After a week and a half of training camp we went to Athens Georgia to do local missions. All three gap year routes stayed and worked at a camp, which will be a base for Adventures Disaster Relief. We helped out with whatever tasks they wanted done around the campus, so it was a lot of renovating and related projects.

To do the work we split up into our smaller teams, meaning I was with the same 8 people all week. Each day had morning and evening worship, time before and after lunch for doing work, and then the rest of the day free.

My team definitely got the best assignments because we ended up with kitchen duty almost every day; we got air conditioning, lots of time for laughter, and got to work alongside the amazing kitchen staff they had there.

We fully embraced the tasks, immediately volunteering to help with any food prep, learning how to use an old mop bucket that refused to move, turned washing dishes into spraying anyone we knew as they gave us their dirty dish, and tag teaming the trash whenever it needed to be taken out.

The amount of free time we had here was such a welcome change after the jam packed training camp schedule. I got to catch up a little bit with what's been going on back at home, and I am so grateful for all the time I got to spend with God.

Apparently my squad decided to try and get all their doctors visits out before we left, because our urgent care/ER visit count is currently at 7, with at least 4 being this past week. One infected bug bite, one shoulder injury, and two visits for dehydration later, and everyone is doing ok. There was/is still the sickness going around. About 2/3 of our squad got sick, but everyone seems to be on the recovering side of it now! Please continue to pray for no sickness, especially since we leave for Guatemala in a couple days.

We arrive in Guatemala this Wednesday!!! This is the country God put on my heart when I was praying about what route to sign up for, so not only am I looking forward to the race finally starting, but also to see what God has in store for us there!!