But if you’re a details person, this post is for you!
Guess what! I finally have some information for you. Actual details about my trip. Many of you have been asking, “When do you leave? Where do you go? Who will you be working with? How will you get there?" Etc etc etc.
Well. I have some answers. Not all the answers, but some.
When do you leave, you ask?
My official launch date is October 7, 2011. (Yes, we call it launch. It makes me feel like an astronaut).
From where do you depart, you ask?
(Please note the proper grammar) We leave from Los Angeles, California. I’m so excited to be in California for the first time ever! My sweet Uncle Jeff, who works for Delta, provided the plane ticket for me to get from Chattanooga to L.A. THANK YOU UNCLE JEFF!!
Where do you go first, you ask?
We fly from L.A. to Guatemala City, Guatemalafirst. From there we will take a bus to Antigua, Guatemala, where we will spend a few days completing our training. When our training is complete, our teams will disperse to our individual ministry contacts within the country. My team will be traveling by bus to a city called Chimaltenango, Guatemala,where we will spend our first month of the Race.Chimaltenango is an indigenous, Mayan town of about 100,000 located in the plains of western Guatemala.
Guatemala is directly south of Mexico. Guatemala City is the capital of Guatemala, and Antigua is just 14.47 miles southwest of Guatemala City. Chimaltenango is just 9.24 miles west of Antigua.
With whom will you be traveling, you ask?
So that you are familiar with the World Race lingo, I am on a squad of about 50 awesome people. We are from all over the U.S. (I’m the lone Tennessean!), ranging in age from 20-31, and we are all pretty darn fired-up to change the world together. I will travel from country to country with my squad, and we will come back together at the end of each month to debrief about our experiences.
Within my squad, there are about 8 teams. Teams are made up of 6-7 men and women, and we will be with our teams at ALL times (Don’t worry, Mom, we are never allowed to travel anywhere alone). Once we arrive in each country, we will break off into our teams and travel to our different ministry sites. I am on Team ZOI, I will tell you all about them later! We are blessed to be able to partner with another team, Team Spicy Mustardduring our first month in Chimaltenango.
What will you be doing in each country, you ask?
While I don’t know specifically what I’ll be doing in all 11 countries (because plans are subject to change, we are generally told the details as we go along), I DO know what I’ll be doing in Guatemala! For my first month of the World Race, I will be working for a ministry called Los Gozosos. Los Gozosos means “Joy-Filled Homes” in Spanish. It is a non-profit, missionary-operated home and Christian school for orphaned children with special needs. Los Gozosos was founded in 2007 and is one of only 15 homes in all of Guatemala for disabled children. There are thousands of orphanages in Guatemala, but only a few will take in children with special needs. Most of these children are rejected by homes and schools because of their disabilities and ridicule by the other students. Often, children with special needs are hidden at home, even left alone and tied to a bed so the mother can go out to work.
The goal of Los Gozosos is for each disabled child to reach his or her full potential. I am so excited to see how God will use me this month to contribute to the lives of his children here. It is such a blessing that many of the special needs these children will have, including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, hearing or vision deficits, etc, are needs I am quite familiar with because of my career in speech-pathology. Maybe I will even be able to use some of my therapy skills 🙂
Please be in prayer for these children and our time in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Please pray for safety as we travel. Please pray for the Lord to prepare my heart and the hearts of my teammates as we embark on this incredible journey in just 3 weeks! Thank you all for everything. If you have any more questions, feel free to comment!! More info to come!
