I had the best welcome home committee.
It is so surreal to say but I AM HOME! After 11 months of this wild adventure, incredible community, and powerful encounters with the Lord, I am back on US Soil in Franklin, TN. I have been back from The World Race for about a month now. Sorry it has taken so long to update everyone on everything and with where I am at.
There have been moments since I have been home where I feel like I was just in a dream and never really gone, but also reflecting on what really just happened. This is where major processing and sitting with the Lord has become a norm for me throughout the day.
Home is a term that I have used to describe every single place I’ve rested my head this past year; which was too many to count. Home to me is wherever I am because home isn’t about stuff or even a location. Home is where love resides, memories are created, and laughter with sweet friends and family. Home is a feeling of having peace in the Lord.
I feel so many emotions and it feels so surreal that I really don’t have words. People ask “how was your trip?” I respond, “it was amazing and the hardest most fantastic year of my life.” But there is so much more to it. It’s a long one that I can’t fully express into words.” I can share about the many tears shed with each goodbye, each conversation, each challenge, each feeling of the Lord peeling back walls I had put up and truly letting Him love me. I can share about the radical prayers we prayed and how the Lord came through in bigger ways than we could have imagined. I could talk about the times I cried in my teammates arms and wanted to quit and just go back to my life in the USA. (But I’m so glad I didn’t quit ;)) I could talk about the odd foods we ate, the many hours spent in transit on planes, trains, automobiles, and boats. I could talk about all of the wild adventures camping in Chile, hiking mountains in China, and exploring red dirt roads that people live on. I could share deep stories of heart connections with people the Lord allowed me to meet in places where we don’t even speak the same language. This life is WILD and I feel so honored that the Lord opened my eyes more and led me here.
It’s beautiful to realize no matter what happens these next few months, that my confidence lies in the Lord and in Him alone and that will always be enough.
Friends, I want to thank you for all of your support this year. Truly, in times of discouragement and exhaustion, your encouraging words and prayers really got us through. Thank you to everyone who reached out to check on me, to just say hi or to remind me that I was missed. The Lord has places some really amazing people in my life and for that I am forever grateful.
L Squad: my people, my super close family. Wow it’s really been a ride and there is no one on this planet I would have rather done this with. Thank you for celebrating the victories and standing close in the sorrows with me. Thank you for calling me higher and pushing me to the best I can be. And thank you for seeing me and loving me in new ways that I never before in my life been loved. Every time I hear Raise A Hallelujah I will always think of you.
To my family: thank you for supporting me FULLY in this wild adventure. You fully embraced this journey, you fully embraced me, and said you are with me in and through it all. You have given me space when I needed it and you come close when you knew I needed it. Thanks for being my biggest cheerleaders. I love y’all so much and I am so thankful I get to be loved by y’all.
I am planning to post a few more blogs about amazing countries and experiences I was about to have.
In the mean time, if you have any questions about my trip or want to know more, anything specific, feel free to text me or email me at [email protected].
So stay tuned! Until then, JESUS IS ALIVE!
In Him,
Catie Collins 
