Just days to go before my three-month-long adventure in Uganda. Many there are awaiting my arrival. My equipment is checked and in good working order. My physical, emotional and spiritual states shout that I’m “good to go.”

However, failure is an option.

If this trip centers around me, I’m toast. It is no news to my friends and associates that I am clumsy, ham-handed, at times arrogant and awkward. If I exhibit those all-too-familiar traits, I won’t be successful.

Fortunately, I am determined to avoid those snares of self-centeredness.

Since my trip last summer to South Sudan, I have relied on the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as my companion and guide. I have been blessed daily with affirmations, or kisses, from God, as a friend calls them. My call to leave every secure comfort of home and travel alone to the heart of sub-Saharan Africa is a giant step in faith. The planning and arrangements have unfolded smoothly because of my steady focus on the mission and God’s faithfulness to me.

When the spirit of the Lord is present, it is an indescribably beautiful experience. It’s as if one’s reason for being has been defined. I find that life in the spirit is sometimes so intense that we choose to turn away and go back to our selfish lives. But when we lose the light, we are at loss and struggle once again to become holy, or wholly of God.

I feel God’s powerful presence at work in me at this time: encouraging, leading, correcting, directing. I hope and pray throughout each day that I can stay right where I am and complete the work he’s set before me.

This is God’s trip, after all, not mine.