11 Months. 11 Countries. The World Race.

Let me tell you about this little expedition I’m currently on.  It’s gonna be a bit long.  My friend Stacie (you can read her blog here) posted a website to my Facebook page December 2010.  She wrote “If I wasn’t getting married and working at the church I would do this, so I think you should do it, and I will live vicariously through you.”  I took a look at it.  From what I could tell, it was an extended short term mission trip.  11 Months to be exact.  That’s almost a year, right?  Not only that, it was going to 11 different countries!  Like I’ve said, I love traveling.  I love experiencing different cultures.  My only out of US trips prior to October were Honduras (twice in college-each time for a week) and a brief visit to Europe with my family March 2010.  So the possibility of visiting so many places was very drawing to me.  That, and for a good while I’d felt like there was something else I should be doing, could be doing, more than just working and going to church.  Ta da!  God presented this option.  So, with only a few friends knowing, I prayed about it.  After praying for a good week, I got an answer.  Kind of.  It wasn’t a booming “JESSICA, YOU NEED TO GO ON THE WORLD RACE!”  It was a reminder that God had already told me to ‘go’ in the great commission.  So I told God that I was going to sign up and do my part to go, and if He didn’t want me to go, He would have to stop me.

July 2010 was training camp, in Atlanta, Georgia area, in the absolute HOTTEST part of summer.  I didn’t stop sweating the entire week, which was awesome since it was also when I met all 60+ of my squadmates, as well as my 6 teammates.  They definitely got to see a good side of me.

Our route was initially: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, and India.

My team in Antigua, Guatemala for Launch.

October 2010 was Launch.  We flew from LA to Guatemala City.  There we found out that my team would be going to El Salvador for the month instead.  There went our route.  After El Salvador, we went to Honduras (strike 2) followed by Nicaragua for debrief.  In Nicaragua we found out that we’d be going to Panama (strike 3) with a small debrief in Costa Rica before flying to Asia.  Altogether, we hit all of Central America except Belize and Mexico! J  Asia was spot on with the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and now Cambodia, though we found out in Nicaragua that Africa was being changed from South Africa to Eastern Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) which means that 6 of the 11 initial route was changed for my team.  Still planning on ending in India.  It’s month 7.  I’m in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  I love my life.

On top of Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala

I will write later about experiences in each country, as this blog is already huge.  But it has been the experience of a lifetime and I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to spend 11 months of my life on this adventure.