Ready, Set, Go!

Wow, last few days have been a whirl wind of information, activities, growth, laughing, crying, exhaustion and all of the above. We have been being prepped to go to our mission site and the day to leave is finally here. Romania team is leaving in a few hours!
Before I forget, I want to capture what happened yesterday. The YIM staff, who are absolutely awesome by the way, decided to try something with us that they had never done before as part of a cross cultural experience. Each team was given a bus map, some money for bus fare and lunch and a list of local churches/worship centers here in El Paso, Texas. We were told that we had to map out our own bus route to a place we wanted to go to church. The point was to experience something that was very different than our own church services. We were also encouraged to interact with the church members and see what would happen. Romania, and a couple of other teams, decided to go to a Antioch Orthodox Church which was an incredible interesting expereince. It was a long, ornate, very ritualistic and symbolic. After a service like this, with long singsong prayers and chanting, and a bishop doing incensing, were weren't sure what to expect about the people! So we were very surprised when we were welcomed with opens arms afterwards. The Bishop got all of our names and welcomed us to the service individually during the service. When they learned that we were missionaries going to different countries the next day, they were incredibly supportive. They came up to us a gave us hugs and wished us well and said they were so happy about what we were doing. They invited us to have coffee and snacks after the service which ended being like a meal because the had coffee, other drinks, different middle eastern foods, fruit, and desert. It was awesome. We just stayed and talked with them and had a great time.
Last night, 11 pm, all the teams ended up sharing their different experiences. Some went to a Chinese church, a Islamic Temple, and many others. It was a lot of fun and a great preview of the different cultures we are going to experience all summer.
Training Camp has been awesome! The staff, team leaders and different people who made this all happen were incredible and funny and really showed interest in us as individuals as well as teams. The other students I have met here have been great. We all can't wait to see each other at the end of the summer and will probably make some life long friends!
So that pretty much brings you up to date. Like I said, today we fly out for our site. Please pray that everything goes smoothly on the flights, through customs, and everywhere along the way. Pray for physical health for all of us as some of my teammates are dealing with physical pains that might be made worse with the long flights.
I love you all and thank you for your support! Talk to you when I get there!