I am so sorry for not posting blogs! It’s been 6 months since my last written blog and that’s just sad. I have about 7 started but they always turn out to be novels and forever long with more detail than I’m sure people care about! Or I don’t even know how to put into words everything that is going on and everything that God is doing that I sit down to write and my mind explodes and goes blank. With only a month and a half left, I am going to try and finish all the blogs I have started, post them, and write more about what’s going on currently. With that being said, here’s what’s happened recently:
We spent 5 months in Asia and I absolutely loved it! Thailand was our last country in Asia and it was also “manistry”. The men on the squad come together to do ministry together and the girls from the coed teams come together and do ministry. For that month I was asked to be the team leader.
Being a TL was something God had been preparing me for for a long time. There was a lot that I needed to learn before being a TL (maybe a blog I can write). At the end of that month my team leader, Jace, was asked to be another squad leader. Squad leaders are superheroes. They make sure every single person on the squad is doing ok, praying constantly for us, traveling between teams to do ministry with us, encouraging us, and just being awesome. So with Jace being a SQL, they needed someone to take his place and they chose me.
So for the last 4 months of the Race I am a TL. It comes with some challenges but the amount that I have grown in the last 2 1/2 months because of it is crazy! I’m learning how to be more confident in myself and trusting that God gave me this opportunity for a reason and trying to learn as much as I can.
Our last 3 months are in Central America. Last month we were in Guatemala and this month we are in Honduras. We took a week between Guatemala and Honduras and went to El Salvador. We were in a small surfer town on the beach. The week for us as a squad was ATL (Ask The Lord). It was a lot of relaxing and rejuvenating, preparing to finish the last 2 months of the Race with perseverance. Building relationships with each other on the squad and with the surfers we took lessons from (I took surfing lessons!!!!!) Also meeting tourists and just listening to their stories.
On our last day there some of the surfers took a few of us to explore a cave nearby. I can’t even to put into words how absolutely beautiful and exhilarating it was. Swimming across small openings while waves are crashing around you, army crawling in total darkness seeing only a tiny bit of light at the end, finding a giant rock that looks like an elephant, dead puffer fishies, dodging bats and praying against rabies in Jesus name, seeing Gods majesty and glory in His creation. It was just unreal. I literally can’t even.
It was during one of the times at the beginning when we were swimming across we ran into a huge rock in the middle and had to go around. I was on the rock trying to swim/crawl my way around when a wave came and knocked my against the rock so hard i sliced my knee open. One of the surfers had to tie his shirt around my knee to stop the bleeding (which actually didn’t stop for hours!) I didn’t let that stop me though. I still army crawled through the cave and played in the ocean. One of the girls who was with us said I would need probably 2 stitches. It was a nasty cut. When we got back I found one of the SQLs who’s a doctor. She said I wouldn’t need stitches but could super glue it together.
Yep. I super glued my cut. I honestly could have gotten the stitches but I didn’t. My knee hurt so badly it hurt to walk. It hurt to bend it. It hurt to have it straight. I couldn’t put weight on it. I couldn’t walk down stairs. I felt like I couldn’t do anything. The next day (travel day) was quite a challenge. Thank you squad mates for your patience with me. This week it finally started getting better. Still hurts sometimes but nothing unbearable. The nasty cut and pain was totally worth it and I would do it again in a heart beat!
So that’s been the last little bit of my life in a nutshell. We have a lot of downtime this month and I have my mind set on working on and finishing blogs! We only have 8 weeks left and it’s very hard to wrap my head around. I love you all and am so sorry it’s taken me so long to post another blog!
