“OHANA means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”
There’s nothing easy about being so many miles away from my family back home. My family is my world, and I consider every minute I spend with them to be a huge blessing. And if it’s difficult now, I can only imagine how much more challenging it will be eight months from now. But on this eleven month journey where I’m physically apart from them, there is one thing that makes it a little easier: all the other Racers have become like a family to me.
I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing group of thirty-eight people to travel the world with. Every single one of them brings something different, something amazing, and something our squad would be very different without. It’s hard to explain how you can become so close with people you have only known for a short time, but when God handpicks a group of people like this and allows us to share something so powerful, it just happens. For the past two months, I’ve been living with, traveling with, and doing life with five other girls: Ada, Andrea, Liz, Rhema, and Tara. Our team is called “Sista Fierce,” and the bond we have is fierce… it’s strong, it’s powerful, and it’s real. We protect each other, we push each other to grow, and we laugh together… a whole lot!
But the way this program works is that we have to meet our financial deadlines in order to stay on the Race. Our November 25th deadline is two weeks away, and two of my teammates still need to reach it. Let me tell you about both of them and why they’re so important to our team and squad.
ADA Kessler is 27 years old and from Middleburg, Florida. She left a full-time job of four and a half years to come on the Race because she knew she was meant to do more than sit behind a computer all day; she needed to be with people and serve them. She also had a desire to find a job that allowed her to travel, and in her search, she found the Race. She said this trip has been showing her some of the wonderful things God has for her, it has given her this community as a family, and it is teaching her how to trust and give up control, something she has struggled with. In her words, “The Race is teaching me how to live.” Ada is also one of the two logistics coordinators on our squad, which basically means that she partners with the headquarters office to coordinate squad-wide travel between countries, making sure everyone gets safely from point A to point B. She loves people wherever she goes, and she loves them very well. She’s always looking out for others, and we call her “Mama Bird.”
http://adakessler.theworldrace.org
LIZ Heller is 25 and from Seattle, Washington. Before the Race, she was managing a coffee house that she had worked at for two years. However, she left this all behind because she felt God calling her to missions, and when she asked Him where, He answerd: “To the nations.” So she went! Liz is my team leader which means that she serves the five of us every day as she works to lift us up to be the people God created us to be. While she is growing alongside us, she serves as the middleman between us and our squad leadership and helps to facilitate important parts of daily life for our team. She loves the community of the race… the way it’s like a family and that it’s all about loving people. And she has been learning so much. She said, “I feel like the Race is teaching me about who Jesus is and how He lived… traveling around the world with a group of people you’re with all the time, and sometimes it was messy, but it was always about love. It’s about learning to live the way Jesus lived.” Liz brings so much laughter and joy to everyone she meets, wherever she goes.
http://lindseyheller.theworldrace.org
As you can hopefully see, these are two incredible people who I truly believe God created to be on this Race. Will you please help keep them here? Their blog links are both written above. If you’re able and willing to help, will you please click on the links, go to “support me,” and follow the directions to make an online donation? All donations are tax-deductible. You can also help by praying that they will meet their deadline in time.
Thank you so much for your love and support! I’m excited to see what God will continue to do in and through both of them. I’m confident they will still be here at month eleven… because we’re family now, and family means nobody gets left behind!
