Who's Plan is it Anyway?

Here is Sunday's post (a day late) written by guest blogger Rob Engelsman, filling in for the sick one. A storm hit tonight at dinner time. Low booms of thunder scattered the darkening skies as we sat under the pavilion near the beach. The speed at which the storms here arrive, and the sheer volume of water that descends when they do, are both remarkable reminders of how little we truly control what goes on while we're here. We arrive every year with a plan, and leave every year having completed a plan, but the two plans are never similar. It's as if today's rain was God's way of laughing at our plans - a humorous "Oh, you wanted to do your will today? How about we try mine?" to help us get our priorities straight for the week ahead. In a lot of ways, our time here tends to pass like a Bahamian storm. With a group this size, we don't stand a chance of arriving quietly. The days turn into a whirlwind as we descend upon the island and spend a week trying to do as much as we can. Roofs, walls, the local children, each other. We want to impact it all, practically at once, and leave our mark before we're the ones leaving. What mark will we leave this week? And whose plan will we follow? One of these questions has an answer before we even start our work, but the other will tell us how much we've learned to listen to His plan by week's end.