Home:
A place to rest your head, to feel the deepest sense of belonging, to let your guard down and for your roots to go deep.
The meaning of home this year has not always been the clearest, or the most defined. My home has been in the presence of my 60 liter pack and my teammates who are now family. The most constant thing in my life has been Jesus and my red down sleeping bag. If our flight is delayed 72 hours, or our bus is held hostage in the middle of the Peruvian desert for a couple of days, there is no rush because I am technically as at “home” as I would be once we reach our destination. “Home”, with my pack, with my family, and with my sleeping bag.
But home, in its deepest most literal sense of meaning is where I will be in less than a week.
In 12 hours I will be hopping on a red eye plane that will be touching down on United States soil TOMORROW. Tomorrow, I will be stateside, the land of the free, the land of Chick-Fil-A, hot showers and free drinking water.
I truly never thought these 11 months would come to an end but I think I must have blinked too long one of these days and here it is.
This week we had our final debrief in Bogotá. A chance to reflect, remember and process what is to come. Next week, I will be heading up the coast from Miami dropping friends off along the way, leading me to my final destination; Home.
11 of the wildest months of my life were concluded last night as the squad came together to worship and celebrate. There was not a dry face in the room as we fell to our knees in awe of what the Lord will bring you through if you just say yes.
We did it.
The months of eating rice every day, of sleeping on dirty floors, dealing with parasites while having no access to a bathroom with running water, removing lice for the 3rd time, and going weeks without a shower because how could you bring yourself to duck under the outdoor faucet of frigid water when it is only 40 degrees. That millionth time of packing and unpacking, re-packing, and shlepping our stuff from bus terminal to plane terminal. Those two shirts that have become my signature look. The days when we really just wanted to find a quiet space to hide, but instead were locked in a compound for safety, with 12 other people and no where to go. The memories of unimaginable poverty and injustice that will stick with us forever.
We did it.
The way we poured out our hearts time and time again, even when we thought we had nothing left to give. Or the goodbyes, the inevitable goodbyes that came at the end of every month, 11 times over. The way the Lord revealed each and every one of his promises to be oh so true. He never left us, never forsaked us, and never stopped being the giver of good good gifts. Gifts of relationships, wisdom or the awe-inspiring glory of his creation.
We did it.
And I would do it all over again.
To learn the beauty of simplicity.
To understand the deepest joy available when you are really not thinking of yourself at all.
To see the realness of God in every corner of the world
To be a part of countless stories of transformation, redemption and freedom.
To become a member of the wildest family, also known as the international church.
And to have shared each and all of this with my teammates and squadmates, people who will forever be intertwined with my heart and my memories.
While the excitement of home, reunions, new beginnings, and a slight upgrade of comfort are lingering in each one of our minds today, it is accompanied with difficult goodbyes.
Goodbyes to a lifestyle that may not easily be replicated ever again, and to all the people who made it happen. The way we sought the Lord side-by-side starting way back there in India, leaving pieces of our hearts all over the world, and the way that we woke up every day depending on a power greater than our own to sustain us.
Today is bittersweet, but I am over the moon excited to see so many of you who made each and every one of these experiences possible. With your prayers, your encouragement, and your support.
India. Nepal. Thailand. Cambodia. Vietnam. Ethiopia. Rwanda. Bolivia. Peru. Ecuador Colombia.
We did it.
2 Timothy 4:7
WE have fought the good fight, WE have finished the race, WE have kept the faith.
