How Do You Hug a Country?

Heads up: I'm about to get all "spiritual gifts" and charismatic on you. Which is a sentence that I never thought I would type. 

Two years ago, God gave me a dream and a vision concerning Belgium. Not an MLK Jr, "I have a dream"-dream, but a Joseph-sitting-in-prision dream. And a vision so vivd that I know that I will see it when I am flying into Belgium.

I'm not going to get into details about the dream here (though if you would like to hear that story, I'm more than happy to share in a more personal, not the internet, environment). But I will share the vision with you. It's pretty simple and lasted just a few moments, but it is something that the Lord continues to bring me back to, especially as we get closer to the departure date.

I am on the left hand side of the airplane, next to the window, watching the European continent below me. It's early morning, and the clouds are high and wispy, allowing for the early morning sun to break through and bounce off the dew below. I'm watching our progress on the in-seat TV. We fly over Ireland, then cut south and enter France. Finally, we reach Belgian airspace. The sun is fully up now, the clouds gone. My face is pressed against the glass as if I am trying to press through it. The grass is green with houses and livestock dotted among it. Then we fly over the cities outside of Brussels, seeing the hustle and bustle of rush hour. I start crying at this point; tears of happiness and relief. "How do you hug a country?" I ask myself. "I only have four weeks. How do I hug a country?" Then I wake up (or snap back to reality, depending when the vision hits).

As much as I would love to go around Belgium hugging everyone that I meet, that probably isn't what the Lord has in mind. I have a feeling that these hugs will include the Gospel, old & new friends, good meals together, long runs/high jumps, and sessions on the Big Red Couch. Not to mention lots of elephant hugs.