Servant Team arrival

A year ago i decided that i wanted to host a "Servant Team" this year. (Servant Teams are 4 month internships that WMF does. i participated in one Feb-June of 2007...which is when this blog started...and is pretty much how i decided to live here and do what i do! for more info on Servant Teams, click here

The girls arrive tomorrow night. Natalie, Erin and Taylor.

they will be in the back of my mind at all times - knowing that i am responsible to them, and for them.

we will learn together.

we will laugh together.

we will mis-understand one another.

I will be changed because of their presence here.

hopefully I can walk along-side them and encourage them as they explore Kolkata...and the beautiful mess that she is.

for the next 4 months, they will be the mirror where my strengths and my brokenness are reflected back to me. (as i watch sometimes with joy, and sometimes with horror as they take on some of my patterns, habits and perspective)

There's no backing out now...they're on their way. the calendar is printed. housing arrangements made. i think my heart is prepared to welcome them (in the way you feel prepared for something that is way bigger than you are - and that you don't fully understand, except that you know that it's very very significant).

Monday night, i go to the airport to welcome them.
i will stay with them for a week at a hostel downtown - so we can get to know each other...and so i can show them around (before shoving them out of the next like a good mama-bird).

it's weird to be on the receiving side of a servant team. i know what it is like to arrive. i know what it is like to be welcomed. i remember the anticipation....the questions...longing for God to transform me....knowing that the next 4 months were going to be significant, and would change me...and simultaneously having no idea what that really meant....but being the responsible one...well, i have no idea what this is going to feel like! i am excited. i am terrified.

so i take a deep breath.
and pray for mercy.