As a young kid, I would have never imagined that I would spend my 21st birthday as a missionary in Malawi, Africa. Oh, how the Lord has some crazy plans for us.

This is not what I expected. Actually, it is far from it, but I feel so blessed and so honored to spend it in Malawi. There is no other place that I would rather be. To say that I spent this special day serving Jesus is more than I could ever ask for.

There will be lots of emotions stirring around in this little head of mine. Happiness, sadness, joy and thankfulness will probably be a few of them. But the support system I have received through this journey has been one that makes days like this a little easier.

For the past few weeks, I have been in prayer over some hopes, goals and expectations that the Lord is calling me to set for myself. It has been really cool to sit down and declare these hopes, goals and expectations over myself. And actually while praying through these, the Lord said, “Have a little fun with these. This is your year of 21. Have fun.” So that’s exactly what I am going to do with these.

As my year of 2018 is a year of transparency, I will share with you some of my hopes, goals and expectations for my year of 21.

Some of my hopes are to start school again, lead an Adventures in Missions passport mission trip, lead a Bible study, volunteer at Cherished, substitute teach and go to a discipleship school in Georgia.

Some of my goals are to travel as a tourist, work out weekly, start a personal blog, speak at churches, go to Elevation Church, read the whole Bible and go to Europe.

Some of my expectations are to be a sacrificer, stay young, have real fun once a week, don’t work all of the time, be confrontational, do something I love, enjoy life and play an excessive amount of board games.

I am so excited to see what the Lord does during this year of 21. It is going to be a sweet year of serving him and loving on his children, a year of growing deeper with him, a year of hoping, meeting goals and expectations.

Here’s to a sweet year of 21.

Keia Blair is a Seymour native who attends Cincinnati Christian University. During her nine-month mission trip around the world, she is submitting a series of blogs that will appear in The Tribune. Send comments to [email protected].