I got a letter at launch that said “open when you hit the 6 month mark”. I chuckled. I knew I would never make it to the 6 month mark. I left home with people telling me that I could do it and they were so proud of me. i also left with people telling me that I could never be away from my family + friends for that long and that there was no way i could do it. I was convinced they were right when telling me i couldn’t do it but I came on the race anyway. I told myself that if I came home early it would still be a success for the Kingdom.
Here we are. It’s month 6. I’m still on the race with no thoughts of going home. Actually the thought of going home in a little over 3 months makes me so sad. I never want to leave the community that I have here. I never want to leave my team. I never want to leave my squad leaders with all the wisdom, insight and love they give.
The journey to get where i’m at has been hard. really hard. I’ve spent a lot of days crying. I’ve experienced loss, heartbreak, and many days of just wanting to be home and not on the race for day more but those days have made me stronger and have helped me persevere. The Lord spoke the word “persevere’ over me when we got to Guatemala because He knew what I would need. He knew that my dog was going to pass away, He knew that i would lose a relationship that I held onto so dearly, He knew that there would be really hard days here but He told me from the start that I needed to persevere.
The people who told me that I would miss my friends and family were so right, but they were wrong in saying I couldn’t do this. Im in Guatemala, month 6, about to leave fro Cambodia— I never thought I would get there.
Well, now that we’re at the 6 month mark, it is time to think *seriously* about what I am going to do when I get home. So many ideas have gone through my head: CGA (a discipleship program in Georgia at AIM), alumni team leading for a squad launching in September, going home to work and take one more year off school, doing Liberty online classes while going to work, or move to Lynchburg, Virginia to go to Liberty University, or to come back to Guatemala and intern at Morning Glory in San Raimundo and my last option is to come back to Guatemala to intern at a school. I have so many options but if none of these are what the Lord has for me then I won’t do any of them. (If you want to partner in prayer with me, pray that the Lord would make my post-race decision clear and that it would glorify Him)
Thank you so much to everyone who has encouraged me, who has helped me financially, and who wrote me letters to open on the race. I appreciate my supporters more than I could ever explain in words. Im here. I don’t want to come home- like ever. Because I didn’t give up I now have 5 more amazing sisters (s/o to team hope!!!) and 35 more brothers and sisters that are now a part of my family.
“I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength.” Philippeans 4:13
