Because my upcoming mission trip has been mentioned several times in the newspaper lately, I've been getting a lot of questions about it. Of course, people can't be expected to keep up with my schedule, so the first question is usually "When do you go on your trip?" or "Have you been on your trip yet?" or even "How was your trip?"

I will leave Aug. 3 and return on Aug. 19. (Actually, it will be Aug. 20 by the time I make it back to Bedford County -- more about that in a moment.)

Because I get so many questions and comments about the trip, I thought it might be fun to share some of my preparations with you over the next seven weeks.

First, some background: I went on my first foreign mission trip in 2003, to El Triunfo, Nicaragua. My second mission trip was to the Kibera slums just outside Nairobi, Kenya, in August of last year. I take these trips with LEAMIS International Ministries, a non-denominational group based in Sewanee. I'll give you some background on LEAMIS in the weeks to come.

I had not planned to take another mission trip so soon. It's quite expensive, and I have to rely on family, friends, co-workers and fellow church members to contribute. As I prepared for my trip to Kenya last year, I thought it might be two or three years until I attempted another one. I don't want my friends and family members to cringe every time they hear from me. ("Here he is, asking for money again.")

But within a few weeks after last year's trip, LEAMIS started making plans for 2005. Last year's trip emphasized cottage industry workshops, something that had been a long-time dream of LEAMIS founders Debra Snellen and Gail Drake. The Rev. Paul Mbithi, our host pastor in Nairobi, visited the U.S. last September and began talking to Gail and Debra about plans for the 2005 trip. LEAMIS would expand on the cottage industry training and build on what had been started during the 2004 trip. I was privy to some of that discussion, and I knew I wanted to be a part of the trip. I started making plans and hoping that my partners would understand.

I committed to making the trip -- but, by the time spring rolled around, I got a surprise. I would not, after all, be returning to the Kibera slums, where I worked last year. This year, the LEAMIS team will be split in two; half of us will go to Kibera, while the other half (including me) will visit the town of Kegogi, in the Kisii province of southwestern Kenya. That means I will miss out on re-connecting with the congregation at New Life Restoration Centre in Kibera. But it also means I will get to see a different part of the country, in a much more rustic setting. Last year, even though we were working with people in the dire poverty of the Kibera slums, we were staying in relative comfort, at the homes of several church members in Nairobi proper. We had running water, and electricity, and watched the summer Olympics on television each night. Life in Kegogi will be quite different from life in Nairobi. We expect to do without running water (just as I did without it in Nicaragua) and possibly without electricity as well. We won't know for sure until the LEAMIS advance team arrives in Kegogi, a week or two ahead of the rest of us.

The LEAMIS teams in each location will teach cottage industries, work on minor construction projects and install water purification systems. We will also speak at church services each night and will probably spend an afternoon or two doing street ministry and/or home visitation.

My particular cottage industry will be soap-making, as I discussed in an opinion column a month or two back.

As I count down the weeks until the big trip, there are a million details to worry about. The biggest is that I'm still not done raising money. Fortunately, all of my shots from the 2003 and 2004 trips are still good, so I didn't have to go to the Vanderbilt Travel Clinic this year. (Insurance companies typically don't cover travel-related vaccinations.) I did have to ask my regular doctor for two prescriptions: an anti-malarial drug and an antibiotic for use in case of traveler's diarrhea. I have taken such a remedy on my two previous trips but never had to use it; we're careful to drink only bottled water and not to eat produce which was washed in the local tap water.

My teammates come from a wide geographic area, but several of them are from here in Middle Tennessee. For the 2003 and 2004 trips, we flew out of Nashville, but this time -- due to rising air fares and the struggle to find the best package -- LEAMIS has us flying out of Atlanta instead. The drive time adds to what is already a grueling travel schedule, and we're imposing on various family members to drive us to Atlanta and back.

On the way back, the airline trip will be 30 hours, with layovers in Amsterdam and Memphis, and we will arrive in Atlanta at 10 p.m. Eastern time. So, by the time we get back to Middle Tennessee, it will be the wee hours of Aug. 20.

No offense, but please don't call me that day.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com. "Countdown to Mission" will appear each Friday from now until the trip in August.