It's Christmas Eve again. We fly out tomorrow for the Solomons! I'm so excited I could cry (or burst into a giggle...or both, hahaha) That seems to be the general mood of our team - just ready to be there. We'll be traveling for about 3 days - flying to LAX, on to Fiji, then to Brisbane, Australia (where we'll actually have a day layover to enjoy and sightsee!) and then to the Sols. These last few days of training have been awesome - lots of working/prep for our workshop that we're facilitating at the Festival, lots of cool opportunities for sharing and enjoying one another's gifts in the arts (including an "Artluck" instead of a "potluck"..we all brought food, and then shared pieces of art with each other - a really neat, special time. Didn't make it through a single one without tears, but you know me... :), lots of team bonding! Today we got to field trip over to the stockyards and the watergardens - definitely did the maze, ate texas barbecue, and splashed around. So fun. Can't believe we've only known each other for a week. Excited for these next two months! I'm really missing my class tonight though - shout out to the Lookers. Prayin for y'all, and thinking about you always. Knowing you're putting the fun in dysfunction. Speaking at my old home church tomorrow! Really humbled and excited for the chance to share, praying that everything I say and do will be a direct reflection of, and expression of Christ's love, and that my broken story can somehow be used for good in his purposes. Just in prepping for it - I am constantly reminded and amazed by how God never gave up on me. How he constantly pursued me, chased after me with his love, even when I was trying to sprint in the opposite direction just this time last year. I think about being in that dark place...wondering if Id ever know joy and hope again, if that season of sadness and loss would ever end. And he came in to gently (and sometimes not so gently) thaw my heart out, layer by layer, until it was vibrant and alive again. How he nudged me and cradled me with his constant love. He desires us - he is jealous for a relationship with us. With me. Ha, I'm just overwhelmed by that. By his example of love. I want to love like that. I've been reading Song of Solomons tonight, just soaking in the richness of this love described. It's just beautiful: Song of Solomon 8:6-7 - "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised."