Reflections
My time in South America is nearing an end. The people on this trip have become my family. This September, we celebrated our “team-aniversary” of one year on the road. We travel together, minister together, eat together, work out together, and hang out together. We share everything—food, space, tears, money, beds, sickness, and laughter. We’ve grown to around thirty people, and it’s not uncommon to squish all of us into sleeping quarters meant for ten or less. We all know who has the wildest morning hair, who snores the loudest, who takes the longest in the bathroom, and who will be the crankiest without coffee. We love each other through the car breakdowns, the miracles, the adventures, and through the mess.
Originally, we p...
My time in South America is nearing an end. The people on this trip have become my family. This September, we celebrated our “team-aniversary” of one year on the road. We travel together, minister together, eat together, work out together, and hang out together. We share everything—food, space, tears, money, beds, sickness, and laughter. We’ve grown to around thirty people, and it’s not uncommon to squish all of us into sleeping quarters meant for ten or less. We all know who has the wildest morning hair, who snores the loudest, who takes the longest in the bathroom, and who will be the crankiest without coffee. We love each other through the car breakdowns, the miracles, the adventures, and through the mess.
Originally, we p...
lanned to complete our entire journey in eleven months. Now, over a year later, we are just working our way up the coast of Brazil. We still have four more countries to travel within South America, not to mention the islands of the Caribbean. I will be leaving the team to go home for the holidays, and am praying about meeting back up with them in the Caribbean. As I reflect upon the past months, it is hard to believe all the craziness I have seen and experienced—both the good and the bad. I have seen blind eyes healed, deaf ears opened, uneven legs grow even, a women sick for 15 years and bedridden for 3 years totally healed, reports of canceling surgeries because of healing through words of knowledge, cancer healed, and many more. I have stepped foot on nine countries with still four to go in the last year.
I have traveled by, car, bus, train, airplane, motorhome, ferry, cargo ship, subway, foot, and taxi. I have slept in cars, on top of cars, on tarps in fields beside highways, many church floors, beaches, motels, sex motels, tents, hammocks, public benches, an RV, nice hotel beds, disgusting hostel beds, strangers’ homes, high rise apartments, and more. I have been to the beach, the jungle, the mountains, glaciers, desserts, the dumps, the slums, and the nicest parts of some of the most amazing cities in the world. The immense contrast that I experience every day is one of the most mind-blowing facets of this journey. Months ago, one of my team members joked that whether we were told we were sleeping at a five-star hotel or on a cement floor, we would have the same reaction. Neither would surprise us. Honestly we are fine and happy with either.
Taylor McClendon
I have traveled by, car, bus, train, airplane, motorhome, ferry, cargo ship, subway, foot, and taxi. I have slept in cars, on top of cars, on tarps in fields beside highways, many church floors, beaches, motels, sex motels, tents, hammocks, public benches, an RV, nice hotel beds, disgusting hostel beds, strangers’ homes, high rise apartments, and more. I have been to the beach, the jungle, the mountains, glaciers, desserts, the dumps, the slums, and the nicest parts of some of the most amazing cities in the world. The immense contrast that I experience every day is one of the most mind-blowing facets of this journey. Months ago, one of my team members joked that whether we were told we were sleeping at a five-star hotel or on a cement floor, we would have the same reaction. Neither would surprise us. Honestly we are fine and happy with either.
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