Dreaming Up A New Year

It's January 1st, 2010. On the first day of the new year I am dreaming of a new adventure. 3 days from now I will be on a plane flying to the country of Lithuania for my study abroad adventure. I get to go with one amazing friend and roommate and will spend 4 months having the semester of a lifetime at Lithuania Christian College (or LCC). It will be my first time outside of the country (except for Mexico but I'm still not sure I count those trips since I never really left California, it just had a Baja in front of it). Nevertheless, I will be flying over the Atlantic with a total travel time of 24 hours (not including my 6 hours of layover time) to arrive in Lithuania at 1:45pm on January 5, 2010 (4:45am California time).

The other day I was thinking about what I wanted to happen in the next 16 weeks of my life. I had quite a list. Some things on it were:

I want to be strong... I want to be outgoing... I want to be happy... I want to take full advantage of where I am... I want to be present... I want to find the part of me still missing... I want to learn... I want to teach... I want to grow... I want to see God in a new way... I want...

And then a very familiar verse came into my head. Now, I must admit that, while I work in a church and love ministry, I find it cheesy to quote verses all the time (I'm not sure why this is as I live my life quoting movies, songs, books, and even certain youtube videos) but in this case I am going to share my verse, in KVJ no less (I blame 13 years of awana for the old school translation).

Luke 12:31 - But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

So, instead of more goals than I can count, I narrowed it down to one (and a half but that comes later). I want to seek God's kingdom. Where I am, in what I am doing. For the next three days I want to seek God's kingdom in the United States. For the following months, I want to seek God's kingdom in Lithuania, Russia, and wherever else I may find myself.

And here comes the half. I want to be immersed and invested in my Lithuania adventure. So immersed that I dream, at least one dream, in Lithuanian (whether or not I will understand what is being said in that dream is up for debate).