Mourning Derek Lee...

I've officially thrown out my arm. But don't worry, Cubs fans, rumor has it Kerry, Mark and I will be throwing from the mound come Saturday.

(And I hope the two or three people that got that enjoyed it. *sigh*)

Doug and I played catch for more than an hour today and eventually had to resort to a modified version of playing toss so as to avoid my arm actually detaching from my person and becoming forever useless. Our new game was actually quite hilarious. Ever try playing catch with your weak hand? Oh dear goodness, so comical. It takes so much thought for me to uncork a throw left-handed. And the whole ordeal was made better by Doug's hilarious antics/facial expressions. Not to mention the game's eventual evolution to us basically running around in a circle, hurling the ball at one another. (By this time, we'd switched back to our strong hands -- praise God.)

So, anyway, it's been nice actually having people to pal around with during the day. Mark (not of the Prior variety) humored my attempts to teach him Publisher on Monday and endured a (not as strange) game of catch Tuesday. Then Doug seems as bent on playing toss every day as I am. The only problem with this whole having friends thing, I've come to realize, is that I haven't gotten anything done all week.

And that's definitely not such a good deal.

I'm trying to wind down tonight and fighting off a rash of worrying about Africa stuff. It's easy to fall into this late at night because there are little to-do lists scratched out all over my room, most of which are still to-be to-done and focus on all things Africa. It seems no matter how much I do -- even when I am focused -- there's always more to be done, be it immuzations, doc's appointments, bank papers, visas, letters, thank yous or reports to the mission, etc.

And then there's this hanging cloud of The Support Issue. I'm still $3,000 short on outgoing and have to have around $550 materialize in monthly pledges in the next... 41 days. I know God is big enough to do that and more in 41 seconds, but it's still a battle. Every moment, a mental battle. And it's rough. I really could do without it.

But then I think of the lost. The people who've never heard of Jesus. I think of my calling -- loud and clear. I think of the passion God has given me for missions, the love of Africa He's put on my heart. And other things start to fade away and I'm left daydreaming and aching to be there now.

Give me Africa.

I've got a presentation tomorrow/today (Thursday -- however you want to look at it) to a women's group. Please pray God would open up their hearts to the cause, to prayer and to giving. Also, I've got this radio thing Friday I still need to prepare for. (Whoops.) Pray that goes well. And my church is hosting a cool missions conference this weekend -- pray that goes well and that the congregation's hearts would be even more set on getting the Gospel to the nations.