Hello Family & Friends!
I hope this beautiful, new season finds you healthy and full of life. Wow, what a year it has been?! Yet, God remains sovereign & abundantly kind. In March 2020, I was unexpectedly & even urgently sent home from an 11 month missions trip after 3 months. Countries all around our world were closing their borders & I was fortunate to claim one of the last flights back into the U.S. I had a 75L bag of some of my only belongings on my back, a 14 day quarantine awaiting me & no absolute vision for the future. Never in my life had I experienced such a radical falling out of my hopes & dreams.Maybe you, like me, have been experiencing the devastation of your own plans falling through. When I left for the World Race in January 2020, I left in hopes to escape my life here in Colorado. I secretly envisioned a glamorous adventure with beautiful, white sand beaches and tropical coconuts to drink from (like the highlight reels on social media). And yeah, I had hopes to see some lives changed too. What I didn’t know is that the same struggles I had tried to escape here in Colorado would follow me across an entire ocean and into another continent. *Gasp* My time abroad wasn’t at all what I had pictured. Honestly, I could not praise the Lord more for that. The Lord knew the condition of my heart and the exact experiences I needed in order to know Him more fully. If you were following my blog back in the Spring of 2020, you probably have a good idea of what those experiences looked like and some of the ways I met Jesus along the way. Getting sent home from the Race was all but an easy transition. I started working my 9-5 job again, this time in isolation. I moved back into the house I had moved out of three months prior. I experienced a magnified culture shock with COVID completely ravishing the world as I once knew it. I continued battling frequent migraines. I quickly began seriously dating someone. Additionally, I grappled with the disparity between the fiery faith of believers in third world Asia & the political issues esteemed by believers here in the U.S. I struggled with my own faith. I struggled with finding other believers to gather with. I struggled knowing how to wisely steward the 10,000 dollars remaining in my account with the Race. I unsuccessfully attempted to make new plans weekly just to receive what appeared to be God’s “no.” I will spare you the remainder of this sorry list. Questions and fear began to seep into the crevices of my newfound identity, healing and freedom. How could this be what God intended?
Maybe your plans aren’t going the way you thought. Maybe you’ve been going right and left and every which way just to find out that you’re lost. Real life has its way of presenting very unexpected obstacles and detours. The phone will still ring in the middle of the night, the break up will still happen, the words will still be said, the migraines will still plague you…the loss will be all too real. Even with all of the faith and all of the prayer, really hard things still happen. You still wake up the next day & live through the heartbreak that you couldn’t escape. I know you’re probably reading this going, ” Wow, Steph, that’s low.” Sometimes we have to talk about the reality that this life didn’t turn out the way we thought it would.
This isn’t an invitation to check out and allow life to over-run you in despair. Not everything may be going the way you wanted but you’ll always be rerouted. In fact, this is really strange, but I literally just got a phone call with the news that my intended flight is cancelled for tomorrow and I’ll actually be leaving on Saturday instead….Anyways…. You’ll be set back on the path towards healing, towards growth, towards joy once again. Look up. You’re not forever lost because Christ has been there this entire time. He is in this with you and He hasn’t given up. He’s cheering you on. He is pronouncing your hope, freedom and ultimate victory. Those things are all found in Him!
That being said, I have some very exciting plans for this upcoming year! Before that, I want to thank all of you who so generously supported me over the last two years. Thank you for your prayers and financial support! One of my friends (you know who you are 😉 ) lent me a car for several months after I arrived home from the Race. Another, provided me with a bed! These blessings do not go unnoticed. Okay, here’s for the news! The 10,000 dollars remaining in my World Race account has been put towards four separate trips. The first three are week-long, “Beauty for Ashes Trips” to Guatemala, South Asia & Costa Rica. Beauty for Ashes is a women’s ministry that exists to share God’s restoration, hope, and healing with women through ministry and training. See https://www.adventures.org/beautyforashes/ to learn more. The fourth trip will be a month-long mission to Kyrgyzstan under the same organization as the World Race. See https://www.adventures.org/semesters/ to learn more! My World Race blog is up and running again. I’ll be updating it throughout the next months with all that God is doing! If you haven’t subscribed already, here’s the link stephaniegilbreath.theworldrace.org. Oh, and I leave for Guatemala this Saturday, the 16th!!
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. Psalm 23:4
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18
Love from, Steph
