So… it’s a tad bit surreal. I leave tomorrow. In less than 24 hours.
Once again, I am sitting on a chair outside of a hotel laundry room in gratefulness that I will start travel with a pack of machine clean clothes.
I did this just 13 months ago. Same chair. Same hotel. And, quite possibly even staying in the same room.
I have travelled the world since then.
I held countless children, those the world calls orphans and God calls His.
I taught English, cooked, cleaned, organized and shoveled dirt.
I rode on multiple buses, slept on trains and traipsed around several airports.
I laughed and cried more times than I can know.
I rode bikes down dusty streets, bought food for street children and braided their hair.
I became friends with Tibetan monks, street cleaners and waiters.
I made faces at kiddos on travel days and shared food with fellow passengers on trains.
I painted on walls and dug for bricks so that a church could be built.
I typed emails and made phone calls.
I planned fun times for our squad, and worshiped on mountaintops.
I hiked for miles in the himalayas simply to share God’s hope.
I sat across from my friends as they spilled their hearts and what God was doing in them.
I cried with my squad mates. I laughed with them.
I spoke hard words and helped work through conflicts.
In all of these things, it was God. It was Him holding his children, laughing and crying, and making friends around the world. It was Him.
(Yep, you can go ahead and replace every I statement with He.)
Eighteen countries, thousands of miles, many good cries and heaps of love and growth experiened, I returned home to the U.S.
It was a year that God used to captivate me.
And as tired as I was… He has called me and given me strength to take part in this again.
And so I go.
Tomorrow.
I’m going on faith and trust that this is what is supposed to happen. It’s the way that God is leading. It’s been confirmed. And I trust Him.
I’ve spent the past week in training, getting to know my co-leaders and squad mentor.
And when my squad began arriving on Friday and I hugged people that God gave me at training camp in July, I realized that a feeling of coming home was forming.
And also how humbled I am to think that I have been entrusted with so much.
I am humbled as I think back on all that God has done in the past year. And blown away by the knowledge that I get to be a part of more.
More children.
More street cleaners.
More braids in little girls’ hair.
More hard words, both given and received.
More painting and buses and celebrations and laughter and trains and phone calls and tears and opportunities to watch and see what He is doing.
More watching people walk into His freedom.
But I need your help.
I currently have $455 in my support account.
I need that number to reach $6500.
$3500 covers my time on the field with my people for five months.
We leave tomorrow for Haiti and after that I’ll do life with J squad (#WWJsquaD) in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Malawi.
I need this in my account by November 15th.
The rest ($3000) gets me back out onto the field for their debriefs after month 8 and month 11. It’s a time to pour into the often tired and weary Racers. It’s a time to remind them of the Kingdom work God is doing in and through them. And it’s a time to help them see just how much change He has done in them in their time away from home.
It’s important.
I want to be with J squad for all of it.
If you are able, please pray and consider clicking on the tab on the left. I can’t do this without you.
