This all seems surreal. In 8 days I will be driving down to Georgia to prepare for launch. In 13 days I will be boarding a plane for Africa. To be honest I’m not sure that I’m completely ready. My family keeps asking if I’m excited & all I can think is, “well, yes-ish.” I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling except through a story:
When Despicable Me came out I was super pumped to see it. The trailers were hilarious & I fully expected to laugh my butt off the entire movie. I waited a while to go see it so I also heard all of the reviews, every one of them confirmed how great the movie was. Finally I went to see it with my sister at least a month after it was released & was thoroughly unimpressed. It wasn’t bad, but it fell short of my expectations.
That’s how I feel about the World Race. I guess I don’t want to get too excited too soon, because what if it doesn’t meet the hype in my head? Maybe that’s silly. I expect that this journey will bring some rad “mountain top” experiences; inevitably this next year will also bring brokenness & pain. My first reaction to brokenness is to flee, but I hope that this journey will help me press into it, allowing me to grow & draw closer to God.
No matter how I feel at this very moment I know that God called me to this race. If all the secret expectations that I have are unmet I will rest in knowing I was faithful to him. That’s more than enough for me.
God has done something pretty awesome recently…As you may know, I am FULLY FUNDED! Which means there are a million thankyous!
To those who helped me stay sane as I wrestled with God over this call, who prayed over me, and encouraged me; thank you for encouraging me to stay faithful even when it scared me.
To my family & friends who graciously put up with me while I fundraised and who even helped me execute or organize fundraisers; you have given me a gift beyond measure! Thank you for giving of your time and energy, for fervently praying, and for bringing my focus back to God as I attempted to raise what I deemed a near impossible amount.
To my numerous supporters, both one time and monthly donors; thank you for believing in me!!! Thank you for investing your hard earned money into my journey and making it possible. I have been so immensely blessed by my community, friends, and family. I promise that I will do my very best to be a gracious steward wherever God takes me this next year.
Lastly, this new journey is approaching way faster than I had expected. Maybe having my last day of work so close to leaving wasn’t a good idea. Perhaps it would have been wiser to give myself some time to process the ginormous change; training camp was immensely helpful in that area, but then you’re back home and you have to get back into the normal groove (which took me two weeks to be honest).
In the rush of last minute details it seems that the proper goodbyes are being rushed and I’m finding my emotions have not quite caught up to reality. I want to let you know that I will miss everyone from back home. Waking up when I get home from vacation and not going into work Monday morning will be extremely bittersweet. I am so thankful for my time at Central Penn College. My co-workers were all absolutely amazing and my boss was truly one of a kind; I hope that I am lucky enough to work for someone as caring and understanding as her again.
It will also be odd not to have constant contact with my friends this coming year. My friends are fabulous! One of my favorite things about them is that we don’t have to do anything super special (or expensive) to have fun & quality time together. I love their down to earth-ness, support, generosity, and overall love of diving into the nitty gritty of life with those around them. I will miss doing the 2017 Color Run, our Girls Nights, and unplanned get-togethers where we simply hang out, talk, & maybe “shop” for big-ticket appliances (dreaming of the magnificent homes we will one day own…we’re so odd).
And of course I know that I will miss my wonderful family! God seriously put together an all start family for me; I couldn’t be more thankful for their undying love and encouragement. I love their kookiness & big hearts. I will miss their cooking!! I will (oddly) miss sleeping on the couch because all of the beds, couches, and feather mattresses are taken. I will miss the cousin bonding while playing board games and sitting around chatting. The holidays will undoubtedly be difficult without the familiar faces around.
This year has gone too fast, I’ll bet the next one will be gone in the blink of an eye too. Please keep me & my team in your prayers. Pray that we walk boldly and confidently in our awesome God. Pray that we speak truth and love into the lives of those we encounter.
Ready or not, World, here I come!
