A few days ago I wrote a blog about our final month and said I was hoping to write some blogs about the places we have been so welcome to my reflection series, into the unknown! In this series I hope to share about the places and people that captured my heart, some of my favorite memories and all that I have learned along the way.
285 days ago we sat in the Atlanta airport feasting on Chick-fil-a for one last time while we waited to board our flight to Medellin, Colombia. I remember the nerves and anticipation I felt as I sat there with the group of strangers I was going to spend the next year of my life with. I was excited for this journey but there was definitely a part of me that wanted to find a flight home instead. The plane pulled up, we boarded and the World Race all the sudden got very real. I remember sitting on the plane looking at the pictures of my family I have taped in the front of my Bible and crying at the thought of not seeing them for a year. I read the goodbye letter my mom and stepdad wrote me and cried some more. I’m pretty sure I cried most of that flight.
Around midnight we landed in Colombia and that’s when the travel day got real. I was team leader so I was responsible for arranging transportation from our arrival in the new countries to our ministry location and I had done a lot of research but still felt wildly unprepared. The bus terminal didn’t open until 6am so we had to camp out in the airport for a few hours and wait. We were exhausted (we would soon learn this would become a travel day norm) and I was nervous and praying that our travel plans would work out. 5am rolled around and my team and I took a series of buses and taxis to the southern part of Colombia and got off the bus in Filandia!
Filandia, Colombia // Month 1
Filandia was a small, colorful town in the “coffee belt” region of Colombia and it was surrounded by farms. We meet our hosts Eyson (a local) and his wife Karson (a former racer from Georgia!) We had orientation and then got settled into our first home away from home. I quickly fell in love with the town of Filandia, the beautiful people on the streets who always said hello when we passed, the children we were able to work with, and our hosts.
Our hosts had a foundation they started that offered after school programs for kids, they also partnered with a church and taught English in the small one room schools in the farm lands around the town. We had opportunities to help in all these places and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. The kids at the after school program brought so much laughter, the kids in the farm schools brought so much love, the church members were so welcoming and our hosts gave us the sweetest friendship.
One of my favorite memories from Colombia was one of our last nights there, we went to dinner with our hosts and then came back to our hostel to play cards and talk. We looked through all the photos and videos we had taken over our month there, shared funny moments and laughed until we cried. I am beyond grateful for Karson and Eyson and they way they loved and cared for us that month because it really softened the heartache I felt being so far from home.
This month was beautiful but also really hard. I missed home, a lot, and I was learning what it looked like to maintain relationships over FaceTime and texting. I was learning about the six other people on my team and trying to figure how to care for them and serve with them. I was watching the lives of those I love go on and I was missing it. I spent a lot of the nights sitting in my bed wondering why God called me to go away for so long but I learned so much about trust and dependence. I learned that God’s good plan is often different but always better than my “good plan”. I was constantly reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness and because of those characteristics it was clear why I trusted Him enough to follow Him far away from home and into the unknown.
Romans 8:28 ”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Job 42:2 “I know that you [the Lord] can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted”
Eph 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”
Our entire squad at launch right before we left for Colombia!
My first team, Peace of Freedom, exploring a village near Filandia!
Colombia also brought us our first parasites of the race, Jeremy and Jeremy jr. We had an eventful day at the clinic and enough meds prescribed that we couldn’t imagine our bodies would be capable of ever getting a parasite again. (Spoiler alert: that was incorrect thinking)
Some of the handsome boys of Fundación Pioneros!
The children at the farm school that Mallory and I taught at for the month!
Thanks for tuning in and I can’t wait to share about month 2 with y’all!
