The race is finally getting started. It has been so exciting to see God moving and working in my team in just 48 hours. Needless to say the past 48 hours have been literally insane and would probably push any sane person to eat chocolate. Here is a bit of a break down that I stole from the team mate Jordan. (She is a good writer and my editor-jordanoursbourn.theworldrace.org)
-1/11/16: 2am wake up call
Get to the airport in Atlanta by 4am
Hop a flight to Fort Lauderdale and arrive by 8:30am
Sit in Fort Lauderdale for 12 (yes 12) hours until boarding international flight
Flight to Medellin at 10pm (2 hours later than intended flight time)
-1/12/16: Arrive in Medellin, Colombia at 3am
Get to host house around 5am where there were snacks waiting for us
Hang out in Medellin, found a grocery store and bought snacks
Get to bus station at 9pm for 10+ hour bus ride to Bogota
-1/13/16: Arrive in Bogota, Colombia at 9am and waited for Mama Ruth to pick us up
Take a van to the jeep and then the jeep up the mountain (craziest ride ever!)
Spend the day resting and getting to know the hosts
-1/14/16: Have breakfast
Start painting the church
-1/15/16: Go to church service (where we were asked to sing in front on the audience)
Explore Bogota
This is a little bit longer than 48 hours but more information is always better, right?
So besides being tired our team had a very hard time with food. As I said before we have three girls on our team that have a very limited diet, and if you know me I have fun stomach issues. We didn’t notice this problem until we got to Fort Lauderdale. It was about 1pm when we started talking about eating lunch. Sounds simple right…..Ha. We hadn’t gone through security yet, so there was literally no food on our side of the airport. We have a limited budget for food and to get to food we had to take a taxi which would have had to come out of our own pockets. Not knowing the schedule but assuming (never assume folks, never) that we would go through security soon, our team decided to save our money until we got to the promise land. The promise land didn’t come until 7pm. We almost killed each other.
I got sick because if I don’t eat for awhile the acid levels in my stomach slowly kill me and I throw up. The other girls were also having other problems. We managed to find some nuts, chips and crackers which helped but didn’t really put a dent in the issue at hand. So what did group of 6 girls do when everyone is so hungry, tired and emotional from leaving home. We prayed.
(This is actually a photo of us after we prayed at the airport…so fitting)
A reoccurring word that God has put on our team, and squads heart is unity. The devil was trying to break down our unity day one with the weapon of food. We prayed for each other, we prayed for our team and honestly it helped. Nothing is too small or big to ask God for his help. During our time praying, I became very grateful for everything that has been provided for me. That attitude of a grateful heart has continued and I pray it stays for the rest of the race.
I want to thank everyone so much for the prayers, the support and the love that has been sent my way. They are needed and greatly appreciated. The other day in my quite time I asked God to pick a book of the bible for me to start this year off in. Guys I’m in Job, the attitude of a grateful heart is going to be drilled into me by the end of this.
