Hello hello, sweet friends! It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted a blog for y’all so I figured I’d go ahead and give you a quick life update.
I’ve been home in the states for about four months now which seems so crazy! Time has gone by so fast already. Some days it feels like the race was just yesterday and other days it feels like that was a lifetime ago. Since being home, I was blessed enough to get offered my job at Dutch Bros back. Which has truly been an answered prayer to come home in the middle of a pandemic and get to work at a job I absolutely love! I’ve become really good friends with a coworker who has done the world race and squad led gap year which has been another answered prayer- – community!! A couple weeks back, I was blessed to take a trip to North Carolina and Tennessee to visit a few of my best friends from Z squad. Getting to take a trip to see my people was so refreshing! Recently, since being back home in Portland, Oregon, I’ve been working a ton to try and save up for what life will look like this fall as well as soaking up all my time here with family as I prepare to leave again in two short months!
Now you’re probably wondering well where are you going Cassi? Great question! For those of you who don’t already know, I’m very excited to announce that come September I will be Alumni team leading a gap year squad!! Which means I’M MOVING TO GEORGIA FOR THE FALL!!
A little back story for alumni leading, if you know me then you know that last year I attended Western Oregon University and had very much planned to go back this fall to continue my education. However as early as month two of my race the Lord clearly told me I wasn’t going to be going back to college this fall. At the time I didn’t know why and was in big denial because I loved my life at Western and still wanted to go back. Shortly after I found out I was the raised-up team leader for my team heading into Cambodia. Being a “leader” has always been something that terrifies me. Whenever that gets spoken over me I always tend to run from it, I never had seen myself as someone who had influence or the gift to lead others well. In Cambodia, the Lord wrecked me in this area in the best way possible. I began to see what my mentors had seen and called out in me for so long. I began to learn how to lead from a place of humility, love, and grace as well as being confident in the woman the Lord created me to be. About a month into Cambodia, so around month 5 of my race, I felt like the Lord was calling me to alumni lead. If you ask any of my friends they’d all tell you, at the time, that was the LAST thing I wanted to do. Let’s just say I was in a huge denial phase for quite some time. Luckily, we serve a God who knows my heart, my passions, and my plans better than I do.
At our midpoint debrief, I asked our mentor Kacie about this and told her it was something I’d been wrestling with. She told me that it’s okay to say yes to obey the Lord in this but if I only choose to apply and say yes to obey the Lord then I wouldn’t get as much out of it as I could. So after a lot of wrestling and prayer, I discovered what my “yes” would mean if I chose to obey what I felt the Lord asking me and apply to alumni lead. I realized my heart behind wanting to do this and that one of my biggest passions I’ve discovered in this last year is helping college-age people learn more about this Jesus guy and get to walk in true freedom. (thanks to my ministry with CRU in Costa Rica for discovering this passion!!)
SO, I got home from the race in March, applied for team leading, got accepted and the rest is history. I was placed on the exact route I prayed for and I was placed on leadership with this new squad alongside my sweet friend Nicole from my race! So we will get to do this thing together along with a group of five other alumni from this year. There’s been SO many answered prayers for this journey already!! The squad we’ve been placed to lead on is Gap D, their route was for Swaziland, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Cambodia. Although, thanks to all things corona, instead of going to Africa for the first three months we will be staying in Gainsville, Georgia. Which I’m stoked about!!
You’re probably wondering what exactly an alumni team leader is and what they do. Every gap squad gets a big leadership team made of lots of incredible people in different roles. One part of that leadership team is us Alumni Team Leaders and every team on the squad will get their own ALT. Their job is to help set the tone for the culture on the squad, to spiritually disciple their team, offer support, talk to ministry hosts, laugh, cry, and everything in between. As an alumni leader you get to just do life with the racers and that’s one of the best things ever!! Alumni leaders are there for the first three months of the Race to help support the squad leaders in helping racers start off their nine-month race. Looking back to the beginning of my race I couldn’t imagine how our squad would’ve gotten the hang of things and set the culture to build the community we had without our alumni leaders being there. My ALT, Bernadette, (the coolest gal ever! a powerhouse of a woman! steadfast after the Lord, funny, and caring) made such an impact on me personally the first three months of the race. Seriously I don’t think I would’ve survived some days without her. It’s my prayer that I will lead my team with as much grace, patience, love, humility, wisdom, and silliness as she did for us. As I type all of this I’m reminded how much goes into this whole thing and I can’t help but smile. It’s an honor to serve a God that calls me to grow in ways I would’ve never thought of and to allow me to say yes to such a big thing.
Lastly, the part I’m sure you all knew was coming- fundraising!! Originally the cost that Adventures in Missions was going to have us raise was $3,000 however since our race got cut short this year they were able to give us a credit towards our ATL goal which means I only have to raise $2,000!! Although, this won’t go towards my personal living expenses so I’m trying to fundraise as much as I can for the time being. If you feel led to donate there’s a link at the top of this blog to do so (this way is tax deductable!!) or if it’s easier you can Venmo/cashapp me or send cash/checks in the mail. More than anything, I ask that you please partner with me in prayer during this time for myself, all of Gap D racers, and leadership as we all support raise and get ready to transition into a new season! Thank you all for following me along on this journey the whole way, I can’t wait to walk into this next season with each of you by my side.
Love always,
Cass
