In 10 days I will be driving 9 hours south to move into my new home in Gainesville, Georgia. After spending a year moving every 3-4 weeks to not only a new country, but a new home, a new host family, a new ministry, a new currency, a new language, a new style of transportation, and sometimes with a new team, the last three months have felt very strange. I arrived home the night before Thanksgiving and have found my schedule full most days every week. I have had good moments and bad. I have found my self stuck some days and moving forward other days. I call this: Life. I have worked consistently at 4 different part time jobs, plus the occasional random babysitting/house sitting/dog sitting/driving job, and also back at my full time fundraising job. Last year I read the entire Bible in the first 9 months of the year, which was one of the greatest journeys of the World Race. This year I have decided to do it again. I gained so much last year from the time I spent with Jesus in scripture. I have started the year well but also had slumps – sometimes that lasted a couple weeks. I hope and believe that the Bible in a year (or less) will be a practice that continues for the rest of my life.
I have had moments when I was glad that the World Race was over, but most of the time I miss it. I miss the people I met and the places I saw. I miss learning new languages and trying new food. I miss the kids, all of the kids, everywhere, and their smiles and giggles. I miss the simplicity of not knowing what tomorrow would be like because most of the time you didn’t know what the second half of your day would look like. I miss living in a home that didn’t have to have walls to be a home, my family that didn’t have to share a last name to be a family, and being a part of a church that didn’t have to speak the same language or even have a building to be a church. I miss the disgusting & annoying, yet beautiful & loving people who ruthlessly pursued and fought for me to have even a small grasp of the grace that won at the cross.
I am a terrible processor. A lot of times I just don’t. I don’t know if that is because it’s just easier that way or because I don’t want to touch any of the emotions that will come up. It is probably both to be honest. Also, how do you even begin processing the beast that is the World Race? The truth is, I still don’t really have an answer. Something I have found, though, is life is still harder when your focus is skewed and your eyes aren’t locked in on Jesus. It might mean you have to reprioritize your day to fit your quiet time in, but ultimately it should get to a place where it is natural, where quiet time isn’t even on your schedule, where your rest with the Lord isn’t planned into your day but your day is planned into your rest with the Lord. Another thing I have found is the memories from last year will come up. And these moments are beautiful. I probably look like a crazy person, walking around Target laughing to myself. But when, for just a moment, you remember exactly what little Thomas from Malawi’s laugh sounds like, or you remember sweet old Lily’s cafe you walked past every day on your walk into town in Bulgaria, or the moment a 90 year old woman walked you across a busy street in Vietnam, or drinking wine and eating goldfish on the Da Nang beach while playing what are the odds with Tham – our Vietnamese friend – for his first time, or the dance parties with the team all the time in Zimbabwe (lets be honest, all of Africa) … great, now I am crying at Starbucks.
I realized this weekend when I was trying to make plans with a friend to hang out that I had less than 2 weeks before the move. Thankfully I am used to uprooting and changing locations. I am very accustomed to staying in contact with people long distance and deciding what is important to pack and what needs to stay behind. God’s promise and word to me for my “month 12” season back home was “fulfill.” I saw this promise moving all over the last three months. I needed a job to start paying off some college debt, and He gave me 4+ jobs with flexible schedules and low stress environments. I needed to raise $3000 in 2 months for the fellowship and He has provided me with 27 people who have partnered with me (a lot who also donated for the World Race), a church who is continuing partnership from last year, and one monthly donor so far, all of whom have pushed me to being only a few hundred dollars short of my 2nd (of 3) financial deadline, due May 1st. He has provided a solid group of friends all within a 20 minute driving radius to spend time with, most from my college community of friends – full of accountability and grace.
In 10 days I will be driving 9 hours south to move into my new home in Gainesville, Georgia. Please pray for finishing and beginning old and new seasons well, for traveling mercies, and for an enjoyable 9 days of Indiana Spring to continue (kidding, but really not kidding). If you would like to become a partner on this journey, I am still in need of roughly $4000 to meet my financial goal of $9,950. I am looking for people who can give once as well as people who would like to commit to giving monthly. If 13 people commit to giving $50 a month for the next 6 months I will be fully funded by August. All donations are tax deductible and can be given online by clicking the ‘support me’ link at the top of this page or by mail – make check payable to Adventures in Missions, with Shelby Sawyers in the memo. Mail to: Adventures in Missions P.O. Box 742570 Atlanta, GA 30374.
With Love,
Shelby
