kindness. What a simple way to tell another struggling soul that there is love to be found in this world.
I can say that the thought of a birthday on the race did not appeal to me in the beginning. I have loved my families’ tradition of spending quality time together and I wasn’t sure what the day in a foreign country would look like nor was I very excited about the possibility to be traveling on my birthday. As April came to an end and we were being told details about when and where we would be traveling, I was not stoked to be told that we would be flying out of Cambodia early April 29th with a long layover in Malaysia (16 hours!) then landing in the Philippines midday on the 30th. Then I was told that we would stay the night in Manila then early May 1st we would be jumping on a 24-hour bus ride to get to Tacloban. I will be honest; I was sad to think that I would be spending my 24th birthday siting on a bus. I talked to a few friends and just was trying to see the best in it and make the most of what was to come, I even started joking about it.
Then I was amazingly blessed at dinner to be told that we would not be spending a 24-hour bus ride celebrating my 24th birthday, but that we would be spending the day resting and leaving the following day! To say I was freaking out would be an understatement, then to top it off as I sat there playing cards I look up and coming through the door is my friend Jake.
Side story – remember month 1 in Costa Rica when I wrote a blog about how high would you climb, and I talked about how I got the blessing of meeting another team? Our team got to spend the first week with a team from a GAP squad that was finishing their first month in Costa Rica. I was so grateful for them in a time that I really needed them, but also, they were part of a squad that my friend Hannah who Is from Washington, just so happened to be on. At the time she wasn’t on that team, she was in a different part of Costa Rica, but it was still so amazing to connect with them and get to know them. Well fast forward Jake who was from that original team walks through the door! It just so happened that the GAP squad was finishing their final month in Manila. GAP program is also through AIM but they do either 5 countries in 9 months or 3 countries in 9 months. WELL it just so happened that since all squads change teams every so often Jake had been put on a new team and with that my friend Hannah was placed on his new team! I was ecstatic! I went to bed that night excited for what my birthday would hold and the opportunity to catch up with the two of them.
I got to walk around the community playing with children, inviting them to come to K.I.M. later in the day to swim, and was surrounded by the laughter of children and loved by my squad mates as they sang me happy birthday and even wrote me handwritten notes. I love how the Lord gave me that as a blessing but he also blessed me with the fact that all the details worked out. I knew that my birthday was going to be hard to be away from my family and to top it off, my family asked me what they could do on my birthday to honor me even though I would not be there. I can’t express how blessed and loved I felt on a day that was supposed to be completely different. I got to be with my squad and feel the love of the family that we have become. I was honored to be able to feed them all a piece of cake as tradition and then we had worship. It was a beautiful day filled with so many blessings.
