It is literally crazy that I am where I am right now. Absolutely crazy. A year ago, I was in the middle of training camp in Georgia, and I was preparing for what was one of the most anticipated adventures of my entire life. I knew that the next year would hold so many amazing things for me, but looking back, I had no idea that it would have been THIS amazing. With less than two weeks left until I step foot onto American soil, I’m finding myself scrambling somewhere between trying to live every second of every day that’s left on the race, and trying to understand everything that’s happened in the last eleven months, and it is SO HARD.
How do you sum up a year on a piece of paper. How do you explain to someone how drastic the changes are that have happened inside of you during the last eleven months, and even more than that, the things that happened that caused those changes. My personality is different, my outlook on life is so different than this time last year, I have completely changed. How do you explain that to someone.
Coming home is scary, maybe even scarier than leaving for the race. America is like a whole new world, and I have no idea what the next few months are going to look like, but I’m excited for them. I’m already grieving the race, but I’m excited for the next step in my crazy adventure.
A few tips for my homecoming:
I’m excited to come home and see each and every one of you, but I will be in mourning for the community aspect of the race that will no longer be present in my life. I know that that’s something that is hard to comprehend having not being present this year, but please know that while I’m excited to get back home, a huge part of my heart will be left with the people I’ve met and the places I’ve been this year.
I want to know about what happened in your life in the last year. I want to know DETAILS. I’m not going to ask you ‘how was your year?’ because I don’t want you to tell me ‘It was good.’ I’m going to ask you specific questions and expect specific answers and that is what I am hoping for in return. I want to tell you about the way I felt when I hand fed the pb&j to the dirty homeless 5 year old on the streets of Cambodia’s capitol, and I want to tell you about how much fun it was to play with full grown tigers on a day off in Thailand. I don’t want you to ask me ‘how was your year?’ because I don’t want to have to say back to you ‘It was good.’ I don’t want to cheat you out of the chance to hear my stories, and I don’t want to be cheated out of the chance to hear yours. So, think of some questions. What do you want to know about my year? What things interest you? And know that while you’re think of questions to ask me, I’m doing the same for you.
Lastly, I have grown in ways that I still can’t even comprehend myself. God has reveled things to me in the past 11 months that have changed the way that I will live every day for the rest of my life. I have a ton of incredibly exciting plans already in the works that will take me through the rest of my life. I am insanely excited about the way that God is going to use me to further the kingdom, and I want everyone to come alongside of me in this venture. The race is not a one year experience that I did for fun and now I come home and life goes back to normal. The race is about SO much more than that. The race is about setting me up for the rest of my life in ministry, and I am lucky enough to have been given that opportunity to pursue ministry as a way of life. There will be a blog coming soon about the specifics of the crazy adventure that God has lined up for me next, but for now, please be prayerful in how you can continue to come alongside me in this, because it’s going to be amazing and I would love nothing more than for everyone I love to be involved in some way.
I can’t thank you enough for being a part the incredible support system that I have had since singing up for this thing. I am truly blessed to have all of you in my life to share these experiences with me!
