Hey everyone! Let me give you a quick update on life for the past two weeks.
My squad traveled for four days from Costa Rica to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We had so many layovers, messed up flights that sent some of us to Baltimore, an adventure day in Los Ángeles, and a lot of laughter on the planes. We were tired, grumpy, and out of it by the time we arrived to Cambodia’s capital. My team got to spend a night where the rest of our squad would be living for the 3 months before getting on a 6-hour bus to Siem Reap.
Team Hineni (my team) was estatic and full of expections for what Cambodia was going to look like for us. We live in a three-story house with our ministry hosts. The first two floors are a church and our rooms are on the third floor. Our ministry hosts have a son named Kairos and he’s our best friend. We also have Cooper the Dog and a random monkey.
If I’m being objective, this is a complete dream. But if I’m being honest, it’s been one of the hardest weeks of the race. We’re incredibly jet lagged and adjusting still. Our schedule feels jam packed and we’re struggling to make budgets work. We love that we’re teaching courses in universities, but we can’t even mention religion. Sickness is spreading like wildfire and I haven’t stopped sneezing in the past four hours. We miss our squad so so much and wish they could join us.
So when life gets hard what does one do? I used to isolate, I’ll be honest.
But now I have this weird concept of sisterhood as my reality. One day this week we all hit our lowest point. We screamed into pillows, cried, and almost gave up. My team will tell you that they don’t want to ever remember this moment…but it was my favorite.
None of us cried alone, none of us went unheard. We marched ourselves to a restaurant to clear our heads. As we stuffed our faces with pizza, we took turns venting and expressing how we felt. We promised to not take anything to heart. We promised to show grace. Because honestly, none of us felt like ourselves.
Once it was all said we took a deep breathe, reminded each other of the good in our lives, and rested.
I’m known for having only close guy friendships. I’m not the best at relating to girls. Drama forms too easily and it always ends up hurting me. Sisterhood was something that I ached for but never realized. Having guys as friends made it easy to excuse the lack of intentionality. And for some reason, it just felt safer.
For the past 3 months I’ve been living in such close contact with my team that I’ve been forced to lower my walls. I had to come in with a clean slate. And I’m so glad I did so. Every girl on my team is vastly different and incredibly intentional. They’re basically the relationships I’ve always wanted. We don’t fight a lot but when we do, it helps us become closer sisters.
In Costa Rica, one of us, accidentally took a key from our hostel. It appeared a few weeks later and we all decided that once the race was over we were going to take turns to keep it and then pass it to one another. Then, someone had the ingenious idea that we’d add a keychain for every place we visited. Essentially, it would be our pair of traveling jeans. Our team, wanting to stay emotionally connected even after our 9 months was so mind blowing to me. We hadn’t even hit our third country and we were already finding ways to keep in touch.
Sisterhood, or brotherhood, is powerful. It’s a close-knit community that fosters trust, love, and vulnerability. I know I can cry in Sydney’s arms, as much as I can just put Susan’s sleeping bag over me and make everyone crack up. There’s space for everything. We can call each other out and uplift one another. It’s all so beautiful.
The best thing I could’ve gotten from the World Race is knowing that community can be life-giving and that I can trust women to speak into my life with love and gentleness. So thanks girls! I love you all so much.
If you’re reading make sure to comment and donate if it’s on your heart. I’m so so close to reaching my total fundraising goal and I need YOUR help. ♥?
