It’s bittersweet.
Sitting on this train to Bucharest.
Preparing to fly out tomorrow to begin Month 11 of this 11 month journey.
Reflecting on the month.
Reminiscing on the year.
Trying to understand the changes I’ve experienced and seen.
It’s wild.
Looking forward, I can see the horizon.
We’ve reached the beginning of the end.
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I’m sorry to everyone back home who doesn’t follow me on social media. I’ve kept most of my updates to there, even though they don’t do these months justice. The truth is, I haven’t been certain how to put the past few months into words.
My google docs is littered with rough drafts of blogs never posted; full of almost complete thoughts and close to finished updates. Somewhere between not making time and being unable to express myself well is where my excuse lies :).
Now my back is in a corner though. The Race is ALMOST over and I want to let everyone in to what we will be doing this last month.
Looking back:
We just finished Month 10, which was our MANistry month with our team of all 13 guys. We did incredible amounts of manual labor. We traveled to sites across Romania, helping out local and long term missionaries. We cleaned yards, carried out numerous projects, cleared fields to be used for ministry and so, so much more. It was a wonderful month where we as guys were able to use our physical resources VERY well.
Looking forward:
Month 11 of The Race was originally Ukraine, but sometime before Training Camp last year it switched to Portugal. I wasn’t sure why, but I was ok with it. The reason why: we are hiking El Camino de Santiago (Porto Route). This route is one of many routes that people can take, originating in multiple countries, that end in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It is called a “Pilgrimage” and is known to be a spiritual experience for many.
The idea for this month is for us to learn how to live what we believe and ease our integration back into society. There is no structured ministry. The point is for us to walk with whomever we would like, at whatever pace we like, making whichever stops we’d like. No expectations, simply living what we believe. Something I’ve learned on The Race, and our squad goal for the year, is to “Live What We Believe”. This month allows us to put that into action.
We will live how we plan to live in The States and this sets us up for a much smoother re-entry to American life. Ministry will look like: casual evangelism with those we meet along the trip, building relationships and being able to share the good news of The Gospel in an unstructured setting. Because, for those of us that don’t plan to go into full time ministry, this is how life will be when we get back home.
Nobody telling us what to do and when to do it (from a spiritual standpoint) and the actual concept of free time lol. So, I’m not sure how the month will go but I am excited to see what God does in the lives of the members of this Squad. This month, like life, has the potential to be whatever we allow it to be.
I love you all and I’m excited to see you all in less than 40 days!
*I absolutely love writing these blogs, and I love keeping everyone updated even moreso. I am overwhelmed with the amount of you that reach out with words of encouragement or have questions regarding the trip and Christianity in general. It has been a blessing to hear from so many of you. Maybe on El Camino I’ll give a summary of the past few months to do them justice. There are so many takeaways and thoughts I have- I might just have to keep posting blogs after The Race. If not for your sake, for mine :). *
