Over or Under whelmed?

   Months, weeks, now only days separate me from my departure for my YAV journey. And I cannot articulate exactly how I feel. Quite frankly part of me thinks I should be absolutely freaking out (which I might be), and the other part has not made the connection yet that I am leaving in three short days!

  Regardless the passage of time is something I will never fathom and we are all victims of it. But with time comes change, growth, and adventure. So time is both a friend and an enemy, but I am leaning more towards friend than foe.

  And to help make these next three days go by even faster, I have a member of my Philippines YAV family here. Oh the trouble we cause wherever we go, the sign of a lifelong friend though =)

We're weird and we don't care!

The Turn of 20

    Recently I had a birthday and turned the big 2 - 0, now I know most of you are thinking it has no significance, I cannot even legally drink (in the U.S) so what's the big deal, right? Well, I have survived two decades, am no longer a teenager, and not too mention I feel an immense pressure to have my life figured out, and planned to the tee. Instead,  I am leaving family and friends behind to move around the world for a better part of a year. And I am okay with that, at least I have to be okay with that since there is no turning back now, only eight more days to go!! I have now turned my thinking about packing, in to physically moving items around in piles, so almost there– but not quite. 

 Amidst all the packing, planning and more planning I am needing to remind myself what it is all for, and that it is bigger than you or me. 

Philippines YAV family =)

I'm blogging, I think

        How does one start their first blog post... I have at least attempted this first sentence about twenty times now. And do not even get me started on all the fonts, colors, backgrounds, sidebars, etc. options!

*insert smooth, witty transition*
       
      One month from today I will be in the Philippines serving as a Young Adult Volunteer, (just a heads up I will interchangeably use YAV or young adult volunteer but know they are the same).
There will be four of us YAVs serving in the Philippines as "community development interns," Mallory and myself will spend a majority of our time in the city of Dumaguete, Abby will be a couple hours away in the mountains, and Duncan will be in Manilla most of the time. Although our locations and placements will be varied, our goals will carry a common thread of sharing in the love and joy with all those we encounter.

                                                 
       And I invite all of you to join me and be a part of my service journey. Whether it's through thoughtful words, prayer, donation, or reading this blog, please come along and share in this incredible experience with me!


Here are a couple of links I highly recommend:

 http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/missionconnections/shelby-miller/

  http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/missionconnections/yavs-2013-2014/
     
1st link is to my personal page on the YAV/pcusa world missions page

2nd link is a list of all my fellow 2013-2014 YAVS and links to their pages

Feel free to check it out, I will consider you super awesome if you do! And  you will  be super glad you did =)

Peace,
Shelby