I’m Coming Home. Tomorrow.
Tomorrow, June 23, 2017, I will board a plane to begin my journey to the beautiful US of A.
Ho Chi Minh City — Beijing — LA — Columbus.
By lunchtime on Saturday June 24, I should be plopped on the fluffy couch in my parents’ family room, drinking unlimited glasses of ice water. And I will be the only person on that couch. I’ve been daydreaming of this for months.
I cannot fully express just how excited I am to be coming home—from the ease and comfort of the American lifestyle to the friends and family that await, I have been looking forward to this moment for probably more months than I should have.
Amidst the excitement, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t completely overwhelmed. My emotions are running on high in every direction, manifesting themselves in high fives, jitters, hugs, tears, and a wide variety of responses to the question “how are you doing?”
I’ve started writing this blog 5 times, and I’ve deleted the whole thing each time. Honestly, it will be a miracle if God gives me the words to say to actually post this before we leave for the airport in less than 8 hours. Grace please!
As I sat in our final squad session this afternoon, singing praises to the Lord with my 40 friends and our leadership team, I was surprised to find it so hard to hold back tears. I am so eager to be home and to transition to the next phase of life. Why are these emotions hitting me so hard?
It is because I am so in awe of what God has done this year.
This year has been brutal. It has not been a light-hearted year of traveling; it has been a year of intense growth, a deepened awareness of the brokenness in the world, and a greater understanding of what it means to make sacrifices for the Lord.
The beauty in this hardship is that God was faithful through it all.
He was present in every country.
He worked in every single teammate.
He never left me alone in a time of darkness.
He showed me how to run the race with perseverance.
This week, one of our squad coaches read us Romans 15:17-21 in The Message translation:
Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased—in the context of Jesus, I’d even say proud, but only in that context. I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. In such ways I have trail-blazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece. This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. My text has been,
Those who were never told of him—
they’ll see him!
Those who’ve never heard of him—
they’ll get the message!
This passage hit me right where I am at. Even though there were a lot of hard moments on this journey, I am so pleased to be able to look back and see how God worked through every second. I am proud to serve a God who gave me the strength to have fought the good fight in this spiritual battle.
Going home, I am overwhelmed because “I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures.” I want to answer any and all questions you have about this journey, but I want to make sure that my response is never “chatty” or separated from Christ. I want to speak of the glorious moments when God blew my mind. Additionally, I want to speak with authenticity about the suffering instead of skating over it, because there is testimony in how the love of Christ drowns out the hardships.
God has made it clear to me that my race is not over. My “Month 12” is going to be all about glorifying Him by sharing what He has done in and through me and my teammates. I am eager to finally be able to explain what this year has been and how it has changed me forever.
That is terrifying because how on earth do I explain the craziest year of my life? How do I explain a year when every month I moved to a new country, made a new group of friends, worked a new job, and adapted to a completely new culture? How do I explain the emotional rollercoaster that is my daily life and how do I always glorify the Lord even when I recall the moments of intense darkness?
Ask me what God taught me and my mind goes into overdrive because God has taught me something new every single day. Each month was its own journey full of very different lessons and experiences.
By my rough estimates, I think in the last 11 months I have made nearly 400 new Facebook friends, I have slept in about 35 locations (meaning I have moved all of my belongings about that many times), and I have taken about 13 modes of transportation (which is basically every mode of transportation that exists).
As I think back on this year, I see millions of flashes of moments that make me laugh out loud, cringe, or tear up. There are too many memories to sum up in a nice and neat package.
Now that I have word-vomited the jumbled state of my mind, I have one request:
Let’s talk. Let’s set up a time to catch up.
Not only do I want to share this year with you, but I want to hear about your year. God was just as present in your last 11 months as He was in mine, and I want to swap stories.
Let’s ask the deep questions and the silly questions. Let’s speak with authenticity. Let’s have grace for one another as we re-acquaint ourselves after a year’s worth of growth, and let’s be eager to encourage one another through our testimonies.
I am so incredibly grateful to each one of you for supporting me during this journey. Thank you for the financial support, the prayers, the blog comments, the Facebook likes, and the e-mails. You will never fully know the huge impact you have had! Knowing that you were praying for me was sometimes enough to push me through one more day. Knowing that something in my blog spoke to you was sometimes just the encouragement I needed that this is not all in vain. Knowing that that you believed in God’s call on my life to come on this journey was just what I needed to walk in obedience and perseverance.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Lots of love,
Molly
P.S.- I am now going to go pack my backpack for the LAST TIME! Praise the Lord! Thank you, God, for closets, more than 6 outfits, a bed with actual sheets, and a home that is more substantial than a tent. My gratitude is through the roof.
