S I C K

Well, my friends, the time has finally come to update y’all on the journey that is the World Race!!! Get riled up. There’s a million things to say, but time is limited, so I’ll try to keep it short!

Team XOXO (Savannah, Steph, Caitlin, Stacy, Ris, and myself) arrived in Tacloban, on the island of Leyte in the Philippines one week ago, after a 40ish hour travel day. Needless to say, we were pretty sleepy and went almost straight to bed.

We are here in Tacloban working with Kids International Ministries! We are staying at the Lighthouse, located just 200 yards from the beach! Coming from Kansas, it’s definitely wild to wake up to the ocean so close.

Each day our team wakes up to an amazing breakfast prepared by our host family. We then spend time in the Bible reading a chapter of Proverbs, followed by prayer, then dividing up for ministry. There are different opportunities to serve even within the ministry which has been cool to experience so many different things within the team. Some of us load a van up and drive with our host family into villages around Tacloban to distribute food to schools and families. Some of us stay and do construction work on the school that’s part of the Lighthouse. Some of us will lead Bible studies for kids or parents, depending on the day and what’s available.

As much as they told us at Training Camp to take care of ourselves right before launch, I ran hard and was so worn down by the time we left. Add in a 40 hour travel day and then a drastically different climate, and you get one sick kid. At the beginning of this week, sickness set in. Sunday my head was pounding, my throat was sore, and my sinuses were plugged up.

Monday I had to rest. It was hard knowing everyone else was going out to do what we came here for, but I knew my body needed rest to recover before it got worse. I slept all day, and only woke up to eat. I’m still in the process of recovering, but lesson learned. Along with my head being sick, my heart has also been sick (not my physical heart, it’s pumping blood to keep me alive, don’t worry).

Being in the Philippines has been hard, emotionally and mentally for me. Never having left the States before, my heart has a hard time catching up with the poverty my eyes see every day here. Though people here are SO incredibly loving, caring, and kind. The kids have joy like I’ve never seen before. They’re beautiful.

I’ve wrestled with God every morning since I’ve arrived here. How is it possible that I’m here? Part of me feels I have nothing to give, but at the same time everything. Most of this week, I’ve stuck to construction because it’s all I’ve felt like I could do and be fully there for. After the first day, I found peace there, in helping where I could be fully present. Now that I’ve processed more, I’ll dive into more in the coming weeks.

Another blog will be coming soon, about leading up to launch and all that came with that week, but this needed to be written first. Much love to you all, thanks for following this journey and loving me so well, and for contributing in any way to get me here!

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Prayer requests:

-Team Unity (living in community is GREAT! We’re still learning about each other and how to best serve and love one another)

-People of Tacloban to be open and receive the Gospel.

-Other teams from our squad and the work they’re doing

-Fundraising (I’m just $1,505 from my next deadline!)

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Another update will be here SOON. Just a few more days! 🙂

Stay Wild,

Vicks