I love my job.
The anticipation builds. Training Camp for Q,R,S,T squads. Month 5 debrief for P Squad. July Launch.
Summer, in all its crazy, wonderful busyness is just around the corner.
My legs are bouncing, my brain is processing a million things at once, my coffee is definitely already gone. My department is empty save for me and one other, who is diligently working on spreadsheets and finances for the squads out on the field. My computer is not cooperating, and the rainbow wheel-of-death spins whenever I attempt to upload or update a document, which is making my job increasingly harder to do.
For all of it, my hardy, made-it-through-the-World-Race computer is necessary.
Please, please, please, let it work.
Today's agenda:
- call pastors
- write emails
- create budgets
- update database
- try not to be overwhelmed
Simple enough, but it multiplies pretty quickly. Call pastors in Nicaragua & Costa Rica. Email finance people on the field. Create budgets for June. Update contact information and status of hosts.
Commencement was two years ago, and I'm definitely not in college anymore, yet it feels like finals week. There are deadlines that need to be met, plans that need to be finalized, conversations that need to be started and finished. All before training camp when I hit the ground running at a full sprint.
Everything. Everything needs to be in order. Before Training Camp starts on Friday. Well, Training Camp actually begins today, really. From this moment forward, the next two weeks are booked solid. I have training for our teams, meals planned, bags to pack, lists to create and then accomplish, participants to train, and a squad to meet at debrief. There's hours of driving, and a 36+ hour intercontinental travel day in store.
I have two squads on the field to manage, and am meeting my next group at Camp this week.
All 50 or so of them.
My memory is going to be tested. How well can I match names, stories, faces together when there are 200 participants at Camp? Then I leave to meet a squad currently on the field. Add 50 new people. Factor in jet lag and exhaustion, seeing as I'm going from Training Camp straight to Nepal.
I'm highly caffeinated and a little twitchy. I have my noise-cancelling headphones on and sit here checking off things on my lists. It seems like after every three done I find another one to add.
Adrenaline. Anticipation. Agog.
As crunch time as it is – I'm not really stressed. I actually love these kinds of situations.
I'm more excited than anything. I'm eager to see how it all comes together and falls into place. I know that it all works out – because it always does – and that the Lord is sovereign, no matter what. I trust that I'll be pushing and pushing for things to happen and the next moment something will fall into my lap. That's how life works.
As much as I want to be prepared, as much as I want to have a plan, as much as I want to have things set in stone… I have learned to keep space for God to move.
That space is where the most thrilling things happen.
When we throw a team into the unknown, my brain thinks it'll go terribly wrong, but my heart knows that something crazy & amazing is about to happen. Yes, I want to be prepared, and yes, I want the squad to have as much information as possible… but I also love it when we know nothing, ditch our expectations and believe God will meet us where we are. He always does.
I'm about to start running, knowing that I'll need some supernatural strength, energy and love for these next few weeks. Life while working for the World Race is exciting, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
It's Go Time.
I'm moving websites and will no longer be blogging here on the World Race page!
New blog at jennamalinen.wordpress.com.
Click HERE to go check it out.
