As I look at my bag to pack to go home, I realized something pretty crazy:
I’m going home with almost NOTHING I brought with me!
Every article of clothing, my toiletries, my shoes, nearly everything has been replaced throughout this Race, either by things breaking, ripping, or simply sending things home I didn’t need anymore. There are 6 things that have lasted the whole Race:
- Big Pack
- Hiking boots
- Stuff Sacks
- Phone Charger
- Glasses
- Jewelry
- Tags
Out of everything I started the Race with (and I started with WAY too much stuff!) this is all that survived 11 months of travel. These were all of the things that were the most important to me. I kept my big pack because it was the only way to get my stuff from one country to another! My hiking boots made it because I needed them for the Camino. My stuff sacks were how I organized my pack and kept my packed things dry. I needed my phone charger, obviously, to charge my phone, and my glasses to see. But perhaps they most special things I kept throughout the Race were sentimental pieces of jewelry I brought from home, and my supporter tags.
On every travel day, in every ministry, no matter where I was or what I was doing, I had my little pieces of home with me. Somedays when I’d need encouragement or inspiration, I would look to the encouragements you guys wrote me on those tags, and they helped me so much. They have helped me this month especially. During the whole Camino I kept them all in the hip pocket of my backpack. Luckily in all of the rain they managed to stay fairly dry! But this month, as the reality of coming home is becoming more and more real, it has been such a beautiful reminder of the incredible community I will be coming home to. After living in such close community all year, sometimes I fear that I won’t have the same connections at home as I had on the Race, but all of your encouragements remind me that I will be welcomed home with open arms, and that through this whole journey, you guys were praying for me and thinking about me.
I wish I could have posted more pictures of your tags each month and how they encouraged me, but just know that the words you spoke over me through those tags always impacted me in different ways along my journey. I hope to post a blog about a tag that represented what God taught me in each month, but for now, I just want to say a thank you to every single person who sent a tag with me, and that I felt your love all around the world through them. Thank you so much for all of the ways you have supported me. It has been such an honor serving around the world this year and God used me, my team, and my squad in mighty ways because if your love and support that took us there.
In just a few days I will be on a place home, and although this season has been beautiful and amazing, I can’t wait to see all of you again and share all of the amazing stories of what God has done this year!
