these people are blessings

Hello everyone!

There are three groups of people in my life I’ve been thinking about and cherishing time with more and more recently as launch comes closer to arriving (less than a month!). So I wanted to say a few things about these three groups.

First, the family I serve with every Sunday.

 Waumba Land, or the “Waumband” as we’ve been calling it. Bringing preschool aged kiddos to know God using fun songs, dance moves, games, and props and costumes to tell a bible story. 

Leading worship there has been such a blast and I feel so blessed to have been able to do it with these people for two and a bit years. 

The people I volunteer with at Waumba Land have become my second family over the time I’ve worshipped there. They make me laugh, they help me out when I’m sad, they’re all just genuinely fantastic people. I don’t know how to stress it enough here how much these people mean to me, I’m just gonna miss them all so much it’s crazy. 

Amy and Jodi are the rock stars that lead over the Playhouse and they are second mothers to me. I text them saying “mama” and they’ll respond by calling me “daughter”. They’ve been so supportive during my whole World Race process even though we don’t like talking about my quickly coming departure.

The Waumband has made such a huge impact on my life and not seeing them all every Sunday is pretty sad and scary. I’ll still be singing all our Waumba songs all the way in Guatemala so don’t worry haha. 

If anyone from Waumba Land is reading this, thank you for allowing me to grow as a worship leader and loving on me. Putting on the Playhouse services every Sunday has been amazing and I can’t imagine doing it with any other group of people. Thank you and I will miss you guys a ton.

Next up, my best friends; Sarah, Paige, Emily and Sean.

I’ll miss driving around listening to songs that make us feel like we’re in a teen road trip movie. Laughing so much no noise comes out and we just start crying. Being able to just look at each other and burst out laughing. We’ll think up anywhere we can go just so we don’t have to say goodbye after already spending a whole day hanging out. At random points someone will hold up finger guns and then all of us will and have a standoff like in The Office.

All the times we went out just to get food or the time we created ourselves in lego form.

The time us girls rented a cabin for 4 days, the time we spent all day at the bowling alley/arcade, the time we went to a local concert then to the bowling alley until 1 in the morning, the time we almost lost Sean due to a food coma from a meat on meat on meat sandwich, every time we’d all look at Sarah at the same time and watch her progress from normal into her open mouth, closed eyes, no noise laugh as she grabs one of our arms really tight for stability. Every single time Emily would get mad because Sarah always calls shotgun first. Most recently, the time we went camping and Sarah decided to sleep in her hammock instead of the tent with Emily and I and she was texting me about how scared she was out there but still wouldn’t come into the tent.

I love my group of best friends so leaving them is gonna be so hard because I won’t be seeing them almost everyday like we currently do. But my phone is full of great memories with them and I know our friendship will continue to be strong even after I get back. 

Lastly, but certainly not least, my family.

Sure, they drive me crazy sometimes but I couldn’t thank the Lord enough for giving me the family He did. When I was half way through 7 years old, we moved from Australia to the United States. Living in the U.S. for 11 years has made us closer than a lot of other families since all our extended family is back home.

My parents are very funny, my little sisters and I will quote things they say all the time. They are very loving and supporting. All the basketball games in 8th grade, rehearsals and shows for theater, and now probably one of the harder things, the World Race. 

Being away from my family is going to be tough. Not hearing constant movie quotes from my dad followed by his wheeze laugh, getting in the car and knowing Queen is playing but barely hearing it because our whole family is scream singing over it and having random dance parties together.

I feel very lucky to have so many great and funny memories with my family. Singing “Sweet Child Of Mine” in the car like in “Step Brothers” cause my dad thought it’d be funny to teach it to us even though my sisters and I haven’t seen the movie. All the movies we’ve watched, the time my parents and I went on a jet ski dolphin tour and my mum would scream every time the jet ski went in the air, the time we went to Universal Studios and I found my love for Harry Potter, and last year when we went on a Disney Cruise (so much food!).

I can’t wait to see what the Lord is going to do in my family this next year. I’m going to miss them so much. I love my family so so much which is going to make leaving them extremely hard and it’s going to be really scary in all honesty.

Please be praying for my family, especially my parents, and I as I get ready to depart on this adventure.

See you soon!

-Chelsea

Thank you to everyone that has been supporting me financially! I only have $2,340 left to raise, which is so so amazing! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It really means so much to me.