As some of you may know, Adventures in Missions and the World Race decided to pull all of the World Race, Gap Year, and Semester Routes off of the field and back home to the United States because of COVID-19. This decision was made fairly quickly after being notified by our leadership that this virus was spreading fast and we could be at risk in Cambodia.
Just to put in perspective how fast this all went down, on the night of March 14th I was awoken by my roommates in Siem Reap, Cambodia after they received an email from my squad mentor Jodi. The email said that Adventures in Missions made the decision to pull one of the Gap Year squads off the field because of the virus. It also stated that my squad was being heavily looked at because of the threat of the virus, and that we needed to make sure we were checking our email “every minute”. This was so out of the blue. We knew about all that was going on, but none of us knew how bad it was getting worldwide.
Not even 24 hours later on the morning of the March 15th, we received another email from our squad mentor saying that Adventures in Missions made the final decision to pull everyone off the field. We were all incredibly shaken up by this news and did not know what to think at all. 24 hours prior little did we know that we would receive news that we would be going home two months early. Later that day our Squad Leader Zach sat us all down to tell us our travel information for going home.
On the morning of March 16th, we left our base to head to the airport. Oddly enough on the night of March 16th, seven of my squad mates and I landed in Los Angeles with the rest of my squad to follow the next day. I spent a night in LA, but in the morning caught the first flight to Atlanta. Because of my early flight out, I was not able to say goodbye to the rest of my squad who had not yet landed from their flight to LA.
So here I am, back home in Dunwoody, Georgia, stuck in my basement because of my possible exposure to the virus. I have yet to go outside of this one bedroom in my basement and probably won’t be able to leave until I am tested for the virus.
This was definitely a finish I could have ever imagined. I am upset, I am disappointed, I miss my friends, and to be honest I’m pretty lonely! Thinking back to last year when I signed up for this journey, I had no idea that my time in Cambodia would last two weeks, but God did. That was his plan the whole time. Everything that I experienced while being there was all for a reason. This time alone, time where I don’t get to be with my friends and family back home. I used to dream all the time on the race of the moment I got off the plane to Atlanta that I would see all of my friends and family standing there waiting to welcome me home. I didn’t get any of that. But that is okay! Even the little things that I am learning from just being quarantined all alone in my basement are things that will mature me as a person and as a man of God.
Thank you all for your prayers over the past couple of days. Everyone from my squad is home safe now and they are doing well. This journey would not have been able to happen without all of you and I cannot thank you enough. I cannot wait to see everyone and tell them about the things that I have learned as well as hear from you all! God is good. Thanks again!
-Jack Coyle
