Hey everyone!
It has been quite a while since I’ve written on here and since my last blog, the world and everything that was once normal, has changed. So, I wanted to give you a couple updates on my trip so far.
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I am about 60% funded for my trip which is amazing!!! I am so thankful and blessed for everyone that has supported me financially in my journey so far and I know God will do amazing things to help me reach my fundraising goal of $15,800.
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I AM STILL GOING ON MY RACE! But there have been a couple changes. Due to COVID-19 rules and regulations, my two week training camp that was originally scheduled for the middle of July has been postponed to the first two weeks of September 2020. This means that instead of leaving September 1st for my first country, I will be spending time down at the Adventures in Missions base in Georgia for a two week training camp, then hopefully leaving straight from training camp to my first country, Guatemala. However, if international travel is not a possibility at that time, my squad and I will be spending a couple more months down in Georgia, learning about God, serving others, and working on leadership development to better prepare us for the mission field until we are able to travel internationally.
As many of you know, COVID-19 has drastically changed our lives. As a senior in high school, I’m not going to lie, I’ve been struggling. Everything has changed. My last day of actual high school was before spring break. My last season of dance competitions has been postponed currently and could possibly be cancelled. My last ever dance recital has to be rescheduled and can hopefully happen later this summer. I didn’t get a senior prom. I’m hardly allowed to hang out with any of my friends. My graduation ceremony might be cancelled. My church youth group’s summer retreat was cancelled. And through all of this, even some of my relationships with friends have changed.
I’ve cried, I’ve been angry, I’ve been frustrated, I’ve felt so many emotions, and to be honest, most of them have been negative. Of course, I’ve been constantly told throughout all of that that “it’ll be okay, this is part of God’s plan.” And of course I know this, but my negative thoughts have been, in a way, keeping that from really sinking in and giving me peace in this situation.
Well, it is currently very late at night as I’m writing this because I was reading a book just now and I felt God speak to me through this book.
Now for those of you who know me, I used to love to read! I would read constantly, finishing a book in a day easily, sometimes even reading multiple books at once. Well, as I got older and busier with dance and school, I lost my love for reading. The only time I would read would be to read boring, uninteresting books for my english classes, and sometimes I didn’t even read those! Anyways, tonight, I couldn’t fall asleep. I was wide awake and bored out of my mind, so I decided to pick the book “Kisses from Katie” by Katie Davis off my bookshelf and start reading. This book is a true story about the author, Katie, who as a senior in high school took a mission trip to Uganda, fell in love with the country and people, and eventually ends up moving to and living in Uganda while also adopting children and serving the people there. I’ve started this book before, but never got more than a few chapters into it before stopping. Well, tonight, I got to page 2 and read this:
“I cannot fathom being happier. Jesus wrecked my life, shattered it to pieces, and put it back together more beautifully.”
Of course, in the book, Katie was talking about her own life, but when I read those two sentences, I immediately felt like God was telling me that this world-wide pandemic, all these changes, it’s just God wrecking my life so He can put the pieces back together even better than before. Even though everything seems broken and terrible right now, it finally sank in that God is breaking what we have now with a greater plan in mind. We just have to trust in Him to let Him wreck our lives.
I hope you are all staying safe and healthy in this time. Thank you once again for continuing to support me in this journey.
Much love,
Quincy
