One year ago, I was sitting at my desk when I heard my roommate playing a video from her room across the way. It sounded like a movie almost, with people talking of adventure, a kingdom journey, and changing the world. Intrigued, I mozied my way on over to her bed and sat down with her as she went through exciting video after video of this lengthly, crazy, mission trip that she found quite honestly by typing into google, "Long-term mission trips". We became infatuated with the idea of this trip, that it was real, and could potentially be our future. For the next two or three weeks it was all we could talk about. We researched all of the crazy adventures, life changing mission work, and awesome people that had gone on the race. We began to fantasize about what materials we would need and what our lives would look like if we actually went on this crazy trip across the world for eleven months. The timeline of our conversation for about a month went a little something like this…
"What an insane idea that is!'
"What if we actually did it?"
"Are you applying?"
"I have an interview!"
"I got accepted!"
"…So are you going?"
And I did.
I did that crazy thing; I trusted God, and I am here, at day two of the world race. There is no turning back now. I am officially a missionary without a home, with only $3 for food a day, and traveling by the cheapest means of transportation from one third-world country to the next. I am doing this crazy thing because The Lord has put it on my heart to find that orphan and tell them they have a Father that loves them. To find the woman trapped in sex slavery and let her know there is life and hope found in Jesus. To find the man who has been trapped and chained by his sins to let him know there is a path to freedom, that no matter what, he is accepted, and he is loved by God.
While I have been preparing for this trip and talking about it for so long, it is still hard to believe that the time is now. I left home Monday to come up to Washington D.C. for some more training and preparation until we officially leave the country on Friday to go to our first location, Honduras. We found out today that we will all be together as a squad, (as opposed to splitting up into our teams of 7) for the whole mission in January. As far as what our mission will be exactly, that is still unknown to us. More deetz to come later, but just wanted to give a quick update since we will not have access to our phones or computers until Friday morning!
As with all things world race, we are expected to have no expectations. Holding true to that, there was a big change in our squad the first night we got to Launch. Due to the unfortunate number of people that can no longer go on the race, it was necessary to do some team rearranging for the better health of the squad. We had to split up and disperse one of the smallest teams to make other teams larger, and stronger in number. Sadly, that team was my team AROMA. While it breaks my heart to leave my girls, we have to trust in God that this is His plan and be accepting of the new opportunity He has given us. That being said, I now am apart of team G.P.S. which stands for God's Powerful Servants. It is a fantastic team with many diverse and unique personalities. I can already tell that we are going to have a blast and I am filled with joy and peace to be apart of this new group of people.
If ya have time, please say a little prayer for our squad's safety and strength as we head out in a few short days to Honduras and (officially) begin the world race!
Thank you again to all my supporters! I would not be here right now if it weren't for your help!
