some thoughts and feelings

Wow, I cannot believe the semester is over already.  It has just flown by and it seems like the older I grow and the farther I get in school, the faster time flies by.  I wouldn't say that's always a good thing.  Life goes too fast.  It's weird this semester for me, because I won't be coming back next semester and the reality of that has not hit me and probably won't until i'm in Mali, completely in Mali standing on African dirt!  I'm nervous, I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm ready for a new change of lifestyle and I'm ready to experience something new.  I've always had the mindset that I just want to experience because our life is too short to just stay in the same place and do all the same things.  Culture fascinates me and the way that God has made every single person unique and one of a kind.  To me, I have this thought, or maybe a desire from the Lord: I believe that by reaching into other cultures, studying them and living with them to build relationships, we can learn a lot more about God than we ever knew.  We can see how he works through other cultures on the other side of the world.  We begin to see His real character and what His heart is really for in this broken world.  It makes my heart burn with passion to know this.  Through entering another culture completely opposite of ours is definitely a challenge; but I have begun to recognize that God is still the SAME wherever we go!  We think He's gonna be a little bit different in this other country, or so maybe I thought that.  But I have seen Him in a different light when overseas.  In Swaziland I recognized His voice clearly.  I find myself searching for His voice in the states and it is more challenging to hear Him here.  Why?  Could it be distractions? Well, yes it could, but I think there's something there.  I think that where He calls people to, every single person, we feel Him much more intimately in that place.  That was my experience, maybe not everyone's though.  I can't wait to see what He's going to show me in the upcoming months.  It's almost scary because once you are shown the unknown, you can't go back; you've heard it and seen it and now you are obligated to do something about it.  If you ignore it after you've been exposed to it, you are sinning before you're Heavenly Father.  Obedience, obedience, obedience...