I am officially on the race now!!! My team and I are currently in Medellín, and boy what an interesting time my team and I had getting here. Originally, we were supposed to fly out on the 11th of September, but because of Irma we had a slight change of plans:
It all started on Sunday September 10th at Launch. All 6 squads were in worship session which was going really well, and I heard some great things from the Lord! (more on this to come in a later blog) Right as soon as the last song ended one of the announcers got on stage and made an announcement. This announcement was that my squad was going to a different room for an announcement from our squad leadership…this announcement was essentially that our flights for the 11th were canceled and we had an hour to pack up all our bags and get on a bus to a church which we were going to stay at for a few days until other travel plans were made. Now this may sound pretty hectic but it wasn’t really as bad as I may be making it out to be! Everyone packed up and we got on our bus to the church. The church was actually really cool and very hospitable so it was great! We ended up staying a total of 2 nights at the church so it wasn’t too bad.
The night before we left the church we were debriefed with what our travel plans were going to look like. Most of our squad was going to take a greyhound bus from the afternoon of the 12th to the morning of the 13th to D.C. which from their they would take a plane through San Salvador into Medellín. Then one team from the squad would be leaving at 6:30 in the morning and taking a Mega Bus to D.C. early in the morning on the 13th, which from their they then took a plane through Panama and into Medellín where they would wait in the airport for a while till the rest of the squad arrived. That team ended up being mine! When I found this out I was actually excited because I was looking forward to helping my team get through the airports and customs and safely to Medellín! (My role on the squad is one of the two logistics leaders so I would on normal circumstances work with the other logistics and the squad leaders to make that happen for the squad)
So my team and I woke up early on the 12th and got on the Mega Bus and arrived in D.C. around 11 at night. We stayed overnight in the airport and then got on our plane to panama at 10 a.m. and arrived successfully in Colombia! Now customs was interesting because our immigration forms where in Spanish. However, we talked with some very helpful people who spoke both Spanish and English and we got through customs successfully!! After waiting 6ish hours in the airport (we did get food and ice-cream so it was good) the rest of the squad arrived and we got on a bus and rode an hour to our ministry host!!
So all in all we arrived here safely! Though the situation wasn’t ideal it was still quite the adventure! It was a real fun experience for me and my team, and it was good for our team to get to know each other better! Through it all God was totally in control and it was great! I’m really excited for what else God has in store for the rest of our time here in Colombia and for the rest of the race!
PS. Thank you so so much to all my supporters in prayer and financially!! I am almost fully funded and I am so very grateful for all of you!
PPS. I love you to all of my friends and family at home and I do miss you!
