8 Hours until departure!

My bags are packed! (The bag on top of my rollerblades is completely full of shoes. I'm kinda like a woman...)

"The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps." -Proverbs 16:9

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'" -James 4:13-15

Hello my friends! This is my first blog post for my epic road trip, being written from the comfort of my living room. Tomorrow morning, around 8 am, I will be departing for 11 days and 10 nights, with stops in St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis, and New Orleans. However, the words of Scripture are true. Therefore, if the Lord wills, I will be going on this road trip. If He wills otherwise, my plans may drastically change. I take comfort in God's sovereignty over my trip and I ask that each of you pray for my safety.

While this trip will be very much about having a whole lot of fun in some cool US cities, I hope to learn a great deal about myself and my God during it. The 11 days of relative solitude (while still amongst throngs of people) will be a great time to reflect and meditate on God. It's gonna be a weird change of pace not talking all the time...

Thank goodness for technology! I don't know how I would be able to survive my road trip without it:

iPod Shuffle

GPS navigation system

God willing, my next post will be tomorrow night from my hotel in St. Louis!

See you guys in a couple weeks. Please be praying for me.

-Patrick