I have now been back in America for exactly 1 month, so I thought I’d send an update. As far as adjusting to being back, it has been really easy for me. I think the main reason why it was so easy for me to come home is because I have a great family and great friends that I’m close to at home who I missed a lot and who also missed me. We also weren’t experiencing any new or hard pressing issues/trials which made it really easy to come home to. It was such a blessing and a thing that I praise God for because one of my biggest concerns when leaving and on the trip was the wellbeing of my family and friends, and I just praise God that he was so faithful in keeping my family, friends, and I healthy and safe the entire year. I also realized that we had to adjust every month on our trip to new cultures, languages, people, ministries, living situations, etc., so going home was actually easy because it was something I was familiar with. We also didn’t spend the whole trip in poor villages and in poverty, but we had some days/months in modern and developed areas. I also feel that God’s blessed me with being able to be content in all situations for the most part. Our leaders were prepping us for things that might be hard for us when reentering America, and I heard that we shouldn't expect things or people to be the same. However, it was really easy for me to come home, and pretty much everything and everyone didn’t seem to have changed at all! I realized that 11 months isn’t actually that long in the grand scheme of things, but it sure does seem longer when you go to 11 different countries. I think that it is both a good thing and a bad thing that it was so easy for me to go back to “normal”. Good because it’s good that it hasn’t been a struggle, but bad because I found it easy to go back to old habits and attitudes that I had thought I had grown in or had wished I had grown in. I realize that following Christ and doing the right thing is a choice every day regardless of if you’re on a mission trip or if you’re at home.
So what have I been up to? I have been hanging out with my family and my friends, been applying for jobs, my brother got married, and went to Project Searchlight. I’ve also just finished reading the Old Testament in the Bible and am beginning the New Testament, and I want to start reading it with my family. Being with my family has been great, and I have been working out with my mom consistently to try to help her loose weight. My good friends Brittany and Syntyche threw me a welcome home party in St. Cloud where I went to school which was so sweet, and I felt loved. I got to see a lot of my friends and community there. Being with people who just really know you and understand you that you really connect with which is my family and home friends is just awesome. I’ve been applying for elementary teaching positions near my hometown. I really want to be a teacher, and it’s about time I become one because I originally graduated in 2011. I want to teach near my hometown because I feel that is where God wants me next and after 11 months abroad, I really want to be close to my family. I’m trying to get a job near my twin sister’s work because we’re planning to get an apartment together once I get a job! And maybe our younger sister can move in with us too. I had one interview for a Christian school nearby which seemed like a great school and pretty much exactly where I’d want to teach, and I think the interview went really well, but they later said that they wanted someone with more experience and I haven’t had a full year in my own classroom yet. So I have been applying to more places in the area both public and private schools hoping to hear from them soon. But I have been a little busy with…..MY BROTHER’S WEDDING! So I was so excited for my brother to get married to Bethany which you may know by now. Bethany is so easy to get along with, and she is an answered prayer. She fits into our family perfectly. And it was surreal to think that my brother Kevy was getting married because like it’s just like your brother you know and you always think that maybe one day he’ll get married, but it always sees like a distant dream. So anyway, we threw a bridal shower for Bethany 1 week after I came home, and it went really well, and she said that she really liked it. I was glad that we had the honor of throwing that for her. Then, the weekend of my brother’s wedding, my sisters and I went to Bethany’s bachelorette party which was really fun. We went on a pontoon on Lake Minnetonka and then we went back to their house and did games and gifts and slept over. Then, they got married on Sunday and the wedding was perfect and beautiful! It was a blessing that all of our immediate family was there and healthy. My sisters and I were personal attendants and we got to walk down with the groomsmen. I also had the honor of reading their wedding Scripture. My twin sister did Bethany’s hair and make-up and my younger sister made a slideshow and video for Kevy and Bethany. It was also nice to meet Bethany’s family and friends. They had their wedding outside at a cute farm, and they wrote their own vows. I thank God that he has brought Kevy to where he is today, and that He brought him a wife.
Then, two days later I went to Project Searchlight. What is Project Searchlight you may ask? Well, don’t worry, I will tell you! It is a 5 day debrief/reunion with the World Race in Gainsville, Georgia (World Race headquarters) that they do at the end of the first month home so that you can talk about what it’s like being home and hear about new opportunities that might interest you. It’s also a good time to just connect with God and with your squadmates. It’s around the same time that you’d be packing up to go to a new country if you were still on the Race. I was 50/50 on going because I felt I was already away from home for 11 months, so leaving again (even though it was just for 5 days) felt soon, and I didn’t want to feel like I was closing the World Race season when it finished and then reopening the season again at Searchlight. It also just seemed soon to see everyone again, and I wasn’t interested in any of the new opportunities because I feel that I already have a vision. Anyway, the main reason that pushed me to go (which probably isn’t the best reason) was that they told us that if you had enough money in your fundraising account that you could go completely for free and have your flight, food, and lodging paid for. I had enough money, so I figured that I might as well go especially since I didn’t have a job lined up yet or anything going on that kept me from going. I also was excited to see meet with God, see my squadmates, and maybe hear a little more about the new opportunities.
