For those of you who are wondering what I’ve been up to the last week, here it goes…
I began my World Race journey!!!
Shay and I at the Dallas airport leaving for the World Race
We had 3 excellent days of training where we stayed at a gracious Hispanic church (The Church of the Holy Spirit) in Gainesville, GA. Showers were a 20 minute walk, Target was 45 mins. away, which made for tons of team time. I loved every minute of getting to know the people I will be living in community with for the next year of my life!
We said goodbye to 1/2 our squad at 3:45 on Friday morning. We then left Gainesville ourselves Friday at 10am to travel to Atlanta where we stayed at the Safehouse Outreach, a homeless shelter in downtown Atlanta.
Chilling in Atlanta…Checking e-mails, making our last phone calls, drinking coffee
We had so much fun hanging out with the people (and of course playing with the kids) at the Safehouse!
We woke up early Saturday morning to fly to JFK where we had an 11 hour layover. So, naturally, a few squad mates and myself went to see the Mets beat the Cubs and enjoy a delicious stadium hotdog. What’s better than enjoying America’s favorite past time on our last day in the States for 11 months?
Since it was the day before 9/11, we also had the opportunity to visit the memorial site of the World Trade Center and see the new Freedom Tower being built. It was pretty incredible to see all of the people there to show their support.
We wrote on the wall to commit to pray for unity for our nation even while we are away.
We took the red-eye to Poland while watching some crazy Polish cartoons. We had a 9 hour layover in Warsaw, which, of course, we had to take advantage of (12 countries in 11 months perhaps?). I fell in love with the colorful buildings, cobblestone streets, and beautiful people!
We then flew to Bucharest, Romania where X Squad surprised us with a wonderful welcome into the country! We spent the night in the airport hanging out with them and hearing stories of their Romanian adventures and ministries. It was such a great surprise!
Monday morning we took a bus to the train station where we rode 2 hours in the country side to Draganesti-Olt, where we will be living for the next month.
After 3 long and wonderful days of traveling, we made it!!!
I am already in love with this town and these people. I can't wait to share more of the ministry and the people in Draganesti with you in blogs to come!
