day one in Gabon.

Several weeks ago, Kelly and Victor and I sat outside my house and debated whether or not the neighbors across the street were drug dealers. Two weeks ago, Katie and Vince's next door neighbor shot a groundhog out his front door in the morning. And today, I hear roosters crowing (they do it all day long) and a lot of people outside speaking a language that I don't understand. It's a bit of an understatement to say that there's been quite a few changes in the last month.

I arrived in Gabon early yesterday evening after two very long but uneventful flights, then we headed straight from the airport to Mama Janine and Pastor Jean-Marc's house for dinner and a Gabonese dance party. I got to see lots of the people we met last year (though some needed a few hints to remember me) and also meet some of the interns who live here at the Envision house. It was fun, but I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime when I'm not quite so exhausted.

This morning I met with Pastor Israel (he runs Hope House) and the man who will be my driver while I'm in Gabon, then I'll be spending the rest of the day unpacking and getting set up. Tomorrow morning I'll spend a couple of hours at Hope House, and then next week I'll start a regular schedule of being there most of the day, five days a week.

Right now I'm feeling a lot of emotions all at once. I'm excited about being back here, and overwhelmed by the size of the job that I'm taking on. I don't think the enormity of the step that I've taken hit me until I arrived last night. And though things are far from difficult here, and though I am excited about the adventure ahead, if I'm being honest there's a small part of me that misses my easy, comfortable life. And of course, I'm still dealing with a bit of jet lag on top of all of this, too.

If you think to pray for me, please pray for wisdom and discernment here. And please also pray that God would continue to remind me that I'm exactly where he wants me to be.