Today was one of my first days back from a 10 day training experience in Gainesville, Georgia. It was a rude awaking because I wasn’t ready to hear what all of my co-workers and customers keep saying. They kept saying I was a short timer and the reality is they were right. My reality was really shifted after the past 10 days I spent training with my fellow missionary squad. Training Camp was strategically planned to prepare my squad of 43 and I for the journey we are about to embark on in only 6 weeks.
For all of you who had questions I hope this blog will give you some of those answers but I hope more than that it will set your mind ablaze with more questions so that we can sit down and talk about all of it. Training camp for me did exactly that, answered so many questions but also sparked so many more.
Where are we going?
First, Costa Rica but the specifics are still unknown.
Isn’t that irresponsible!?
No, there are so many moving pieces that a lot of the logistics change frequently so we are trusting our leadership to tell us at the right time.
Who are you going with?
43 beautiful not so strangers, we will all travel together, 7 of those 43 make up ‘the comeback kids’ aka my team. We will do ministry together and be each others biggest cheerleaders and also hold each other accountable and everything In between.
Are you ready?
NO, time is slipping away and we leave so soon I have so much left to do, vaccines left, a car to sell, 49% of my fundraising to raise, affairs to get in order….. And the countdown is on, hence why short timer really put me in my place.
Is it safe?
Safe is a relative term and none of us are promised tomorrow. I believe that this is where I am called at this season of my life and I believe that if God brought me to it there is reason and purpose and that I don’t need to rely on a false safety net but to have faith and step out into the unknown with a heart to serve and love.
What are you going to be doing?
Working with orphans, children’s ministry, women’s ministry, human trafficking ministry, teaching, building relationships, learning new languages and cultures, mostly helping established mission bases do anything and everything they ask of me.
What will you do after the 11 months?
I have no idea and it’s slightly terrifying, I think that my plan is to find an organization that I am inspired by and to devote my self to that ministry/mission whether that be overseas or back at a home are in the good ol’ USA
“Jobs fill our pocket but adventures fill our souls” I have found ways to fill my pockets but neglected my soul so here’s to finding a future that can provide both.
Those were some of the most common questions so hopefully it’s good food thought for everyone!
In other news…..
I am officially 51% funded for my mission trip and I just want to say a huge thank you to those of you who have given so freely of your hard earned money. Please keep supporting me and spreading the news it has been an amazing learning process so far and I am to grateful that you have all become a part of the team from afar!
This past week as I went into training camp and I really thought it would be like boot camp. I thought we would be pushed to our spiritual, physical and mental limits and that it would be a test of if we were ‘good enough’ to participate in this mission trip. It certainly did push us spiritually, physically and mentally but it was in a way that was refreshing. We left the physical comforts of our beds, hot showers, home cooked meals and clearly planned schedules to willingly forgo them and sleep with a sleeping bag, live in a tent, to take very cold ‘showers’ out of a bucket and to rely on foods for nutrition that I’d never imagine eating. We left the physical comfort and found comfort in intangible things. We found unconditional support from our teammates and leadership, we found spiritual comfort in the ways that God showed up in our lives, we found love so diverse that it transcended all our different ‘religions’ and formed us into a tight nit family. We found that living in a community with 43 people who are all way different can work when you let your freak flag fly and be yourself because by being authentic you bring something unique to the table that no one else can.
To be perfectly honest I have so many words and I have so many thoughts and I’m still processing such an amazing and challenging but powerful 10 days so I don’t know all the words to say in a blog to portray the experience but I do know these things. I doubted God in my life and he used my desires to travel and seek adventure to lead me to this trip that led me to this training camp that led me back to him. I doubted myself and my place on this team but this is where I belong. I am a world racer and I am forever a park of the “wOlfpack” family. I am inspired, renewed and ready to do life with a new sense of adventure today and everyday that awaits.
Do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