So I took my flight, and during the flight I heard the man I was sitting next to talk to the lady he was sitting next to about Jesus. I was overhearing a little bit of their conversation, and I thought it was cool that I sat next to him. I then told him that I was a believer too, so it was really cool to talk and encourage each other. He told me that he was from Minnesota and that he was on a flight with his daughter who was around my age going to a Christian film conference because his daughter wanted to look for filming projects since she went to school for that. I thought it was cool to hear that because my younger sister also majored in film and photography and is looking for work, so I got to suggest the idea to her to maybe go to a film conference some time. The man told me about his son that was in an accident, and he said that he’s praying for healing. I said I’d pray for him too, and you can too! I believe he said his son’s name was Edward. I also told him a little bit about my World Race trip, and I told him about the time when I felt God was telling me to have our squad sing “God of this City” in Pattaya, Thailand, and that later I found out that the song was specifically written for Pattaya, Thailand, and then he told me that he had a sense that God was going to do more of those things with me in a greater level. So it was kinda a prophesy. We’ll see if that comes to pass. I thought that was really cool because I’ve never really experienced that before from someone I just met. I feel like God seems to meet me on airplanes sometimes. Anyway, that flight had a lot of turbulence, and I didn’t like it. It creeped me out! Haha. I heard though that turbulence doesn’t really affect the plane much, but still haha.
So getting into Searchlight…I went to the area where they told us to meet, and about 4 others from my squad were there including my first team leader and squad leader Nate. Most people drove straight there. My squad mates at the airport, along with people from other squads, then took about an hour and a half bus ride to Gainsville from Atlanta, and we stayed in newly-built cabins that were really close to the organization’s offices. The cabins were just one room with triple bunk beds, so the room could hold maybe around 30 people. They had outhouses and an electric generator (that was really loud) that you could turn on for electricity and to use the water for showers, but you could also walk right up to the offices that had a nice bathroom with running water and air conditioning and electricity, so I always just did that. We had worship, speaker, and a breakout session in the morning, then free time, then worship, speaker, and coaching groups in the afternoon. The first part of the week, I honestly was feeling that I wish I hadn’t came. I realized that I was really tired from my brother’s wedding and also that a lot of the people that I was closest to on the Race weren’t at Searchlight. I realized that I have been pretty on the go since I landed in America, so I think that’s another reason why I was tired. And I came by myself so I didn’t have a set group that I knew I’d hang out with, and we needed to get rides to the conference twice a day, so I always seemed to be wondering who I’d get a ride with. Also, some of the ones I was closer to that did come left Searchlight early. I also was just missing my family and home and feeling like there were things that I would like to be doing at home, and I wanted to do job applications too. Being away for those 5 days really made it clear how much I feel that God wants me to be home right now. It was just a long week for me. And I was feeling what I didn’t want to be feeling which was that I was reopening the World Race season that I had already closed. Also, the speakers were good, but nothing felt really impactful to me, and I didn’t feel very interested in the opportunities presented since I already have a vision of what I’d like to do next.
The second part of the week went better for me. One of the girls on my squad was asking me how I was liking Searchlight, and I told her that I kinda wish I hadn’t came, and then I think she told other people I had said that (maybe she didn’t), but then it seemed like so many people were coming up to me and asking me how I was doing, if I wanted to hang out, if I needed a ride, etc. So that was pretty nice. And then I realized that I love everyone on my squad and everyone loves me, so I don’t need to worry about who I hang out with. I had a lot of fun that night when some people from my squad and I went to a bowling alley. Another night, we went to our squad coach’s house and had a cookout which was really fun too. We also had a bonfire one night that was fun. It was nice to see people. It seems that most people are adjusting well if they have good family/friends/community at home, and it seems that if they don’t have that they’re are adjusting well. It’s all over the board as far as what people are going to do next from working with the World Race organization to going back to school, to being a missionary in one of the countries we went to, to working back home. Two of the speakers at the end of the week were so impactful to me. The first one was a man who has an organization in Atlanta that fights against sex trafficking. His talk was very raw, Biblical, and passionate. The second was by this man from New York, and it was about being secure in your worth and identity in Christ. It was things I’ve heard before, but it was so powerful. One of the things that he did was he pulled out a 20 dollar bill and told us that the actual paper of the bill is only worth like less than a penny, but because it has the seal that says it’s worth 20 dollars, then it’s worth 20 dollars. Then he ripped it a little and asked us how much it was worth. Still 20 dollars. Then he crumpled it up. Still worth 20 dollars. Then he stepped on it. Still worth 20 dollars. He told us that even when we’re ripped, crumpled, thrown away, stepped on, we still have the same worth and value in Christ. I feel that I’ve heard the points in his talk before, but the way he said it was very impactful. He was also funny too. I feel that his words were from the Lord because afterward we had a small worship and reflection time and I started crying. I feel that those are the times when I feel God because it doesn’t make a lot of sense as to why I’m crying. We also did a couple of cool things in our coaching groups like identifying our passions, and I went to a couple of cool new opportunity sessions that I knew I wasn’t going to do, but it was still encouraging to see their vision and passion for Christ and excellency.
My flight back home was pretty smooth, and I thought that just my parents were going to pick me up, but my brother, my sister-in-law, and my twin sister showed up as well with Tootsie Rolls which they know are my favorite, and it just highlighted me why I love my family and home so much. So overall, I think I personally would’ve been ok with not having gone to Searchlight and part of me wishes I didn’t go, but it did have some some really good parts to it, and I’m glad I went.
As far as what is next, I will still be looking for teaching jobs for the fall, and hopefully I get one soon. I also would still like to move in an apartment with my twin sister and find a community there. I’m still looking at doing a couple of get togethers where people can come hear about my trip too. Well, that’s about it! I’m planning to do one last blog in about 5-6 months which will be my final blog!
***I gave all of my videos that I took from my trip, and my younger sister made them into a video. It's fantastic, check it out!
