Hey everyone! It has been a long time since I have written and it has been an incredible journey that I can hardly explain in words and there will be a time for that but right now I need to update y’all on where I am now.
Long story short, I am home.
Adventures in Missions has decided to pull all active missionaries from the field because of the corona virus. The decision was made very rapidly because the virus has spread so quickly and Adventures in Missions did not want us to get stuck in Romania. The wave of emotions this past week has been indescribable. I was going back home, Mama’s hugs, Dad’s talks, brothers fights, and to the great state of Colorado. Something I wasn’t prepared for at least another 3.5 months. Let alone deciding what I want to do with my life or how to handle shopping centers of home, those smells of home, seeing Manual high school or driving around Boulder.
Realizing that and then mourning the loss of the W Squad. This squad took a prideful, lost, young, emotional hurricane and turned into a man that is rooted in the foundations of Christ. I can’t even begin to start to express the memories with this squad. All the fun, all the tears, all the God moments, all the times without toilet paper, all the times of traveling in bodos or taxis or planes or trains, all the moments of seeing hippos in Kenya, eating endless avocados in Ethiopia, wrestling sheep in Mongolia, hiking mountains in Kazakhstan, eating choco bananas in Romania, making paper beads in Uganda, and worshiping the Lord at the top of our lungs are only the beginning of 8 months of memories with this squad.
Another memory I can reflect back to is when one squad got up and was speaking on Noah’s ark. The idea was that the storm came and the only thing that survived was Noah’s ark and when we go back home it’s going to be a storm and how do we build our ark to not fall apart to the ways that we were before the race. Little did we know that our ark would be sent into the storm 3.5 months before we thought.
As I read Noah’s ark story this morning I realize that there is so much about that story that can reflect to what we are going through as a squad but also as the world as a whole. I feel the storm of home and how it came so suddenly. My ark is being tested against the storm. The storm of home and the virus. It’s a good thing I built my ark on truths like “You are so deeply loved.” September 10th. “You are not alone.” October 1. “I am worthy.” December 9th. “You are the same God that made the heavens and the Earth.” February 4th. These are some quotes from my journals over the race about what God was working me through at that time.
As I read the text I realize that when the storm was passing God “sent a wind over the Earth, and the waters receded.” Genesis 8:1-NIV. The word in Hebrew for wind can also be translated to breath or spirit. Wind, breathe, and spirit can all be descriptions of the attributes of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lowered the waters and calmed the storm. Right now I may be in a storm but I know that the Holy Spirit will calm the storm and let the waters recede.
As I lean more and more into the spirit and look at what God could bring to my life I rest in peace about what He is doing. I feel him inside me speaking to me and to my heart calling me deeper. I was reading James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
God right now is testing my faith. He is testing if I am going to choose him over the world that I left when I went on the race. The world I left behind before I was making my ark. I have come back to America and it is easy to start to worry about what I am going to do when I am home,do I get a truck? Do I go buy a 12 pack of beer? Do I go party? Do I go buy new clothes? Do I go buy a pack of cigarettes? The list is endless because everything is available to us here in the USA.
What I cling to is that nothing in this world will ever satisfy. I think about Matthew 6. If we focus on God first then all these things will be given to you. My prayer is that I first seek the Lord and the rest will fall into place.
So there you have it. A short part of everything that is going on in my mind. I noticed I haven’t posted nearly enough photos of the race so I will be doing that and also posting blogs of the people of the race. I want to show how many people impacted me on the race and so that you can be informed of the race journey and here some incredible stories of how God is working all over the world.
Love y’all!
