The month of May has been a month of exciting announcements and celebrations. In May, 3 of my friends announced they are pregnant, all due later this Fall! Another 3 people I know got married in May. Also in May, I attended 2 different family members’ graduations in one weekend and have another coming up in June. May and June is a season of new beginnings, the end of one season and the start of something new.
We are now almost to the halfway mark of the “new” year.
This got me thinking about how fast life moves. I feel like it was just the other day I finished my MPH and celebrated the achievement with family and friends and then started a long-awaited job soon after. The degree (although less credits than undergrad) took me the same amount of time. 4 years that seemed like an eternity! Time moves so fast looking backwards, but in the middle it moves sloooowly. I remember my grandmother telling me that the older I get, the faster time will seem to move. I didn’t believe her because at times on a boring summer day with no school or camp, time seemed to move so slowly. Looking back though, where did time go? This reminds me of the following verses on time…
“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:16
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… Ecclesiastes 3:1
I’m excited about how this World Race journey is changing me even before it’s really started. My faith has grown and I have been forced to ask questions of myself and of others I might not have had the courage to ask- had I not said Yes to the call God put in my heart. As I get closer to training camp and launch, I’m learning more about myself, and more about healthy community and healthy emotional spirituality (more on this another time). Overall, I’m learning that every day matters. Time matters, no matter how fast time seems to fly by.
What/Who am I living for? What/Who are you living for?
Now for my own exciting announcement!
The first fundraising deadline ($5000 by July 20th) has been reached 7 weeks early! *The actual amount shown above might not reflect it yet due to the processing delay.
Thank you to everyone that donated, encouraged, prayed for me, and shared this blog with family and friends. I’m even thankful for those of you who are skeptical and think I shouldn’t go and constantly ask me if I’m still committed and how preparation is going.
Overall, I’m shocked, excited, and oh so grateful. Training camp is right around the corner in August. Thanks to separate donations via my GoFundMe page, my flight to training camp has been booked. For 10 days, we will be living in tents, eating foods of the different countries, team building with the squad (the 30-40 people who I will be traveling with), and learning and training for what we will be doing during the 11 months. I haven’t slept in a tent since I was a Girl Scout a very long time ago. While I’m not too excited to sleep in a tent and take cold bucket showers for 10 days/nights, I’m excited to meet my squad! We have been talking and texting almost every day since I committed to the World Race in January. Every single one of them who I’ve interacted with so far is passionate, talented, and most importantly a follower of Jesus. It will be awesome to see and give everyone a hug! Through our ups and downs, I have seen the squad be there for each other and point each other to why we are doing this… because we have been called and because we are mission-minded and want bring God’s love to the nations.
In courageous faith and for His glory alone,
Sharon
