It’s clearly been awhile since I last blogged, but don’t
take my silence as an indicator of an absence of significant life happenings!
Since returning from Guatemala I have moved forward a lot with World Race
plans, spent some time with family, spoken at my church about my work in
Guatemala, and am currently up in Wheaton visiting friends before launching in
January. Life has become somewhat of a whirlwind! But there are several things
of importance that deserve an update, so I’ll break them down for you.
First, let me tell you about something I have discovered
about myself and my possible plans for the future. If you know me, you most
likely know that until recently I have never been a kid person. I didn’t
dislike children-that would just be heartless-but I never felt particularly
drawn to them, and they intimidated me. I didn’t know how to relate to them and
I certainly did not plan to spend my life doing any kind of work that
intentionally involves children.
I have also never been the kind of person who loves to get
up in front of people and speak. I haven’t always been someone who has the
self-confidence to stand up and tell people who I don’t know what I think. I’ve
spent a lot time over the past eight years working hard to learn Spanish so
that I could communicate effectively in Latin America, but I’ve rarely had the
confidence to use that skill publicly.
Recently, both of those things have started to change. Don’t
get me wrong, I still do not like public speaking, still get extremely nervous
in front of lots of people, and still do not know what to do around children
sometimes, but overall I have been so surprised with what a big part of my life
these things have become. Before my time at Casa Bernabe in Guatemala, I never
would have considered that advocating for children in crisis around the world
was something I was either capable of or interested in. But since falling in
love with the children of Guatemala specifically, and orphans in general, I
have started to speak more boldly on their behalf and have actually seen
results from this work.
When I was in Guatemala a few weeks ago, I wrote a blog
called Chosen about the importance of sponsorship to these kids. That blog
turned into Casa Bernabe’s November newsletter and eventually led to several
families deciding to sponsor children. Last week I had the opportunity to speak
at my home church in Atlanta, The Bridge, and I shared some of the children’s
stories. I showed pictures and told people about how much sponsors mean to the
kids. And I got to do one service entirely in Spanish! After the services, many
people asked for information about sponsorships, visiting Casa Bernabe, or
simply getting involved in missions in general. One conversation that really
stuck with me was with a man who had just lost his job. He told me that he and
his wife are now both without work and had decided to cut back financially by
withdrawing their support of two children who they already sponsor somewhere in
the world. After hearing my stories of the effect that sponsorship has on the
kids in Guatemala, he tearfully told me that they could never take that away
from children and they will do whatever it takes to continue supporting those
two children.
The left picture is the English service, and the right picture is the Spanish service at The Bridge.
I’ve never considered myself to be someone who can have a
tangible impact on other people’s lives simply by telling other people what I
think, but recently that has been the case. I haven’t done anything
special-I’ve just been honest and open about the things I have come to care
about, but God has blessed it and people have listened, much to my surprise.
I’m interested to see how this can continue on the World Race and what
influence this blog could potentially have. If I can help people across the
world simply by connecting Americans with resources to those people through
telling their stories, I might just start to really enjoy blogging! I have also
been considering that maybe after the Race I might be interested in doing some
kind of cross-cultural, global ministry networking. I love to travel, I love
people, and I love to connect people who care about the same things to help
them further the work that they do.
Ok, next order of business…and it’s an important one! We
found out last week that due to the severity of the cholera outbreak in Haiti,
the appropriately concerned people in the World Race logistics office have
decided that it’s not a good idea for us to be going there right now. So, our
route has changed, and I am so happy about it! I’m bummed about missing out on
Haiti, especially at such an influential time, but you’ll notice that it’s been
replaced by the best possible alternative!
Without further ado,
our
NEW RACE ROUTE
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Peru
Nicaragua
Guatemala
Tanzania
Uganda
Kenya
Thailand
Asia ATL (Ask the
Lord which country in Asia we should go to)
Malaysia
This route, like all
World Race plans, is still subject to change at any time, but for now this is
the plan! Clearly, I’m excited!!
Finally, I must update you on support raising and how
incredibly God has provided. I must confess that as I sat and listened to my
friend JD Russell tell me how God provided all his funding before launch in
September, I thought how I wished that would happen for me, but didn’t believe
that it was possible. At training camp they told us that the average racer has
around $10,000 raised by launch and my secret thought was something along the
lines of “Right…I wish!” But as of today I have $9,750 in my account and around
$4,500 more in monthly support pledged throughout the year. So, other than the
little bit that that leaves, I’m basically fully funded!!! I still need about
$1,500 more to cover things like international health insurance, vaccinations,
and plane tickets to our launch city, but I am in awe of how much support I
already have. Thank you to everyone who has supported me for your overwhelming
generosity and the speed and enthusiasm with which you responded to my needs.
As the aforementioned stories indicate, you are part of something that has the
potential to reach so many people and be a networking catalyst to further the
Kingdom work going on around the world!
On the subject of support raising, TODAY, December 15th,
is our deadline to have $5,000 in our accounts to be allowed to launch in
January and actually do this thing. As of now, two of my teammates, Brent
Frederick and Rosa Cruz, are quite a bit below that goal and cannot come with
us. Team Kaleo needs all our members, and I can’t imagine the Race without
them. So, if you were considering supporting me but never had the chance, or if
you are feeling particularly generous or influential today, please seriously
consider supporting them. It would be just like supporting me, and would mean a
lot to me. If you decide to do this, please email me immediately so that I can
let Adventures in Missions know that support is on the way for Brent and Rosa.
Here are their blog addresses:
www.brentfrederick.theworldrace.org
If you read this entire thing, you deserve a cookie! Thank
you so much for your loyal support and loving encouragement. I can’t wait to
see what we can do together this next year!
