Getting Ready to Go

It's the packing. I hate packing. Did you get everything? Do you really need that? It's only 5 days, will anyone notice that I wore the same shirt two days? (yes, they'll see the pictures!) The new twist with this trip is that Suzette Goff has packed more than half of the stuff for each of us. Our bags are filled up with shoes and clothes and 150 toothbrushes and toothpaste (now there's something I know that I can get ahold of if I forget), balls, an American football, air pumps, bandages and ointments and gifts for the local priests. This must be how Santa feels!

I have to say that I'm really excited about going. It's hard to go, there's a million things to get done here, the school year is a crazy time for our family, but I'm still excited about going. I want to see this thing, these people that we think about so much, that we pray for so much, that we have invested so much of the work of our parish into. It is not an exaggeration to say that I'm going as part of you, as an extension of all of you and our ministry at St. Mark. And, I won't lie, yes I'm excited about standing on the equator!

We leave Yorktown at 8:00 am for a flight out of Richmond to Atlanta at 10:55 am. There's a 5 hour layover in Atlanta and 6 hours to Quito, arriving at 10:15 pm (Quito is 1 hour behind our time). I don't know if I'll have time to post when we arrive, so I might put up something while we're waiting in Atlanta.

Thanks for your interest. I'll get some pictures up to you soon!