Hello hello! Well, I’ve been getting ready for the week-long training camp for the World Race which starts on Saturday in Atlanta. I can’t believe the training camp is already this weekend and that July is in a month and a half!!! Seriously the time has flown by. I’m excited and nervous for training camp. I’m excited to meet my team and to prepare for the race and get more information, and I’m nervous because I don’t know anyone yet, and I don’t really know what to expect at the camp (they haven’t given us a schedule or anything). What I do know is that we’re camping in tents, and I believe that they try to simulate what it may be like once we’re on the Race. I realized the other day that I’m not the most outdoorsy girl. I don’t mind being outdoors, and I do like it when I randomly go camping every now and then, but I’m just not a hard-core outdoors person- I kinda like being inside haha. And I also get scared really easily at night. I’ve gotten really scared just sleeping outside in my backyard in the tent. Soooooo we’ll see how the training camp and the World Race goes lol. 🙂
We need to bring a tent, hiking backpack, and a sleeping bag for the World Race, but I hadn’t bought them yet, and then I realized that we need to bring them to training camp, so I was in a hustle last week and this week to purchase those. For some reason I had been thinking “Oh training camp will probably be at a hotel or something” ha ha, so that’s why I didn’t think I needed that stuff yet. There’s specific ones that they recommend that we get, and man, I never realized how many different options there are for tents, backpacks, and sleeping bags as far as sizes, specifications, and prices! For example, for the tent, I need to get a 2 person tent with a rain fly that weighs around 5 pounds and is well ventilated. And it’s recommended to bring a “footprint” for it. And it was weird because a 70L backpack (the size I need) at Gander Mountain was like $140, but I found a new one online for $60. Pretty big price difference. I went shopping like three different times so far to compare items- the first day I went with my dear friend Angie, and that was really nice of her to come with me- shout out to Angie!
Along with shopping for items for training camp, last week and this week have been really busy because I was finishing school and had finals, I’ve been trying to sub to get some extra money for the World Race, it was Mother’s Day, there’s a lot of “last times” of things that I’m involved in, and now I’m moving out of St. Cloud on Friday and am staying in my hometown for a month before leaving for the Race. So I’m packing everything up and need to organize/clean! I’ve been getting pretty stressed out, but I have to keep reminding myself to trust God, and that everything will get done/be ok. Seriously, I always stress out and everything is always fine. I like this quote that goes “In the end everything will be ok. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end.” I’ve also been getting a little sad because I seriously love St. Cloud. I love my friends and the people and I love the city, and I’ve lived here for 5 years. And after the Race, my plan (God willing) is to get a teaching job and move wherever I can get a job.
I got to talk on the phone to a girl around my age who went on the World Race last year because my friends, the Peabody’s (shout-out to the Peabody’s! haha), told me about her. That was super cool! Just to be able to ask her about what she experienced and advice that she had. And the best part was at the end of our conversation, she prayed for me, and we both started crying on the phone while praying, and we have never even met each other, and I felt that it was the Holy Spirit moving. And I felt really refreshed and encouraged after that. It really reminded me of when I was in Nicaragua- I remember that the women from Calvary Church prayed over the Nicaraguan women, and that we were all bawling, and I feel that you can’t really explain it other than the Holy Spirit moving in us because I don’t get why we’d all be bawling you know ha. Also, if you read my last blog, I was writing about how I was pretty concerned about the safety, but actually from e-mailing our supervisor lady and talking to that girl on the phone, I now feel a lot better about the safety because both of them had done the World Race and told me they hardly ever felt unsafe and that no one has ever been kidnapped or sexually assaulted on the Race that they know of, so that’s good lol. And the girl I was talking to said that God just seems to keep you safe. So anyway, I feel a lot better about that now. So no one needs to worry about me either! 😉 Madelyn *cough* 😉
Lastly, a highlight from since I last wrote to now was meeting up with one of my friends that I’ve been friends with since I was 10. We met to catch up and to ask for support for my trip. It was a highlight because right away she was so open, honest, and vulnerable with me about her faith. She grew up Catholic, but she told me that now she isn’t sure what she believes, and I could kinda see that already, and she said she had already seen that I had grown stronger in my faith, but we’ve never talked about it. So it was just really refreshing to talk openly about our beliefs as well as our questions too. And that probably wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t support-raising. She said that she liked that I wasn’t trying to force anyone to believe anything, but I do pray that she would be like the 1 sheep out of the 100 that was found and brought back to Jesus in the Parable of the Lost Sheep in the Bible. 🙂
A financial update- roughly, I have about half of the money I need so far. Praise God! I’ve just been so busy with a lot of stuff going on like I said, but after training camp, pretty much the only thing I’ll have to do is support raise, so I plan to all-out support raise when I come back because I’ll only have about 1 month left to do so and still need about half of all the money! I just started getting a little concerned since it’s coming up so fast, but I trust God and know He is capable to raise all the money in time if He wants. This Wednesday from 4pm-8pm, Five Guys Burgers and Fries in St. Cloud is giving 10% of their profit from that time to my trip, so if you’re in the St. Cloud area, you can have supper there if you’d like! 🙂 Well, I will definitely write a blog after training camp to let you all know how it went! 🙂 I wanna put a pic up later so ya'll can see my huge backpack lol. Thank you so much for your prayers, care, and support. I appreciate it so much and will take the love I’ve been given and bring it to the world! Ok sorry this is so long, but it's been a month since I last wrote so yeah, you're lucky it's not longer ha ha ;-). Ok here is some Scripture that I want to memorize cuz it is a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!!!!
"Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint."
-Isaiah 40:28-31
