On July 8, 2012, after a 5-hour plane ride and our first overseas night in a Nicaraguan hostel, my squad and I arrived at Zion's Gate Ministries where we would spend the first month of our World Race experience just outside of the capitol city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We arrived with great anticipation and eagerness. After Training Camp and Launch we felt, collectively and individually, like we were adequately prepared for what was to come. Pretty soon after getting settled in, at least for me, the reality of what was to come began to set in. The commitment that I had made to 11 months on the mission field and the gravity of not seeing the United States or anything remotely American during this time began stir in me. At times, it didn't bother me too much but at others it was very unsettling. It was hard to believe that I still had 10 more months of traveling, ministering, and learning languages and culture to do. I even wondered if I had made the right decision to begin with. Now it is May, the final month of my journey, and in just a few short weeks I will be back in America with all of the comforts and conveniences that I have missed over the last 11 months. Yet I find myself struggling with a sense of disappointment and wondering where all of the time went and if I truly took advantage of it and gave everything that I had in every moment. I look at all of the things that God has done my life and I wonder if these same kind of experiences will be waiting for me at home or if this was just an excuse to attempt to start over.
Over the course of The World Race I have gotten used to change. Whether it is a new team, new leaders, new countries or new ministry contacts, change has been something that has been fairly constant during this trip. Each time it has been pretty easy to deal with but this time is different. This time the transition isn't within the Race, it's outside of it. Because it was so easy for me transition to life on the Race transitioning to life off of the Race is something that I may not have adequately prepared myself for. I thought it would be something that would be just as easy but it turns out that it's not. My team and my squad have developed such a sense of family that I'm not sure what life will look like without it and it scares me but I am resting on the fact that God is with me. He led me in to and through this season of my life and he will do the same in the next.
