TRAVELING TO AN UNKNOWN PLACE

*picture taken by Demetrius G.*

So here's the deal, my boyfriend wants me to travel way across the country, I'm talking about a 15 hour flight to Amsterdam. Wowzer!!! This place is not the beaches in Miami, the shows in Las Vegas or even dreams of me sipping Mijotos in Mexico. This is a place for me, nevertheless that's unfamiliar. Now I'm a dare devil when it comes to doing new things in my life, especially when it comes to A New Me Foundation. A person standing in the same room as me would never know I was scared straight before doing any public speaking. So why let my fears dance with me now? Did you read the title to this blog? TRAVELING TO AN UNKNOWN PLACE. My boyfriend recently visited Amsterdam and took a lot of exotic pictures. Amsterdam is a beautiful place according to the pictures, so what's holding me back from this experience? My friends look at me like I'm crazy for even having these thoughts on my brain and they would have been on the first plane flying over there, if the invitation had been extended to them.

I think about Jesus and all of the places He traveled and behold, it wasn't as bad for Him, traveling to unknown places....people greeted Him with gifts, food and celebrations of His arrival.......so why do I insist on having the, as we say on Twitter, the *Kanye shrug* whenever it's time to plan this trip? Is it the number of hours I'll be flying? Is it just too far away from home? Does it requires to much to go over there (i.e. passports, probably exchanges of the U.S. dollars, etc)? Or down right, undeniable ........it's just FEAR.

FEAR will trap and smother you if you let it. Fear of flying is easy to conquer.....you can take a short trip somewhere. But the fear of traveling to unfamiliar places and not to mention, not far from AFGHANISTAN, is a whole nothing pill to swallow. I know the Bible verse very well, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

Now of course after much thought on this, I needed to define fear for myself which is:

Fear (noun): a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil,pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feelingor condition of being afraid.

Readers, this is the time I am seeking your advice on how to conquer this fear I have of going to Amsterdam. Let me know how do you get over your fears? Advice on how to help me get over my fears in this situation.