hello! It’s been a couple weeks since my last blog, but I’m back (and covid free!) to share some praises from the month of November as well as a few updates about what the month of December looks like 🙂
November was full of movement for my squad, we started the month in Louisiana, partnering with Samaritan’s Purse and doing disaster relief in Lake Charles. From there, my squad moved back to campus in Gainesville for a few days before we came down with covid. Once many squadmates were showing symptoms, our entire group was moved off campus and split up between houses where we were able to quarantine based on our test results. After our quarantine was up, we all went home for Thanksgiving break. Needless to say, November was filled with change, but while each place brought some hard things, and I can also confidently say that each place brought lots of blessings, so here are just a few!
Currently I’m in Harrisonburg! I’ve been able to see my family, sleep in my own bed, attend my home church, have coffee with friends, and drive my car – all blessings that are specific to Harrisonburg, and I’m extremely thankful for my time here because of them and many others 🙂
Before this, I spent time in two quarantine houses! (because my squad was moved off campus before we had official test results, I stayed in one house for the first few days, then moved to a different house once I learned I was positive) both houses brought blessings of intentional time with squadmates, lots and lots of time to spend with the Lord, long walks with friends, and lots of watercolor parties, just to name a few 🙂
Our four short days on campus! These were the days between our time in Louisiana and our quarantine, and while it was only a few days back on campus, we were blessed with the opportunity to dream with one another, to talk about our goals, visions, big picture ideas, and practical ways to reach them! that was lots of fun (and maybe I’ll write a blog sometime about the various dreams and goals of my teammates :))
Lastly, Louisiana! We spent two weeks in Lake Charles, and we had the opportunity to build relationships with other Samaritan’s Purse volunteers as well as with owners of the homes we repaired. During that time, we made 97 homes livable again (which is a huge deal for all those families!) and over 70 homeowners also came to Christ!! big praises from Louisiana!! (also hopefully a blog coming on that soon too :))
and now moving into this month! As I shared earlier, about half of my squad tested positive for covid in November. We quarantined safely and are now covid free! But unfortunately, two other squads that are also living on the campus in Gainesville were exposed at the beginning of last week, and many of those racers have tested positive as well. Because of this, all the racers were asked to stay home from Thanksgiving until January.
To provide some context, originally, the plan had been to come home for about a week for Thanksgiving, return to Gainesville until mid-December, then come back home for about a three week Christmas break. so because of covid, when we came home for Thanksgiving break, we learned that we would not be able to go back for the two weeks between now and Christmas. Long story short, I’m here in Harrisonburg for a lot longer than expected, and looking past Christmas, I’m also not going back to live in Gainesville afterwards.
Last thing I promise! but the reason I’m not going back to Gainesville is because it was officially announced that my squad is going to Costa Rica in January!! We will be there for a few months, doing ministries such as children’s ministry, sports ministry, women’s ministry, and different manual labor ministries! We are continuing to get information about it, and specifics will come a little bit later. I’m looking forward to it a lot, and can’t wait to update you guys as I get more information!!
Thanks for listening to my little (or not so little) life update!! happy December!!
