I have sat in the internet café doing anything I can do
avoid writing a blog but alas, I cannot run any more. I’ve tried to sit down
and write about what we have done and what we have seen but when I do that I
feel like it is half-hearted. I don’t like writing half-hearted blogs. I would much rather say what is on my
heart, I would much rather this be a place of honesty and something that is raw
and authentic. So I apologize ahead of time if it’s not well rounded, to get a
more complete perspective of our time on the race please refer to my beautiful teammates
blogs:
emilymoss.theworldrace.org
logankaynes.theworldrace.org
lilimejia.theworldrace.org
cierraburchfield.theworldrace.org
rachelleuribe.theworldrace.ore
brittanycox.theworldrace.org
So here we are, a little over a week into this 11 month
adventure. It’s strange that this life feels so normal to me. I guess we will
see how normal it feels once we start moving from country to country. I’m so
used to being stationary. I feel
like the Lord has granted me a lot of peace in being here, on the world race,
with this team. I feel like I shouldn’t have as much peace as I do but I am
learning to settle into it.
I have already been so blessed by these people. We have
amazing squad leaders and a beautiful community of leaders, and my team L’Chaim
is wonderful. I could brag on these people all day long. I look forward to what
God is going to do in and through all of us. It’s a blessing to be here with
such beautiful people. And can I just say, I love living in community? I mean,
we are still easing into it, but it just feels like this is the way the church
should be. We live life together, share our hearts with one another, and it is
beautiful. I’ve missed that. Living with community seems to wreck me for all
else. I love it. I love being surrounded by people. I love growing alongside
people. I love being challenged and being loved by a body of believers that are
so different yet so rooted in the most important thing in life. It’s
refreshing.
For our first week here we haven’t had much ministry set up
for us. Starting Monday we will be working with our amazing YWAM ministry
contacts. We are going to help run a youth camp so we are excited about the
weeks ahead. This past week we have had to fill our time, our second day here
we were blessed to meet an amazing woman named Masha. When we met her she
dropped what she was doing and gave us a tour of the cirty. She has a beautiful
heart and we all fell in love with her right away. There will be a blog
dedicated to this amazing woman of God in the future… there’s just too much I
could say about her. We have seen her everyday since being here and she has
blessed us more than she will ever know. Being in a country where the language
barrier is HUGE she has been so helpful and considerate in getting us
acclimated to the culture. She’s wonderful. We have also been able to have some good time of community
which is a good way to start off this adventure so its been a blessing.
I know I promised several of you at home that I would try to
get better at this whole blogging
thing and I am going to try and honor that. So be expecting some more (and
hopefully better) blogs. Its just so hard to put all of it into words! But I
will try… =)
I love you guys. Please keep our team in your prayers. Pray
that we would be a community that is deeply rooted in Christ. Pray that we
would be a people of healing, life, hope, grace and love. Pray over YWAM Lutsk
and the kids camp that is coming up, that lives would be forever changed by the
love of Jesus and that hope would permeate the hopeless.
