please don’t welcome me home
March 13th, Phuket, Thailand
As I sit with the people I call family (who were strangers a short 10 months ago) around the dinner table, we celebrate the fact that we are tier 3. Tier 3 meaning we are safe, the rest of our route is safe, and we are clear to FINISH the race. We are on track to finish our 6 weeks left. With ministry, with each other, & with community. Before I head to bed I start packing my stuff to head down to Malaysia tomorrow to help out with FCA. We go to bed confident, with hope, with our heads held high, & at peace.
March 14th, Phuket, Thailand
As I sleep next to two of my best friends I am woken up early to someone coming in the room. As I hear her crying saying “we’re going home” over and over. I kept saying “you’re joking.” (Obviously she wasn’t) as we lay in bed crying together all the feelings we had last night before going to bed are completely erased. My brain is trying to process emotions, what’s happening, the fact we are done, now I have to start looking for jobs, for schools, oh crap we’re going to be in the states, I have to say bye in less than 72 hours, freaking out that I had not even started to process anything because we had 6 weeks left. At this point I felt safer in Thailand because of the state that America was in. In Thailand we got to live normal lives. Yes, everywhere was taking precautions, taking temperatures & giving hand sanitizer before entering anywhere, locals wearing masks (which is not out of the normal for Asia.) I could still go to church, I could still go to eat, & I was free to do whatever.
Those of us in the house decided to do group worship that morning. I am incredibly grateful for community that their first instinct is to still give God all the glory. Despite our circumstances He is still good, He still loves us, He is still there for us, He will still bring peace in the midst of chaos, He is still king, & He has a plan.
We scramble trying to find a place to house over 30 people so the squad could be together for our last 72 hours.
March 15th-19th, Phuket, Thailand
- We are emotional
- We worship together
- We have fun
- We laugh
- We cry
- We go hang out with elephants
- We eat our last meal together at a fancy restaurant
- We stay up late
- We hug each other tighter
Lastly, we pack up the backpack we have been living out of for the past ten months for the last time. We head to the airport for our last (50+hour) travel day together.
March 19th, San Francisco, California, USA
- We land on American soil
- We cry in the baggage claim
- We say goodbye in the baggage claim
- We go our separate ways
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To us, this is not an answer to prayer, this is not an exciting homecoming, & this is not how it’s supposed to end. Despite all of those feelings I do know that this is not over yet. Yes our race was not “complete” but in Gods eyes it was. Revival is needed in America and it starts with us, the 550 people that AIM pulled off the field. I am thankful for the time I had on the field and thankful we had 6 weeks left. Some squads had 9 months left on the field, 9 months!!! Their journey had just started!
I have been in Indiana & Michigan the last 3 weeks in quarantine & I made it back to North Carolina yesterday.
Please continue to pray for me (I should be in Australia right now helping a food bank make & deliver meals to those affected by the brush fires, to volunteers & to firefighters), for the rest of my squad, and for the other squads as we make this transition back to America. Not only back to America but back to America completely shut down. In a way this is the best (but also worst) time to make this transition. We were prepared to not have a job & we don’t have normal things & idols that would be culture shock to us (sports, restaurants, concerts, etc.)
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven… a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance”
Ecclesiastes 3:4
“…and if not, HE is still GOOD.”
Daniel 3:18
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A huge thank you to my supporters, for love, support, and understanding during this crazy time of the unknown. While we live in the unknown we shouldn’t be afraid, scared, or worried because the Lord works all things together for His good! I would love to talk about this crazy journey I was on, please feel free to reach out, I would love to talk!
