In this blog post, I reflect on two seasons of my life: the one I have recently finished, and the one I am about to begin. There is also an exciting announcement toward the end. Please read the whole post! Thanks!
Back at Training Camp in October my fellow Racers and I heard from several speakers who expressed how important it is to be fully present while on the Race. This is the experience of a lifetime, and we need to live every moment abroad without being stuck thinking about what’s going on back home without us. One speaker in particular shared a key step in being able to do that: mourning what we are leaving behind. “It is ok to mourn,” he told us, for that way we are giving respect to the people and places we love.
“But Betsy,” you say.“You’re about to go on a crazy-awesome adventure. Why would you be sad to leave?”
You’re right, I am about to have an adventure. And trust me, I am PUMPED about what the next eleven months have in store. But there are a lot more emotions associated with this, and one of those is sadness. It is hard to leave behind the people and places that have been essential to my life this far. So this is me, preparing for the Race, mourning the place that I have called home for the past four and a half years: Memphis.
(photo courtesy of Google)
I had no idea when I moved to Memphis for college back in the fall of 2010 that this place would work its way into my heart. I never expected that I would stay there after graduation and grow to consider myself a Memphian. And I didn’t know that this city would give me people I now think of as family and experiences that without a doubt made me who I am today.
Thank you, God, for Rhodes College, the thing that brought me to Memphis in the first place. I’m not going to lie, the four years I spent on that beautiful campus weren’t always easy, but I wouldn’t change a single moment. Not only did this place challenge me academically, it made me more confident, more ambitious, more open-minded. Thank you for providing the community of professors who invested in me, the friends who loved me, and the on-campus ministries that poured into me.
Me with some of my professors on graduation day.
Thank you, Lord, for First Evangelical Church. Who knew that a night of free pancakes during finals week would lead me to find a church home? The College Ministry gave me so many wonderful memories, including living in community with students from all across the city, my first-ever mission trip, and a pretty darn magical day floating down a river in Arkansas, to name a few. Without the Twenty-Somethings Sunday School Class, I highly doubt I would have survived these past few months of post-graduation life; that wonderful group of people took me in and gave me a community of believers to call friends. And the Missions Department gave me dozens of examples of solid, established missionaries, both inspiring me and supporting me in my decision to go on the World Race. There’s no doubt in my mind that without First Evan, I would have a drastically different relationship with God.
Some of the wonderful girls from my small group.
And thank you, Father, for Su Casa Family Ministries. This place, oh this place…I cannot even begin to describe what this place means to me. What started with an anthropology project turned into an internship, which turned into a love affair with the Spanish language and Latin American culture. Su Casa showed me the plight of the immigrant, the need for bilingual ministry, and inspired in me a passion for immigration policy. Su Casa was my home, my family in Memphis, and my support system when I needed it most. This place radically changed the trajectory of my life, and I know that God has used and will continue to use Su Casa for His Kingdom.
My Su Casa family praying for me as I leave for the Race.
It has now been a week since I loaded up my car and headed back home to Nashville, closing the Memphis chapter of my life. I’m not sure if I will ever go back to that wonderful city to live, but I do have the promise that God is in control and that He is good. I have confidence that He’ll call me back there if it is meant to be.
Which brings me to some very exciting news. There has been a change in my race route! Don’t worry, it’s still all Spanish-speaking countries. And we’re still starting in El Salvador and working our way down the continent, as originally planned. But there has been one super-exciting change. Here’s the route as it now stands:
January—El Salvador
February—Guatemala
March—Honduras
April—Nicaragua
May—Panama
June—Colombia
July—Ecuador
August—Peru
September—Bolivia
October—Chile
November—ARGENTINA!!!!!!!!!
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen! God is taking me back to my beloved Argentina. I studied abroad in Buenos Aires the spring semester of my junior year to fulfill my “language immersion experience,” but my time there was much more than an academic semester. It was there that I first worshiped the Lord in Spanish, where I learned how to live abroad, and where I felt the initial call to the World Race (read more about that here). Until now, I was completely fine with the fact that I wasn’t going to Argentina on the Race, but now that it is part of the route, I am over-the-moon excited. I don’t know yet if I’ll get to be in Buenos Aires, but if I do…Oh goodness, I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle the joy in my heart. This route change is just one more example of how God provides, because for me, this is a special gift. It will be as if I’m coming home a month early—“home” to Argentina.
A few of my fantastic friends in Argentina. Hopefully I’ll see them next year!
So as this season of my life comes to an end, I am mourning Memphis and all it has meant to me. But I am also incredibly excited about what lies ahead in this new season God has set before me. He is good, He is in control, and He will direct my path (Proverbs 3:5-6).
My going away party my last night in Memphis. Farewell, my dear friends!
