Above is a video I made recapping the year.
Well this is it. My final blog before I return home and see all of you face to face. As the Race has come to an end, I have had some time to think back at this journey. I get overwhelmed thinking of how to summarize this past year in one final blog and so I won’t 🙂 I sometimes forget what a long process it has been to arrive at this point. I didn’t start this journey 11 months ago but almost 2 years ago when I started filling out the application.
I can’t help but think of how God has blessed me since that time. With your support I was able to raise $15,500 in only 7 months. Thanks again to all of you who made this possible!! I have also made lifelong friendships, seen the beauty of God’s creation, learned to be me, and most importantly I have learned to see God in a more wholesome way. There are so many things that I could mention here about how God has worked in me and through me but I am tired. It would take a series of blogs to even scratch the surface. I pray that you have at least been able to get a glimpse of this year through my previous blogs as I tried my best to keep you all up to date and informed. I’m not going to lie, I can’t wait to tell you in person instead of scrambling for words to put together on a word document 🙂
Many of you may be wondering what my next step will be. Well, throughout this year God has really laid orphans on my heart. This started with my time in Bolivia and after serving with four different orphanages on four continents, I feel God leading me into a future that involves me “looking after orphans and widows in their distress� and “defending the cause of the fatherless�. Through much prayer, I have begun the process of considering some opportunities I have to serve overseas in an orphanage. There are a couple of opportunities that I am prayerfully seeking and I would love to have your prayers for guidance in this process. I look forward to sharing more about these opportunities when I return.
As for my immediate future, I will arrive back in the U.S. on June 9th and will spend my first three weeks back in the States with my parents in Arizona before returning to Ohio the first week of July. I will then have about a week there and then I will be going to Georgia for a week-long conference put on by Adventures in Missions (the parent organization of the World Race). While there I will begin to piece together how to move forward after the Race and put into action what God is calling me into. After that week, I will return to Ohio and be fair game to anyone who wants to talk or hang-out.
I will continue to post blogs regarding my future and I look forward to sharing how this past year has influenced me and the future God has for me.
So for the final time abroad:
