Dear Friends and Family,
Hope you are all doing wonderful!!! January is quickly approaching and I just wanted to send out an update on how things are going as I’m counting down days until I launch.
Training Camp!!
I just got back from spending 10 days in the forest of Georgia. Who knew that Georgia was so pretty? I met up with a few girls in Dallas, loaded up our packs in the back of my trail blazer and drove 15 hours to meet up with 150 of my fellow, nervous, world racers. After some intense worship, hiking, camping, building shelter from tarps and rope, cooking for 50 people over a camp fire, team building games and challenges, and every day eating food from a different culture, I’m starting to feel like I’m actually going to see the world!! On Day 5 we were assigned to our teams. I was assigned to U Squad (this is the best squad, by the way). The U Squad is made up of some of the most beautiful people God has created. It was like we have all known each other our whole lives, and working together seemed to be all too easy.
Meet my Team!!
Because we had a limited number of men who signed up for the race, some people had to be put on an all girls squad. And I am one of those lucky ladies! I am so honored to share the next 11 months with these beautiful ladies.
Courtney Buckner (Team Leader)
Alison Ingle
Kim Brown
Rachel Ritsema
Girl Power! I can’t wait to serve along side this amazing women of God.
New Countries
We have had a few changes to our route. All very exciting!!! The countries that I will be traveling too (as of now) are as follows:
Thailand
Cambodia
Australia
Malaysia
India
Nepal
Swaziland
Mozambique
South Africa
Moldavia
Romania
No more Ireland, but I hear Moldavia is beautiful!!! I can’t wait to see what God has in store for all the racers in these countries. While hugging everyone good-bye at camp it was a strange feeling to say “see you in Thailand!”. But that’s our reality. I am so beyond blessed.
But this isn’t about just seeing the world. While I am SUPER PUMPED to travel to all these different nations and experience the different cultures, I also know that I have a calling on my life. I hope to use my photography to put an image with the issues that so often go unnoticed by the majority of the world. Although I know that we will face some challenges being on an all girls team, I know that God has set up divine appointments that only our team can successfully walk out. I know my team has a huge heart for orphans and refugees, but we could find our calling in working with sex slaves in Indonesia or with teens in Australia. I hope all of you submit to my blog and follow along with our team as we spend the eleven months serving in these countries.
Support
I need your support in two major areas.
1.Prayer – I praise God with everything in me for the support I get from every one of you!!! Prayer is the most important support that I need from all of you. Being away from my family and friends is going to be extremely hard for me. And I know that prayer will help me form a new family on the field!!
2.Financial �” At camp we received the following breakdown of our deadlines and costs. I need $14,300 to be fully funded for my trip.
· $5,000 for launch (already met!!!) I am just over $8,300 (woooo hoooo!!!)
· $10,000 by month three
· $14,300 (fully funded) by month six
Each deadline is to make sure we have enough money for travel for the following months and to make sure we are not to be in debt to the AIM organization. I can still receive donations all the way through month 11!!! And I pray that I do :] They would just prefer if I could get all the money in by month six.
Here’s the break down that we received (this may not apply exactly to each country):
Each month we will have a team budget of $460 per person.
This will cover our food, travel, and lodging.
We will be spending approximately:
$3.75 per day for food
$5.25 per person for lodging
$3 per day for transportation
$90 per month for long distance traveling.
This will leave us with roughly $10 per month for miscellaneous item that we might need to purchase.
I would truly appreciate if you would consider helping support me in any of these areas. Whether that is prayer, a one time donation, a monthly donation, anything that you would feel comfortable with. And I would love for you to join my blog updates!! There are only a few right now (I am still trying to finish up school, so spare time is hard to come by to sit down and write) but starting in January I would love to share what and how God is moving in my life and the lives that we come in contact with around the world.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!!
In Him,
Katy
