Hi! We're in Chicago right now. My team is hanging out in our room, trying to pick a movie and just ordered a 30" pizza. YES. Cannot wait. We've had great bonding time today. Instead of exploring the city, we all decided to chill at the hotel and get to know each other. We all took the "What's Your Love Language" test… all (except one) scoring the highest on "quality time". Go figure. Oh we just decided on Mulan. Awesome. "Let's get down to business, to defeat the Huns…" Loves it.
So… so far launch has been bien. Day 1 I was a little bit moody because I said goodbye to my Dad on a bad note (Love you, Dad) but we made up. 🙂 Today has been much better. We had a lecture about positive attitude – something I was definitely lacking the day prior. In fact, my friend, Samson came up to me yesterday, unprovoked, with some advice: he said that your joy is His joy, and your love is His love and nobody can take that away from you. This was exactly what I needed to hear. And at exactly the right moment. Thanks, God!
Philippians 2: 14-18
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me."
My mom and I had an awesome goodbye lunch. I feel like shes come full circle with The World Race. She even mentioned an interest in becoming a World Race coach! Wowzers! Who knew…
FYI: we leave Saturday for Guatemala. We'll be camping all together (like, the entire squad) in Santa Cruz del Quiche. We have two projects that we'll be spearheading (as written by our squad coach, Seth Barnes):
World Race Discipleship Center
This center will serve as a base to disciple young people, run medical clinics, send short-term missions teams, teach English classes, equip educators, and partner with schools, churches and orphanages. Our main priority is to train the youth of the nation to follow after Jesus in a radical way. Eventually, a global network of them will offer 24/7 prayer rooms, English schools, coffee shops, worship schools and leadership schools. This center will respond to the local community by establishing ministries that address their needs. Once our center is built, it will be the Central American base of operations for the World Race, continuously connecting us with unsung heroes and youth craving discipleship.
Scouting for Unsung Heroes
Most of you will engage in hands-on ministry in Guatemala. However, I am looking for a few volunteers to help establish the World Race Discipleship Center by scouting for unsung heroes. We will begin this process by networking with locals in order to find those who are serving Jesus in obscurity. We will gather their contact information and create a database for future use. We will use this database to personally follow-up with each unsung hero through a phone call or email. We will determine their level of interest and desire for help. We will pray about each and where feasible, we will visit those who will most benefit from our partnership.
Should be cool. I'll update you more on these projects soon. Here's another team pic. Enjoy. Talk to you soon!
