Hey yall. Due to the Corona Virus, my team and I have been pulled off of the field. We were nearly a month into Costa Rica, with two to go, but the World Race decided to bring all of their missionaries home. I’m sure this was an extremely hard decision to make and I’m sure you can understand why they made it but here are our two biggest reasons for leaving; The first was that country’s borders were closing and we were not sure how long we would have been stuck there. And the second is that since we were foreigners in Costa Rica and there were a bunch of us, we did not want to take health care from the locals who needed it if we were to get sick.
We spent 7 of the 9 months in 4 different countries but a third of the way into our last country, the Lord decided to bring us home. When we heard the news that the boarders were closing we had to get out fast so about 3 days after we learned that we would not be finishing the race, we were landing in Atlanta. 4 more days and I was thrust back into my home and torn away from all 40 of my best friends. As you can imagine, I am crushed and still trying to make sense of it all. Two things that I realized when I got home was that the America I was coming home to was not the same as when I left, and that I was am a totally different person now than I was before I left. We had a connecting flight in Florida and the plane ride there was through the night so I tried my best to get some sleep. I was in one of those (half asleep can’t really sleep on planes stupor) and I looked out the window with blurry eyes to see the ocean ending and America beginning. That’s when it hit me that I was back in America and all I could do was cry. I was crying because I was leaving my amazing team, my ministry in Costa Rica, the awesome guidance and wisdom of my leaders, the best community I have ever had, and I was leaving my passion and the type of lifestyle I love. I was crying because I had no Godly community to go back to and I was going to be in a country that is currently dominated by fear. I was crying because American culture is something that I loved living without because instead of having an abundance of things, we had little which made us desire the Lord even more but now I am living with so many pleasures that can distract me from his love. And I was crying because the person I have been in America was not the person I wanted to be. God totally shook my world while I was gone and because I changed so much overseas I just couldn’t envision myself being a Godly person when I was back in Texas.
But even though this is a rough time and life may be a little unsteady now, I’m going to trust the Lord because he is always constant. The coronavirus did not surprise God and the coronavirus is not ruling the world. God is in total control and he has not forgotten me. He knows exactly how I am feeling and he has an amazing plan for bringing me home early. All of World Race, Global Expedition, YWAM, and countless other mission organizations have brought their missionaries home so thousands of us are flooding into America right now and that is exactly what God wanted. He decided that he wanted all of his servents home this week for a reason I do not know but I can rest easy in knowing that what he has for my squad and I is better than what we could have gotten in our last 2 months of Costa Rica. It is so evident that God is on the move right now so we should all be ready for what he has in store.
And please don’t, live in fear of the coronavirus. Everybody talks about it all the time because its powerful and scary but God is SO much more powerful, SO much more interesting, and SO MUCH MORE DESERVING OF OUR ATTENTION. yall! God is SO good and he knows exactly what he is doing. If you have read this far, thank you, and please take a second to pray for me, all the other missionaries who were brought home, for mercy on our earth from this disease, and for a revival in America. Know that I will be ok because I have decided that I am going to trust the Lord for the rest of my life and he will not let me down. God moved me in amazing ways on this trip and he is not even close to being done with me. My heart still begs to be on the mission field so pray that God will speak into my future and that he will tell me what to do and where to go. And if you were one of the faithful servants who blessed me financially to go on this trip, I would just like to say thank you and that there was so much fruit from your donation. God used me on this trip, and he changed me in ways I can’t even explain.
