HI. My name is Emma Koestner and I am on the World Race. Just making sure you all know that piece of information because a lot of the time I have to remind myself that this is my life. The adventure that I spent dreaming about for a year is happening now. It is my reality. My days consist of piggy back rides down the road, holding hands with sweet granmouns, and butchering Creole. I live with 18 other girls in a pink house about five minutes from the beach where we swim with naked Haitian kids. We have joined the Haitian Baptist Church choir. Montrouis, Haiti is my home. Ministry will be full, keep checking in on my blog for updates on what we are up to this month. Thank you is not enough to express how much your prayers are appreciated as I adjust to my new “normal” here in Haiti. Normalcy is ever-changing on the Race and I am still working on adopting constant change into my lifestyle. Living out of a backpack is normal now. Brushing my teeth from a water bottle is normal now. Memorizing currency exchange rates is normal now. Waking up to a man banging on the side of a truck to announce the arrival of ice is normal now. Living with twenty other girls is normal now. But it is not always comfortable. Change is always uncomfortable, but it is in the uncomfortable that we lean into and grow the most with the Lord. A new “normal” has also brought with it a new view of home that has rocked me recently. Home is beginning to feel farther away than ever, just as the Race was once far away. It is strange to me that a place I spent eighteen years living in can begin to feel so foreign so quickly while a country I’ve been in for five days can so quickly begin to feel like home. I believe that God is allowing me to distance myself from home so I can be fully immersed here. While home will always hold sweet memories, it truly is only a place. And in the next year I get to add five new homes to my life. Each one will have a new “normal” and will bring sweet memories. Praise Him for new homes.
Much love,
Emma
