On the road again...and again...and again

I have been on the road more often than not this year. In fact, other than the football camp in our city in June, I haven't been home for more than a few days at a time between trips. While many people might envy such a life, it's not all glitter and glam. It's exhausting to be traveling so much and hardly ever home (and when one is home, one is busy cleaning, washing, and re-packing everything for the next trip instead of resting and enjoying time with friends). Since I last wrote in this blog, I've been out of the city most of the time...

At the beginning of the month, I traveled 3 days to Romania by bus for the Central European SportsLink Conference sports training (where I was helping with the teaching), then to Odessa for a football camp in a village at the edge of the oblast. After that, it was another long bus ride home, where I was for a little more than 24 hours. Then, a 13-hour overnight bus ride to Warszawa to meet my sister and her family who are here visiting me for a week and a 16-hour train ride back here with them, a 3-day round-trip journey with no sleep. In a week, it's back by bus or train to Poland and then by plane to Germany and by car to Italy and back and then back home via the long overnight bus ride from Poland after saying goodbye to them in Germany. The day after I get back, English camp begins near L'viv and I have to leave that camp a day early to go to a youth camp in Vinnitsya where I'll be leading a master class in rappelling. Then, I most likely go directly from there to Sweden to renew my visa and registration and hopefully get a few weeks rest, and then travel directly back to Vinnitsya for a few days of team meetings before finally getting to go home (for less than a week before heading out again!). I try not to think about the constant traveling ahead or that this entire year I've only had 2 days off until this week and it's starting to exhaust me in more ways than one!

More than that, I notice that my relationship with God really suffers from not having a regular schedule (which I hardly have a regular schedule normally, but a bit more regular than what I have whilst on the road) and from major lack of sleep and alone time. For example, this month I've gotten about 4-5 hours of sleep each night except for 2 - and I'm absolutely exhausted. My times in the Word and prayer are not nearly as fruitful b/c of the exhaustion and lack of down time. I don't know how others do it in these circumstances, but I really miss having regular uninterrupted time with God. I can see how it negatively affects my character and how the worst in me multiplies rapidly with lack of good fertilizer from the Word. In the next 2 camps, I must learn to be more disciplined somehow so that I can make sure the most important thing remains the main priority despite the crazy schedule and lack of sleep. Otherwise, I've missed the point entirely...