Going to Indianapolis

I couldn't WAIT to write this blog post. Anticipation kept building within me as I was driving back to MI today. I'm just so freaking excited! I drove down to Indianapolis for a few days because I was so close (it's just under a 4 hour drive from my parents house in Lansing) and since I had a burden for the city, I figured I would check it out. I lived there after my undergraduate years at Indiana Wesleyan University, from 2003-2005 on the northern part of the city. I lived with Tara, and when I saw her today, we reminisced about how sweet and naive that time in life was. We spent that time dreaming, praying, and seeking God's face as to what the journeys that lay ahead for both of us. It was there that I got the call to go to Africa with Mercy Ships, and she got the call to move to Colorado and be a part of a church plant (both from the church we were going to at the time) which I later joined up with about 8 months later.

Driving down there on Monday, so many thoughts and emotions circled my head. What was it going to be like? What had changed in the 5 years I had gone? Would I remember anything? The anticipation kept on building, and I felt gidy, like I was a little kid coming HOME. Driving around town was so exhilarating, because I REMEMBERED where things should be?! For someone who usually can't remember what they ate for breakfast that day to remember where grocery stores should be from when they lived there 5 YEARS ago was fantastic and so confirming! I have NO IDEA what lies ahead for me there, but I have a place to start looking for jobs come graduation. That's a start?! I told a friend last night over coffee that I'm not naive enough to think that people and the place hasn't changed at all in 5 years--I know it has, and preparing myself for some of the ways that it will be different in advance will hopefully set me up for some of the unexpected changes when it comes time to start over there. Even finding a new church- my old church is still there, but it has changed a lot in the past few years just like I have, so I'm prepared to go church shopping again. He affirmed my thinking ahead in this process :) I've already promised myself that I will enjoy a few months off from both work and school to enjoy one last beautiful Colorado summer before I move back to Indianapolis and look for work. Work will be my life for the next 30 years, so I need to enjoy this rare time in life with no responsibilities. For now, I can just dream and think of the things that I still want to do in Colorado while I live there, and think about where in Indianapolis I want to live and what I want to be a part of this new chapter in my life. Not a naive dreaming, but a prayerful, purposeful approach to this next step that is still very much unknown. But I have a place to start looking. Thanks to Erik, Rachel, Cam, Mila, Amanda, Matt, Danny, T-Rock, the Lott's, and my Colorado family for being excited with me and dreaming about this next chapter with me. So that's my pre-Christmas update for everyone about my thoughts on this next chapter! :)

Amy