Inexperience
I leave for the field in 5 days. There are a lot of emotions going on right now and one of those is nervousness. I'm not really nervous about moving to a new country, or living in the Middle East, or learning a new language. I'm nervous about how I will contribute to a team when I have virtually no experience. I'm not a scholar of theology. I don't know Arabic or Persian. I don't know much about Islam. I have no experience working with refugees. I haven't traveled all over the world on short-term mission trips and study-abroads. I've never been to my host country before. I studied… Read more >>6 Weeks to Takeoff!
Moving abroad is complicated. Of course I knew living abroad would be challenging, but other than support raising I didn't really think much about the pre-departure preparations. But there's a lot to do before leaving for the field. Yesterday I spent a few hours researching IRAs. Two days ago I barely knew what an IRA was. Now I know enough to realize that finding a good IRA for an expat who will also be applying for foreign earned income exclusion is pretty darn confusing. Today I researched how to create a Will online for free. On Monday I'm scheduled to get a typhoid shot. Next week I… Read more >>