Tonsillectomy, T-Shirts, and Training Camp

That is quite the title, huh? 

But it perfectly describes what has been happening in my life over the last several weeks and what I have to look forward to in the weeks coming up.  

Tonsillectomy

Yes, tonsillectomy. As weird as it sounds, at 23-years-old I just recently got my tonsils removed.  This is one of those things that has needed to happen for a while but doesn’t move to the top of the priority list until you’re going to be living in foreign countries for 11 months.  

Over the past several weeks I have been recovering (very slowly) from this surgery and this has given me a lot of time to reflect (which I will talk about more in upcoming posts).  

T-Shirts

As I talked about above, I have had lots of time in the last several weeks to nail down all of the details about my T-Shirt fundraiser. And I am selling them right NOW!!

I decided to go with a variety of colors and I also wanted to include the option to buy a crewneck sweatshirt. All of the ordering can be done directly online through Bonfire and will be shipped directly to you from them 🙂 

Click here for more details and to order: https://www.bonfire.com/kayla-calkins-world-race-fundraiser/ 

I am taking orders through October 15! Please reach out to me if you have any questions about this fundraiser.

Training Camp

With my tonsils removed and my T-Shirt fundraiser in full force it, I cannot forget to tell everyone about training camp that is quickly approaching!

Training Camp is where I will finally be able to meet the people that I will be spending the next year with! 

We all will be traveling to Gainesville, Georgia at the end of October and spend eight days at the Adventures In Mission headquarters (the organization that runs The World Race).  During camp we will be put through many different scenarios that we may face on the field, undergo training, and really just start getting this whole ball rolling!

As training camp approaches, I feel like I need to back peddle and update you all on a shift that has been made with this upcoming journey. 

When I started down this path and committed to The World Race, I had to choose which Route (group of countries) I would be going on.  At that point, I picked the Global South Route and felt very happy with where the Lord was leading me.  

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  I get an email from my advisor and the subject line read “Response Needed”

In the 0.3 seconds it took me to open the email, my mind raced with all of the possible reasons why she might need a response: Was this trip canceled? Had I been doing all of this preparation for nothing? What was I going to do if it was canceled? 

Clearly I immediately went with all of the worst possible scenarios.  None of which ended up being true.  

As I read this email I started to realize that the Global South Route that I had originally chose was going to be dissolved. 

This meant that I had to pick a different route.  

After much prayer and consideration, I felt like the Lord was leading me to join the Pacific Rim Route (Central America, South America, and Africa).

Throughout this whole decision making process I have felt very at peace.  I would be silly to think that this was not in the Lord’s plans from the very beginning.  

Now, I am excited to get to Gainesville and meet my new team (now officially known as N Squad) and see where the Lord takes us on this new and exciting journey!

xoxo

Kayla

p.s. more updates coming soon about what the Lord has revealed to me during this time 🙂