Hi everyone!
Today is the day that my squad and I leave the United States to begin the World Race. We’re flying out of Orlando tonight at 11:50 and we’ll land in Paris tomorrow around 1:00 pm local time.
For the last week we’ve been at launch, the last prep-time before the Race begins. We talked more about the topics we learned at training camp, including the World Race core values of intimacy with God, community with each other, and the mission to reach the lost for Christ.
My squad also spent time forming our own small teams that we will spend the year with. There will be points throughout the year that we come back together as a squad, but for the most part, this small team will be the people I spend my Race with. My team is Eli, Kiana, Ross, Emily, and Bradley. We also have an alumni World Racer, Patrick, who will be our team leader for the first 5 months of the Race, and after that one of us will become the team leader. I couldn’t be happier to be a part of this team and to see how God will use us! I’ll introduce my team to you more in some future blogs, but for now just know that they are amazing people, super fun, in love with Jesus, and ready to take the Gospel to the nations! 🙂
So, most of you do not know that my route has been changed! At training camp we found out that we are going to 14 countries! Right now our countries are France, Spain, Morocco, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Lebanon, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and China!
We’ll be in Paris for about 3-4 weeks. Our main ministry there will be in the refugee camps. In our trainings we learned that although there are several NGO’s who provide resources to the refugees, but by and large the refugees are shocked when someone comes into the camp just to visit them. They apparently have lost a bit of their humanity. Our squad’s ministry this month is to their hearts. We hope to restore a piece of what has been lost through their plight. We want to look them in the eyes to SEE and KNOW them, to recognize them as human beings rather than statistics. We will also have the awesome tool of Google Translate to help us communicate. You can speak to your phone, and it translates instantly and speaks back out in their language, even without wi-fi. It’s amazing how far technology has come. We will spend time building relationships which will open doors to sharing the Gospel. We may not be able to provide them with resources, but we can be there amongst them and hopefully they will receive the one thing the truly need, salvation!
We will also spend time on Paris looking for “people of peace”, either Christians or people who welcome us and are receptive to us and who would be willing to help us build connections in the area. These people of peace could be potential hosts for future World Racers, and will also help us to have more of an understanding of the challenges to the Gospel in the area.
In Paris we may also have the opportunity to minister at gypsy camps, which I am excited about. Apparently there’s a lot of music at these places, and I hope that God will use my guitar and music to plant seeds and open doors for conversation.
Y’all, I have SO many things I could write about, from saying goodbyes to friends and family, to the last week I’ve spent at launch preparing to leave. But it’s been such a great/busy/fun/exhausting time getting ready to leave, it’s been hard to process everything anyway. I’ll share some of that with you in the near future.
I can’t wait to arrive in Paris tomorrow and begin this next 11 months and see how God will move in the hearts of people around the world. Thank you all for praying and keeping me in your thoughts!
Can you please pray for my squad that we would arrive and hit the ground running, full of energy, and please pray for the refugees that we will be talking with. Thank you!
With love,
Elaine
