting down in our house over the next few days and weeks. Phillip leaves for Congo Sunday after a full morning directing musicians and choirs at church. Right now we are counting down the hours until I have to take him to the airport. There is still so much to be done. Today we'll be spraying all his clothes with insect repellent and weighing hymnals to figure out the best way to pack them so as to avoid as much transportation cost as possible.

He has never gone this far from us before. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it when I drop him off at the airport on Sunday. Up to now I think my strategy has been to do or think about something else and block it out of my mind as much as possible. But the man is going to Congo. It will take him a good 24 hours or more to get there. He will likely have no phone or internet access during his trip, so I will have no clue about what he's doing, where he is, whether he's sick, or whether he's safe. I think I'm getting the very tiniest hint of what military families experience when their loved ones are deployed. For us it will only be ten days. But what a long ten days it will be.

I would appreciate your prayers for the well-being of my husband and his traveling partner, Pastor James May; for the success of their efforts to facilitate the singing of God's Word among our fellow Lutherans in Africa; and for the well-being of our family here at home while he is away.