I’ve been reflecting on the upcoming adventure as we enter our countdown.  Tomorrow we will read Psalm 19 and it seems just yesterday when we started our tradition of counting down beginning with the reading of Psalm 150.  (Didn’t everyone growing up use paper chains as a countdown to something important like Christmas or the final days of the school year?  We did! So counting down comes naturally.)

One of the reoccurring themes I have seen this time when reading the Psalms is God’s faithfulness.  I am heavily relying on Him for all the ways I am not prepared for this hike, but even in the ways I am prepared (all the tags are cut out of my clothes!) I am very aware that I do not go alone on this adventure and so very thankful for God’s closeness and His faithfulness in the good journey He has provided.

The countdown is both exciting and terrifying to me.  I can’t wait to start, in fact I am so ready to put the planning behind us (and I do like planning) and just get on with it!!  BUT I will say that I have been more terrified at the task in front of us than any other long distance pilgrimage I’ve done.  I’ve been more emotional by far and I’ve already let Mark and Allison know that I may have MANY meltdowns during this trip, so watch out!  Just let me cry and I will be better.

Whereas Mark and Allison are coming into the hike with a great love of the challenge, the heights, the accomplishment of going long distances, I am coming into the hike with a need for rest, restoration, undulating hills (not mountains), long spaces of quiet and an awareness of the beauty around me.  It is going to be interesting to see how our paths come together, how mine becomes theirs and theirs become mine.

We three also have common perspectives on this hike.  We each have a desire to share our stories of once being lost, sharing time together, laughing, moaning when we get out of bed in the morning, pitching our tents, sharing meals even if they come out of a tin can and bumbling with the language, especially in the Czech Republic.

I love adventure.  I love going to new places.  I love trying foods I’ve never tried before.  I love getting up early and walking.  I love stopping several kilometers in and having “eine Tasse Tee mit Milch bitte” (which is basically the only phrase I really feel comfortable with after studying German for 292 days).  And I love the privilege of walking along side my little brother and my sister-in-law!

Nadine

“Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.  They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.”  Psalm 84:5,7.