Our squad recently found out some exciting news. We are going to Vietnam! The leaders unexpectedly announced to us that we will be in Vietnam for about a month during Christmas before we head to Cambodia. All of the squad was completely shocked, and we are all super excited to add an extra country to our trip. I am so pumped to be able to share the love of Christ with the people of Vietnam. This completely unexpected announcement has led to Vietnam now being one of the countries I am most looking forward to, mainly because I just have no clue what to expect. We will be one of the first World Race teams to go to Vietnam since Covid, so this will be very exciting and a lot of fun.

Last week all the guys at training camp had to go through the man hike. The man hike is designed to challenge us physically and mentally and teach us to rely on the Lord and each other. Me and my team of 7 other guys all worked together to carry items including a giant tractor tire, a slightly less giant tractor tire, and an extremely heavy log throughout the woods. Each item had to be carried one lap throughout the woods and then we had to do an additional lap for each member of the team. Also each lap someone had to be blindfolded, someone else had to be carried, and someone else had to be crab walking the entire time. This was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, and me and my team definitely learned a lot and grew closer because of it.

Earlier this week our squad got to go on a backpacking trip at Yonah Mountain. It was a fairly short hike but the views at the top were absolutely stunning. We hiked up the mountain about midday after a regular morning of training and stayed the night on the mountain. The next morning we had to make it back down the mountain and back to campus in time for a morning session again. Luckily coming down the mountain was a lot quicker and we even had time to grab some Chick-Fil-A before returning to campus. It was really nice to be able to get away from the campus for a little bit and have a change of scenery.

Today was our first day of local outreach. This week we are going to begin having our regular morning training sessions, but then in the afternoons we will start to do local outreach to activate what we have learned in training camp so far. Today we did some evangelism at Target and Walmart. We were able to meet some really cool people and pray over them. Also I was able to restock on some snacks which was awesome. It was super exciting to be able to pour out into other people, since we have been poured into so much since we’ve been here. This was also my very first experience doing street evangelism. I definitely have a lot more room to grow but it was overall an awesome experience.

Please continue to pray for me and my squad. There has been quite a bit of sickness popping up so please pray for health and protection over my squad. Also please pray for this next week as we begin local outreach that it can be fruitful.