There are a lot of things that I have wanted to say over the past month or so, but I realized that you all (my AMAZING friends, family, and supporters in the good ol’ US of A and all across the world) can’t really know that because, well, I haven’t told you. I’ve been a little absent in the interwebs for a variety of reasons…mostly because I’ve been preoccupied (in a good way) with my Savior because some things just don’t make sense unless I talk to Him about them. And I’m learning that, even then, some things just won’t ever make sense. Things like an accident and an earthquake and coming to a place that feels strangely like home only to leave early for a week of rest and recuperation…only to be met on the street with the news that within an hour of each other two of my teammates had each been in separate accidents (one on a motorcycle and one who had sliced her thigh open on a rock).
I still can’t quite seem to find the words for all that happened in Nepal, or even our last bit of time in India, but I know they’ll come. I’ve filled one and a half ENTIRE journals in the past month alone. So I guess the truth is that there are plenty of words, I’m just not quite ready to share them. Which I know is terribly unfair to the people who love and support me so well even from oceans away. So this is just a little check-in, to let you all know that I’m well and still loving this beautiful, crazy life that we call the World Race…both when it feels like a dream and in those moments when it feels more like a terrible nightmare. Even before I started writing this little update, the words of my inspiring friend Katie Davis came to mind as ones that, as usual, completely resonate. Yes, I’ve decided that I do consider her to be a friend now, even though we’ve never actually spoken. When your best friend calls you frantically 11 times on the day she finds out that a girl is married and you cry when you look at her beautiful pictures, I call it friendship. Anyway,
“Friends, God is still good and God is still working.
In a season of much loss and much hardship, He whispers, “Look how far I have carried you. And still I go before you.”
But trying to tell you where I am at right now feels a little like trying to serve grape juice as wine. Words on a screen feel like a cheap substitute, unable to capture the grace and the mercy that God has shown us during this season, unable to explain the nearness I have felt and the new ways the Father is revealing His heart to me.There is joy in this place. There is peace in this place. It is Jesus. He is very near to us. And I am writing it all down in hopes that one day soon I will again feel that it is time to share it with the world.
But for now there is something very sacred about sharing my heart with Jesus only.”
So that’s where I’m at emotionally, but I do want to give you all a brief update on where Team Nahar and I are at physically. We are currently making our ‘home’ in a cute little house that couples as a community center in Kuala Lipis, Malaysia. We spend our time teaching English, befriending several of the locals who have been invested in by many World Race teams who have come before us, and spending time at the feet of Jesus. It’s pretty amazing, I must say!
More updates to come soon. Thank you!!
With love and wanderlust,
Cassady
