A Mess and a Half

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of crazy. All the other trips and squads left base (Georgia), leaving only the two gap year squads remaining. My squad is Squad X and the other gap year squad, who launches the same day and returned the same day but goes to different countries, is Squad W. With just the two gap squads here our training has looked different than before. We were taught more deeper characteristics of God and what that might look like in different countries. The topics were more intense and really required sitting and spending time with God questioning and authenticating the sessions. During this time my relationship with God grew a lot more, I started seeing him as a friend and a father not only this powerful being ruling over the universe. It was really helpful to me to get to hear other people’s perspectives on the same topic. Right now I’m really learning how to listen to God and have a deep relationship with him. It’s crazy, the other day I was walking alone and I was kinda bummed out no one wanted to walk with me even though it was only like a block away, but I got the picture of Jesus being next to me and walking with me. Immediately I felt comforted knowing that I don’t ever have to be alone because Jesus is always with me no matter where I go or what I do.

Now for all the other things we’ve gotten to do! One rainey saturday all the girls got to go into town for the first time in two weeks. We spent the day (and all our money) at Target for an hour, then drove back and watched a movie for the afternoon. It was a wonderful little treat we got while the boys had a physically demanding ‘man hike’. We got to spend a night in Kazakhstan, aka the training center. We had a one night simulation where we all slept in one room, it was cold, there was music playing all night and strict rules, but it prepared us for host homes we might have overseas. Another day while the other squad was on their big Mt. Yonah hike, we got to all dress up and had a fancy X squad dinner out on the patio. The next day we took a 30 minute van ride to Mt. Yonah so we could hike it. The hike is the World Race Physical Test everyone has to do, so basically we just had to hike to the top of the mountain (2.45 miles) in under 2 hours. While the hike was a lot of fun, it definitely had its difficulties at the end. The reward at the top was so worth it! We tented at the peak of the mountain for the night after walking down the trail to the edge that overlooked the city. God’s creation is so beautiful! We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows before calling it a night. Then we woke up bright and early and walked down the mountain, which surprisingly only took us 45 minutes, I don’t know if it was the eagerness to get to the bottom or the Chick-Fil-A that was promised to us at the end. I definitely didn’t realize how much I missed CFA until I had it in front of me.

Now for the unfortunate part that happened less than an hour after we got back from CFA. So, we got back, I showered, opened up my tent and started moving my stuff around before worship. I felt pretty weak after the hike, but I assumed it was because we just hiked up a whole mountain and ignored it. Right before worship I began feeling dizzy and lightheaded, so I just walked slowly over to the worship building. As worship started I didn’t want to sit because I was telling myself ‘I’m not too tired to worship God’ , however I very quickly felt weaker and weaker so I sat down. I felt worse and worse as time went on. After maybe 30 minutes, I looked to my friend, tears rolling down my face, and said ‘I think I’m going to pass out. Do I look pale?’ As he was answering me I moved to lean against the wall so my head was held up, in the motion of doing so I ran into the speaker who asked if she could pray for me. I said yes and she put her hand on my forehead and I closed my eyes. The next thing I really remember is waking up in a cold Emergency Room. After telling me what happened and doing all the tests, it turned out I just have COVID. Previous to Thursday when this all happened, I was sick for a few days the week before the hike, but felt completely fine after those days. I assumed my body was done and healed, but the physical exertion my body went through on the hike pushed my body more than it could because it was still fighting the underlying sickness. Nevertheless, I have been inside sleeping, eating when I can, and recovering fully from anything my body could be fighting. Thank you for everyone who has been praying and fighting with me through these past few days. We serve a powerful, healing God who I know will bring me the energy I need to bounce back in no time.

Now for the future!! This Sunday, October 1 (my mom’s birthday), the girls will be loading up for a week of mission work in Florida, while the boys will load up for Kentucky. We should be working with the hurricane relief team while we are there, just to get some hands on mission work before we go overseas.

Please continue to pray for my health and everyone else’s health around me. Strep is going around here like crazy, so pray for everyone. If you have questions or just want to reach out feel free, me phone number is (325)301-7533. No guarantee that I will answer, but I would love to hear from y’all!

Now for my favorite part… PICTURES!

This is my squad at our fancy dinner This is is hiking up the mountain

This is me at the cliff that overlooked the city

This is the sky the morning we hiked down

This is the night we stayed up there and all of our tents

This was our night is Kazakhstan

This was the aftermath of our target run with all of our blankets and sleeping pads for the movie

Love y’all! Thanks for reading!