We are headed into our third week of doing life on the World Race! It has been a busy week filled with lots of learning, fun and flexibility. So often I stop myself and just can’t help but think; Wow this is my life!! I thought I would share with you all a look into what a typical day looks like.
But first, I want to share some of the big things that happened this week. Due to covid my squad of 30 was divided into two groups to minimize the spread if there were to be a covid outbreak. Meaning; we were divided on two different campsites and had to social distance from each other. As of Monday, the quarantine period was finished, and my squad was able to all be reunited as one! We all packed everything up and moved onto one campsite. It was fun to get to know the other half of the squad and get to grow in community as one! We settled in thinking we would be staying a while however as some of you might have seen a hurricane came through. While we were not directly hit by the hurricane, we received a lot of the rain. We packed all our belongings up again except for our tents and prepared to sleep inside the training center for a couple nights since we weren’t sure how bad it would be. All in all the tents were all safe and sound, a few got some water in them but nothing that couldn’t be dried out. When I say busy week and being flexible, I am referring to packing, unpacking, packing again waiting on the weather and just playing each day by ear. Honestly, this was an incredible opportunity for us to get used to the ups and downs of ministry as frustrating as it can be in the moment looking at the big picture it was a glimpse of what ministry life actually looks like. We also found out some extremely exciting news!! My squad has the opportunity to serve in Lake Charles, Louisiana for a week doing disaster relief with Samaritans Purse at the end of October! We are all looking forward to the opportunity to serve not only off campus but in another state! Thanks God.
Back to what a normal day looks like around here, haha. You have to understand though that no day looks the same so “normal” day is relative.
I start each day waking to the sounds of crickets and birds chirping in the woods. Starting off the day surrounded by nature is one of my favorite things. I crawl out of my tent and the extent of my morning routine is brushing my teeth with my water bottle and splashing my face with some water.
I grab my backpack and head down for breakfast taking a pit stop at the porta potty. We have temperature checks around 7:45 and breakfast with the squad begins around 8. Breakfasts are filled with lots of laughs, serious conversations and talking about what the day has in store.
After breakfast we transition into an hour of devotion time, I have been learning how to sit quietly with the Lord. Some days look like diving into the scriptures, others sitting quietly praying and/or spending time with the Lord through journaling.
Each morning after devotions we have a session from 10-12. The sessions vary from worship to guest speakers all bringing incredible messages. We have heard messages on the law versus Grace, shame and guilt vs conviction, forgiveness. The importance of storytelling and so much more.
Lunch is served then we spend our afternoons doing a variety of activities that rotate each day. Some of the rotations include an afternoon of handwashing our clothes, fun activities with the squad, exercise, showers and cleaning. Side note on the showers; the first two weeks we became accustomed to the cold bucket showers however they were in the process of building a shower house. As of Monday, the showers were complete. For the remainder of our time here in Gainesville we get to use normal showers, perfect timing as the temperatures have begun dropping, what a blessing!
Once our rotation is finished for the afternoon, we typically have some free time to spend with our squads or teams before dinner. We do not have our phones during the day so this is often the perfect time for a nap or a little bit of quite to read a book.
We enjoy dinner with the squad all around the table then intentional time with our teams in the evening. Each evening we do something a little bit different. Mondays we do a bible study, Tuesdays we do something fun together. Wednesdays is gratitude night, where we share what we are grateful for write notes to people and get creative on how we can show our appreciation to people. Thursdays is feedback night and Fridays we debrief how the week went.
After team time we have some time in the evenings to hangout, catchup with people back home, play games and have fun together. Brushing our teeth off the dinner patio has become a nightly routine around here and then we all head back to the campsite to crawl back into our tents and call it a day.
The days are busy and long however the weeks seem to fly by. I have so enjoyed diving into the sessions and just soaking up everything I’m learning. I am so incredibly blessed by this season! Thank you taking the time to read about what my days look like as a World Racer!
