Word: Risk
This is the word I have chosen to describe these last couple days at launch.
So here I am, sitting in the Atlanta airport and my flight takes off in a few hours. My squad got back together in Atlanta starting on Saturday to do some final preparation before leaving.
So what was launch you ask? This past Saturday and Sunday was called parent launch. Family members were invited to learn a bit more about Adventures in Missions and this crazy trip I am going on. Most of the parent sessions were separate from our sessions. They learned about safety, the mission behind all of this, and heard from many alumni “racers” and “racer” parents.
On Saturday night, we had time for worship and a message. This message was focused on seeing God bigger than we can ask or imagine. Praying for big things and picking up on how Jesus “changes the protocol.” He shows up and changes things, and this year is an invitation for God to change the protocol.
On Sunday, we learned more about safety, conflict resolution on our teams, forming goals and vision for our year, how to be good guests in host homes, the definitions of the terms team, squad, team leader, squad mentor, coaches, etc, and what the world race vision is. It is… to empower the church to build the kingdom through intimacy with God, community and mission. Then we said our last goodbyes to family and headed into one more day of information sessions and final preparations. (I will save on the details of the goodbye to save myself from the tears). (PS, love you mom and dad)
Speaking of terms, I have not yet introduced you to my team. I have a team of 6 others and a squad of 27! I will be living and working with just my team each month.
Here they are, packs and all!
Makayla
Amanda
Laney
Tyler
Jeff
Hunter
Me
Team Vathos!
So you may be wondering why I titled this post risk. Well, reflecting on these past couple of days, I am realizing that this next year is risky because…
– It truly feels like jumping off of a cliff. This year will not be comfortable in any way. I will be diving into things that I have never experienced before and there is an insane amount that I do not know what I am getting into (where I will be living each month, what my schedule will be like, what I will be doing day to day… really even if we will make our connecting flight from Istanbul to Lviv… :/)
– My life has gotten tough in the last year. I am just coming off of a difficult and uncertain senior year. My heart has reached deeper levels of pain and confusion than ever before. This has pushed me to take this leap- it feels like “well…why not.” I don’t really know what I am doing with my life, and all I know is that I want to grow with God… Risky!
– But the riskiest thing these days is faith. It feels like a risk to believe in God and to follow Him. My faith didn’t use to feel like a risk, it seemed a little more certain. But today, it doesn’t feel so absolutely 100% believable anymore. I think everything is a risk and faith in Jesus is just a risk in a direction (shout out to Furman Phil department).
So this is a risk, this launch, this God, and this faith. It is not a guarantee to me these days. But my statement of faith today is that I am aware of the risk, uncertainty, and questions and I choose it anyways. I am choosing to risk my life in this direction.
Psalm 84:11
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
