We left on Sunday and today is Wednesday the 10th of July. So at the beginning of this week I was in Atlanta, GA at WR Launch, and NOW I'm near Lehze, Albania. Holy cow! I boarded a plane in Atlanta at 6:45p.m. after a hour delay. Flew 9hrs to Amsterdam, Germany at which point we went straight to our next flight. We had a few hours, so we just slept at our gate and in our terminal. Once boarded, we flew 3hrs to Istanbul, Turkey. This is where things got interesting, lol. The squad and I were under the impression that the ensuing bus ride to our ministry location would be around 12hrs. There we learned it would be closer to 24hrs! To be fair our bus was pretty nice, but that's still the longest bus ride ever and not one I'd like to take again any time soon. Due to getting lost…a few times the total bus ride was just under 28hrs making our total travel time just over 50hrs from start to finish. We arrived to our ministry location around 10:00pm Tuesday night. We are blessed enough to have beds, blankets and a place to stay this month. I imagine most months we won't be so lucky. I'm not complaining, that's just the reality of being a World Racer now.
After a good nights sleep and getting to sleep in till nearly 10, we had breakfast and our contact George, who is a hilarious man of God end reminds our whole squad of “Arthur” from the show "King of Queens", spoke to us about what his plans were for month. Long story short we are working at a summer camp for a wide aged range of kids. I am beyond blessed by this! Lord knows I miss serving at my favorite camp in the world (shout out to Super Summer, Salina KS) and I think this is the Lord's way of still letting me work my “camp” I love so much and pour into the lives of young people. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to share to much with them due to the language barrier, however I feel like love speaks every language and if I just love these kids that will be enough.
So far I've REALLY enjoyed my time here. The scenery is b-e-a-utiful! There are mountains and lush greenery everywhere! The kids are absolutely to die for and the young boys LOVE to arm wrestle me all.the.time. Not to mention, they have clean drinking water and the food has been awesome. It still hasn't really hit me that I'm only a few days into an 11 month journey, but that's okay. WR'ers are encouraged to take a day-by-day approach to the Race. We've had chances to debrief with our team which is great and even had a vulnerability night, like our camping night at WR training camp. There is something so special when I person bares their soul in front of a group of people they trust that really allows Jesus to move and work. I hope and pray it's something I never stop seeing on this squad and in my life.
Blessings,
Chan
