No, not in the way that we aren’t allowed to until the Race is over.
I fell in love with my squad. (It’s funny how worried I was that they wouldn’t like me)
I fell in love with AIM. (Nerd that I am, I’d already researched them plenty and already thought they were amazing…but now that I’ve met these people and actually heard them talk about what they do, I can’t get enough)
And to say that I fell deeper in love with Jesus would be a bigger understatement than when my mom says, “Linda likes Christmas.”
My heart is full. I’m so thankful for my 88% extravertedness, because I’ll never ever get tired of being surrounded by these awesome people who already love me SO much.
I’ve waited so long for this. It’s been sixteen months since God first called me here, nine months since I got accepted, and three months since I’ve had an official countdown to TC. That’s a long time.
I’ll be writing a lot more later this week, but here’s a short and sweet recap to start.
This was one of the happiest weeks of my life. The first thing I wrote in my journal on our first night was, “My face hurts. I haven’t stopped smiling in seven hours. I can’t believe how much I love these people.”
It was cold and it rained a lot.
I learned how to carry a third of my weight on my back without falling over. (I also learned that 35 pounds is actually not a pack weight worthy of bragging rights. Dangit)
I very quickly learned why they don’t tell you anything about TC before you get there.
I danced enough to more than make up for spending the past three and a half years at a school where we weren’t allowed to dance.
I completely forgot how to be selfish.
I ate all my meals standing up and didn’t even notice.
I learned to eat a lot less, but I wasn’t ever hungry.(At every meal I could hear God saying “I told you so.” Click here if you don’t know what I mean by that)
God smashed the box I’d kept him in for so long.
Liz put the rocks and trees out of business. 😉 It was beautiful.
I discovered just how necessary a sleeping pad is when it’s 42 degrees out.
I watched the Holy Spirit move in ways I’d never seen before.
People spoke truth over me that brought me to tears. In the best way possible.
I let go of things I had no idea I was holding onto, and God healed wounds I thought I’d patched up years ago.
I sat down with every alumni racer I could find and asked them way too many questions. Thankfully they love all of us little new racers and found me hilarious instead of annoying…I think. 😉
And my squad…where do I even start?
We laughed together.
We cried together.
Then we laughed some more.
We shared life like we’d been best friends for five years.
We gloriously failed at Squad Wars, and it was so much fun.
We became a family. I love every single one of them.
God is stirring up something huge. He’s about to rock the world, and he’s graciously taking us along for the ride.
I’m officially leaving the country on July 3rd. It’s all real. I’m so ready.
In order to actually leave, I still need to raise $3,556 more to meet my $7500 deadline on June 20th. Please please help make this happen! Click the “Support Me” link on the left, or send a check(make sure it’s made out to Adventures in Missions, and says “Linda Swier-July ’14” on the memo line) to:
Adventures in Missions
PO Box 742570
Atlanta, GA 30374
(PS, Checks need to be mailed by June 6th to make it in time for my deadline, and online donations need to be made by the 17th)
Yall are the best. Thank you for following my journey! Keep asking me questions; I write more often when I know what you want to read. 🙂
