This is it. I flew out and started my journey today. There were many tears shed and when I say many I mean enough to make the guy next to me on the plane look over at me in a concerned/scared way because I was sobbing on the plane while holding my Stitch pillow pet and looking out the window!
As I write this, I am in the Seattle airport during my 2 hour layover before I board a flight to get on a plane to Dallas. I just really wanted to update people on some information about my trip and just a few ways you can be praying for me as I travel to training camp to meet my team members!
The past week has been incredible. I got to make some lasting memories with friends I may not get to see for a while, go to Calvary Camp at Echo Ranch, get baptized, say farewells and goodbyes, and cry a whole bunch!! I will be honest, I didn’t think I would be so emotional about leaving until it hit me that I wasn’t coming back for a while. I realized I wouldn’t get to hug my dog Harley, play Bang or Secret Hitler with my friends, go sit at Lena to decompress, or hang out with my family and laugh at my sisters saying dumb things (@chloe because I NEVER say anything silly!). And I realized that I didn’t really know what I was coming back to and that I knew some of my friends, Luke and Cole and Madison, wouldn’t be here when I come back and that made me really sad. With that being said, I thank God for the week He gave me. I thank God for the summer He gave me. He blessed me with amazing memories to hold onto and with friends and family. The Lord knew though that such a great summer and so much pouring into me would make it hard to leave the place where I became me.
With all that being said, I am pumped as heck for training camp and know that it will be amazing. I am ready to meet the people I have been texting with and set out on this adventure. We still do not know which city we will be going to in Nicaragua (either Palacaguina or Ometepe Island) and we do not know which ministry we are working with in Panama, but I know that where ever God places me, He will use me!
If you make it this far, thank you!! I did write this while I was quite emotional so if I don’t always make sense, thats why! Anyways, please pray that I may have safe travels (I HATE flying!!), training camp is a success, and I don’t get too homesick. I have never been away from Juneau for so long and it broke my heart a little when I while it grew smaller in the window! I think that it will just take a day or so, but it will be rough as heck!
Thank you for all the prayers and the love people have shown me. I would not be going on this trip without the fundraising obviously, but the emotional and spiritual support was what really got me onto that airplane so thank you everyone. I can not put it into words how grateful I am to have such amazing people to back me up.
