My first travel day consisted of 76 hours of complete and utter trust, exhaustion, and pure joy. There were 6 buses, 3 trains, and 2 planes that transported our whole squad to Swaziland. I was unknowingly following throughout city to city just waiting for the next bus, the next walk, the next anything. That is where the trust came in.
I remember one specific moment when we got off the metro and I looked up to see two signs. The one to the right said “exit to buses” and the one to the left said “exit.” Naturally our logistics leader told us that we were exiting to the left to get on our next bus. It took so much in me to stop myself from saying that we were going the wrong way. But then I remembered that I wasn’t the one who spent hours and hours carefully articulating every move that we would do to get from place to place. And guess what happened…. It was the CORRECT WAY. Dang what a way to be humbled. I learned that when there is a leader that I should follow, I should respect them for the position. They are specficly placed there for that reason and that should be something to be honored. And I know for our team specifically, we think they were made for that role. They were able to lead us even when they were confused, overwhelmed, and even exhausted.
Along with that we were literally homeless for 76 hours. When we were on buses, one either slept the whole time or not at all. Side note: I slept the WHOLE time #thankscheerbusrides. At one point we walked a mile for a bathroom we could use and a place to fill up our water bottles then a mile back. Which doesn’t sound bad… it’s just difficult when you’re dehydrated and you are on the verge of fainting. Later that night we had our first 13 hour flight, most slept the whole night. When we arrived it was 8 in the morning for us… 4 in the evening in Doha (where we had our layover) and we only had a few hours to waste time in the airport. Back on the plane we went and it was still early… but late (time changes are WEIRD!!!). Naturally most of us didn’t sleep on the plane or quick avid naps were amidst. We arrived in South Africa at 5 am for them, but we were ready for bed. The mixture of jet lag, the second wind, and an aching body gave me a new revived rush. It didn’t last long. The next moment we were on our way to Swaziland and get this… the tire FLEW OFF THE TRAILER. How that happens??? I have no clue, but I have never had a better nap than I did on the side of the road in South Africa. There also may be 30 photos of me on 30 different peoples phones… Exhaustion and boredom is almost a beautiful thing on the race. It highlights the ones who like to place humor in all things, it allows us to test the waters in ways to keep us entertained, and we can comfortably sit in complete silence with only each other to keep us company. The conversations I had and the sights I saw, still make me tremble with awe.
Growing up I had ALWAYS wanted to live minimally and travel anywhere and everwhere. When we started bussing from Georgia to D.C., I couldn’t help but to look out the windows. There’s just big city after big city, fields of trees after trees, and when it was dark, house lights, city lights, car lights. Everything is bigger on the East Coast. I hadn’t known, I had never been. We pulled up to Washington D.C. (“Hi Trump!”) and I saw the National Monument just from the freeway, we passed the national archives, and I took a picture in front of the capital building! Every place we passed I couldn’t wait to come back and explore more. It was quite a funny experience because we ended up trekking through the downtown streets of DC with our giant backpacks on us. I couldn’t help but think that we look like we are homeless, yet we looked much too clean. This was it though, this has been one of my dreams. All my possessions on my back, where I decide to sit is home, and I can decide to go anywhere at anytime. This wasn’t 100% the case but my love bucket was being filled.
Along with that, okay we were spoiled… we flew Qatar and we were treated like first class in the economy section. I could only look at everything we were given with my jaw dropped. Endless movies to watch (marvel here we come), endless food served with dessert, blankets that covered my whole body, warm woven socks, bathroom faucets where you could decide the temperature. This was the biggest shift from that long, long bus ride. And the Qatar airport we flew to… wow. I have never seen a nicer airport, I don’t have a ton of experience with airports but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the bathrooms was covered in marble. Traveling is just such an eye opener to everything you couldn’t experience at home. There are so so many people in this world. There are so so many sights in this world. There are so so many different experiences just waiting to be experienced! My favorite moment came from after this airport.
On the second flight, it was somehow even nicer than the first… how that happened, I have no clue. But that wasn’t the point. Halfway though the flight, I see my fellow world racers deep into a bible study together. What a reminder that we are here for, to only give glory to God. Into His word I went. I’ll almost felt bad since it was pitch black out and I was that one person with their airplane light on but oh well. I ended up reading, journaling, and reading some more… I ended up reading what I felt like was the longest psalm ever, but ooooh did it have some good stuff. It was Psalms 119. If you turn to it, there are what seems to be different peoples‘ prayers. I am assuming (this is just my thoughts, I don’t know how accurate this is) that each “prayer” was written without the other knowing. But all the prayers contained a few of the same words; statues, precepts, and testimonies. I wanted to define the words.
Statutes: Established rule or laws
Precepts: Command rule or law.
Testimonies: A statement said by a witness to prove something is true.
I just found it interesting that all these words were said at least 20 times, if not more. I think that just shows the power to how important His laws are and His testimonies are. Not only were they not “our” testimonies, but they all specifically say “your (God’s) testimonies”. And when a word or phrase in repeated in God’s word, it is deeply meant.
So here I am going out to learn and follow His laws. We are being made vessels in his story. This will allow us to have testimonies to share his word, but not though our own words. Through His. That way we don’t get the Glory, it’s all Him. I guess this whole psalm is just a giant prayer to the Lord to plead to keep His commandments and to allow us to be vessels for His work.
But here I am 4 days later! After a tire flying off the bus coming from the South African airport and the best nap ever on the side of the road… I’m safely in Swaziland!!!
