T minus 2 weeks

Hi! Just to let you know, I've moved the blog to LucasGentry.com, so all of my Costa Rica updates can all be in one place. Just click on the link below to see our newest update information! http://www.LucasGentry.com

Gloria a Dios (Glory to God), this is going to be EPIC. And probably a little bit scary.

Well, it's coming up so quickly. We're at T minus 2 weeks before this trip, and I am stoked.

For those of you who aren't aware, my wife Liz and I are going to be on a journey to Costa Rica, for around a year. We're going to be volunteering at SENDAS, a Nazarene Seminary down there, where I'm going to be tinkering with computers (my specialty for 3/4 of my entire life), Liz will be helping with administration stuff, maybe library work, maybe office work, and we're both going to be helping with English classes. Past that, it's whatever they ask us to do, we're going to take our best shot at it and see what happens. I honestly can't wait to see what God's got in store for us.

But most of you already know up to that point, since we tell that summary to every single person that we come into contact with who seems like they might care what-so-ever. But here's something more, for you.

Thank you. Thank you so much for all the support. Thank you so much for all the prayers and the hugs and the "We're going to miss you guys." Thank you for the encouragement and telling us that you love us. And honestly, thank you for believing in us so much that you've given financially and sacrificially. There are people that I know don't have the extra money who have generously given because they care about us and because they believe that God's got some amazing plans in store for us. Thank you for those sacrifices. They mean the world to us and more. It's so humbling to know that people care this much and have this much faith that they're sending us across the world to help out people who we don't know, at a school we'd never heard of, so that God (Who we DO know!) and His Kingdom would be glorified. It's mind and soul boggling, and it's amazing.

You know what's scary? Today is my last day of work. After work, I step away from a job that has been my financial income for more than 5 years, into God's hands and into His mercies. When I met my wife, I was working at this job. She's never known me to work anywhere else. When we met, I was working night shift, always tired and never able to catch up on sleep. I think I started working day shift about 2 weeks before we got married. I've transitioned to days and taken on more and more responsibilities, and the place (and the people) have really grown on me. I really like the people that I work with, and now I'll see them maybe one more time in the next year. How wild is that? Then I think I might have one more paycheck and we're off into the wild, blue, yonder running on savings, donations from friends and family, and the Hope that God's got this all figured out.

I'm really going to miss a lot of people. My parents, my family, my friends, my church family. Please pray for my Mom and Dad, I think it's going to be hardest for them. But we've got Skype and we've got web cams, so we'll be able to talk to each other over the Internet, while we're gone. I'll have to bring my computer around campus to let my parents meet everyone, and let everyone meet these amazing folks who raised me to be this wonderful person who I turned out to be :-) I'm not really that conceited, I'm just pretty sure that my Mom probably just teared up a couple sentences ago, so I thought that the comment about be turning out so great would bring a smile to her face. It's going to be hard, but it's going to be awesome. It's going to be EPIC.

You know what else really humbling about this whole thing? The big numbers. We've been given a support-raising goal of like $20,000. That's a lot of money! Liz can tell you exact numbers -- she's the more organized one of us, but it's a big number none-the-less. A couple weeks ago, we hit the 50% mark, which means we get to buy the plane tickets and set a date. So we have and we have. As mentioned before, that departure date is about 2 weeks away on September 19th. We've got so much to do before that time. Liz has a big calendar with all of the people we need to meet with at least one more time and the churches that we're going to be speaking at and the goal dates for packing various parts of the house up. But after all that, we STILL have almost 50% of our support-raising that we're hoping and praying for. That's wild. And crazy. After typing that, I just sat here, staring at the computer screen, looking at the big numbers, wide-eyed and maybe a bit nervous.

But you know something else that popped into my head, while I was sitting here gushing about how much more that needs done before we can be properly prepared for this stuff? Last year or maybe the semester before that, a couple awesome guys (who I haven't yet asked for permission to mention their name) and I did a Bible Study on the book of Jeremiah. Have you guys heard Jeremiah 29:11? It's something pretty close to "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV) I've heard people say (and I've said it too!) that this verse, while encouraging, isn't written to me. It was written to a group of people probably more than 3000 years ago. This is not a message written to me. And honestly, all of that is true, but here's the thing. Everyone that Jeremiah knew, and everyone that they knew, and everyone that THEY knew, and all of their families got taken prisoner for a really long time. Like, slavery, with no hope and no country, and no way to see the silver lining to all of their clouds. That was the situation that they were in and Jeremiah 29:11, with all of the stuff about God's having plans for them, is what God had to say to them. Even if it looked horrible to them at the time, He's got it figured all out ahead of time. For me, it doesn't even look bad! It looks awesome! I have no idea how God is going to provide the rest of our support. But I know that He knows. I know that Jeremiah 29:11 wasn't written to me, but I know that if He had it all figured out for those guys, who thought everything was all hopeless, then He's also got it all figured out for us. It is going to be aMAZEing. I can't wait.