The Next Decade of Adventures

Today I got a new passport.

I could tell semi-amusing anecdotes about how American government agencies are just as frustratingly bureaucratic as any other country's, but actually, this morning went pretty well. Including the 20 minute walk each way, the 4 layers of security, and the fact that I lost my receipt and had to get a new one, the entire experience took less than an hour. Impressive.

And now I have a shiny new passport, very electronic-looking, still stiff, with a printed-in photo instead of a laminated-on one. Incidentally, I'm VERY happy to be rid of the old photo. Many of you remember my giant round glasses, and I look so peaceful in the picture that, well, I possibly look stoned. Angel calls the picture "Harry-Potter-John-Lennon-Jessie," and that's not entirely inaccurate... The new photo looks like me, which is all you can hope for in an official ID, though I'm ashamed to say that the old one also looked like me at the time.

Getting a new passport is a bit like starting a new journal- what will this one hold? What will God do in this space? What adventures will be represented by the stamps? Where will I go in the next 10 years? I barely escaped adding pages to the old passport- there was one free space left. This one's sure to be overfilled, even just with normal traffic to the States and back. I've already sent it off for my work permit and re-entry pass, and I do have a Stateside trip planned over the holidays. So that's 3 pages already spent. Other semi-planned trips include stops in Egypt, UAE/Dubai, the Netherlands, and possibly Japan. And that's just in the next year or so! My Kilimanjaro climbing buddy and I have talked about Machu Picchu, so maybe I'll finally get a South American stamp, and I'll likely visit South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda at least once during this first term. I wonder if I'll be living in Africa in a decade. I wonder if China will resurface in my life after all. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.

And of course, retiring this passport makes me reminisce about the places it has been: Thailand, Cambodia, New Zealand (I'll be very sad if that stamp's not repeated in this passport), England, Croatia, Tanzania. More unusual- my passport's been to Perth, Australia, but I haven't. But that's a whole other story featuring a sketchy visa agency, a lavish office in the middle of an empty warehouse district, a giant cigar-smoking blond Norseman with big muscles, his scantily clad Thai secretary with her desk drawer full of multicolored passports, and my host family assuring me everything will be perfectly fine. It's a good story- remind me to tell you sometime.

I never would have guessed the twists my life has taken in the past decade, and I certainly expected to be living overseas long before this point in my life. But God in His good plan gave me seasons of waiting, opportunities for rest and for service, and yet chances to see so many of His wonders all over the world.

So even if the picture embarrasses me in 10 years, I bet this new little blue book will still speak to me of God's kindness and His unexpected storyline in my life. I'm looking forward to it.