Continued..."How can I best prepare?"

A few more practical suggestions from the Dohnavur Fellowship...

• Spending Money- There are many unnecessary gadgets and ornaments that it is very nice to possess, for which we spend money without thinking. All our money is God's if we are His children. Rich and poor, we should think and pray before we spend, and we should learn to do without. Some, after indulgence in small ways, find it very hard to stop. The people among whom we are to live in the mission field, for the most part never could buy such things or their local equivalent. The unnecessary separates us from those we come to serve. Do not let us live like misers, but pray before we spend.
• Pride- If you take offense easily, do not come to the mission field thinking that is does no matter. He humbled Himself. He did it deliberately. So let us not care overmuch for the praise or blame of men, even of other Christians. To our Lord we live. If something is misunderstood, learn to go directly to the one concerned. Be frank and humble and straighten it out.
• Joy- Be glad always. Praise God continually. When you are ill or tired or tempted or at your wit's end, learn the habit of perpetual praise, for it prepares a way whereby God may show us His victory.
• Adaptability- We must learn to be adaptable, be willing to start from the beginning, go to school again to learn the language and the customs and the mind of the people to whom we go. If we do not like having our careful plans altered and something quite different substituted, the sooner we learn to be able to take this joyfully the better.

Hmm...good thoughts. Convicting to my heart. These things aren't just helpful for those headed to the foreign field-they are for all of us who want to give 100% for the Kingdom, wherever we are.