It is time to start wrapping up. This journey is coming to an end.
During our last few days in Guatemala, K Squad got together with Gap Year I Squad for what’s called The Awakening. The Awakening is a time for squads to get together, worship and be encouraged by each other. This is a time for us (both squads are finishing up our last month on the field) to feel refreshed and finish well. Worship was amazing, I stepped out on of the two days to dance and felt such amazing freedom and the presence of the Lord. It honestly felt like training camp all over again, coming together with another squad and worshipping and praising God for His goodness and getting filled with the Word. It also made reality of this being close to the end of the race that much more…real. There were a few speakers who came up to share the Word, encourage us, love us, and pump us up for what God has in store next! One of those speakers is a pastor from Texas who is now pastoring a church in Antigua, Guatemala and he’s pretty down to earth and real! I love it! He shared his story and about why he and his wife moved to Guatemala, encouraged with the Yes we made to go on this journey, and he hit the realness of what reentry back into the states looks like. I love how he states “Life is good” with a follow up comment of, “but God places a discontent on our hearts”. So, what this means is that when we were in the states and living life, and life being good, God placed a heaviness on our hearts for something MORE. For us, that something more was Him calling us to go overseas. Specifically in this season it was for 11 months with the World Race. On this journey together, it looked so different for each of us. Our calling though is to Him – a deeper relationship!
I lived life in 11 different countries, three different continents. I learned many different ways of living from the local people, languages that were so difficult to catch on to, cultural food and how to wash clothes, how to bucket shower and live with no flushable toilets, or just no toilets at all (sometimes those are called squatty potties). Let’s just say I’ve learned a lot of physical ways of doing things, this list is huge! More importantly, I’ve learned what community living looks like. I’ve learned how that looks with the different people on my squad, all of us being from the states, and even more closely what that looks like with my teams. I’ve learned that we are all leaders, and “leaders are learners” (Pastor Andrew, Shoreline Church). I’ve learned what truly walking into humility looks like, and I’m still learning that!
Since being out on the field, things at home have changed! The end of last year my brother Josiah got engaged to his beautiful fiancé. My mother came for PVT (Parent Vision Trip) in Thailand in February and we had an amazing time together, and I truly believe she had an amazing experience. Also, it was so great to see her in person after so many months being away from home! The day she returned home, she got engaged. In March, it was time for my dog of 11 years to go and my brother was able to be there right beside him. I turned 30 on the race and had an amazing time with my team, they loved me so well.
Since being out on the field, things in me have changed! I’m more in love with Jesus and I freely express that love all around me. I love being with people, especially my teams I live life with each month. I have confidence in who I am in Christ in a way that potentially going to school at 30 years old doesn’t scare me so much anymore. Living more independently but so much dependent in Christ is such a natural feeling, I feel strong. I finished out Month 10 with a tattoo that I know describes myself so well, it shows who I am in Christ in a way that had to take time to grow and burst out!
There is a lot of transition that has to happen when I get back to the states, it’s a little scary but even more exciting! Two days after I’m stateside I will be standing beside my mother as she gives her vows to a man she is so in love with. In that same moment, I will gain a new father. This is a man I know loves and fears God and will love my mother so well, the way she always deserved.
Love takes on a more clear meaning to me. How I love God, others, and myself. I will forever stand for my faith in Christ and my desire to do His work and live in obedience.
“Be alert, stand firm in the faith, act like a man, be strong. Your every action must be done with love.”
1 Corinthians 16:13-14
“Boldness in mission comes from believing the promise that Jesus attached to it.”
-Pastor JD Greear
