Days 245-252: Wrap-Up Week, My Last Week As a Missionary (5/8-5/15/21)

Wrap-Up week. It's something I did not get to experience last year due to COVID, but we hear it's an amazing time. And amazing it was. There was a lot that happened this week, but I will share the highlights of my last week as a NET Missionary. . . We got up early the morning of arrival, May 8th, to finish the year driving home to the NET Center. On the way from Kansas City to St. Paul, we ran into a NET alum from last year at a Culver's in the middle of nowhere Iowa, whose family then paid for our lunch! That was awesome. On our final leg, we stopped in Prior Lake, MN, to pick up Sally! We officially met her family, and we were reunited as a full family once again. She would join us for Wrap-Up Week, praise God, but would leave every other evening to sleep at her house. What a perk of living near the Twin Cities. We also quickly stopped to say hello to the Scarfone Family, the ladies' first host family of the year! They are super sweet, and it was great checking in with them. Finally, we arrived home. We got out of the van singing Bleeding Love, cleaned out Solomon one last time, and said hello to all the other NET Teams who arrived earlier in the day. It was like a massive reunion! It was extremely redeeming for me, especially, and throughout the first night as we were doing praise and worship as a whole group, all I wanted to do was put my fists up in victory. I made it, WE made it through a full 9 months! What a concept. The NET Staff thanked us for all our work, and then had each individual missionary, all 140 of us, to share one thing they learned from the year. It was awesome seeing the impact in everyone's lives throughout this year, as if we were the ones whose lives were changed throughout leading ministry. I also got to see Monica, Adam, and Sarah, my teammates from last year, who finished their second years with me as well! Also very redemptive, we spent a lot of time together throughout the week. . . Speaking of seeing people, I caught up with a ton of the NET Missionaries and their years. There was plenty of free time to do what we needed, whether it was rest, play games, or talk to people. Hence, I spent pretty much all of it catching up with other teams. The main highlights were with people that did two years of NET with me, and who I have become very close to the past two years, including Melanie (IL, Team 8), Mark (KS, Team 3), Rachel (MN, Team 5), and Audrey (OH, Team 7). We also had a couple jam sessions, and saw a couple people from last year, including my supervisor Jaime, who works at the Chick-Fil-A down the road, and my teammate Evan, who came the evening after the closing ceremony. Shoutout to everyone else I had good conversations with, there were many of you and I'm grateful for your witness. . . NET did have things planned for us during Wrap-Up Week too, such as talks to prepare us for going home, time to make sure we did not walk away from NET on any sour notes, and recognizing us as NET alumni. There were also many games, from fun superlatives, to men's session dodgeball, to ultimate frisbee. During meals, we got to perform skits and share glory stories from the road in front of all the teams and staff. Brenden and I presented a bit based off of Jeff Foxworthy's, "You Just Might Be A Redneck", called "You Just Might Be A Netter", exposing the niche stereotypes of NET Missionaries in a fun manner. It was a massive hit, and I'm grateful we were able to perform it. The girls on the team performed an original song called, "The Fanny Pack Song", while Adam from my team last year lip synced to, "You Raise Me Up", both were really great to see. Speaking of team, Team 9 ended the year with some shenanigans. The guys on my team, without telling me, bought an inflatable tube man, sent it to HQ, and had it up during the week at random points. It was legendary, and will likely be used on arrival day next year. We also established McKernan Monday, where the whole team wore Gordon McKernan merch in honor of all the times we encountered his law firm. That same day, we also got our team merchandise! The past couple posts I have used the designs we put on our merch as the cover photos. The Team 9 logo is on the front as a left chest print, while the bunched up design on the "Days 235-239" blog is on the back, which represents all of our major team jokes, sketched by Sarah. We got it on hoodies, t-shirts, tank tops, dri-fits, and crewnecks, something everyone could enjoy and wear often on the team! And obviously, there were times of prayer, from adoration to a prayer of thanksgiving, where we shouted out all the great things God did for us all year long. What a beautiful time. . . Throughout the week, we were asked to do quick chats, which are opportunities to have closure and say goodbye to our teammates, who we have grown with these past eight months. They require saying thank you for specific things, praying over each other, then saying "goodbye" verbally to the other, even if you will see them soon. It's a great way to end the chapter as teammates, and move forward to just being friends with no obligation to love or check in on them daily. I never got this goodbye with my team last year, and found the importance of saying the word back in October when I struggled to focus on my second team. So, throughout the week, I said goodbye to every teammate. I started with Elizabeth, Christina, Sarah and Sally on Monday, Samantha, Amanda and Katherine on Tuesday, Brenden, Sam, and Andrew on Wednesday, then Anthony, Luke and Grace on Thursday, before officially disbanding as a team on Friday. Somehow, I did not cry during any of the quick chats. They were very peaceful, and I was just grateful to be able to even do them unlike last year. The closure was so beautiful, and praise God for it too. . . It's May 14th, about 264 days since we all arrived in St. Paul together. Our final day as a NET group. We had a closing mass with Archbishop Hebda, the archbishop of St. Paul/Minneapolis, and a closing ceremony that included saying goodbye to our team one last time, a special video from our parents, and a final closing song. Typically, parents join us, and it's a special banquet that goes until the evening. Unfortunately, COVID is still very real, but the whole event was live streamed, which was nice for my family. But just like that, we were done. The Minnesotans got picked up and drove home, as well as Amanda. The rest of us stayed the night at the NET Center, hung out until midnight, then I left at 5am to catch my 7:30am flight back home. And that was that. The End. . .

It's been two weeks since I have been home. I began working my typical summer job as a merchandiser for a kombucha company, and have been getting involved in my brother's sports. I love being home, I missed Seattle a lot. I've realized how much I have grown in self-confidence the most these past couple weeks, being patient with myself and courageous to speak to others. But I do miss my teammates, my best friends of 8 months. We still talk pretty much daily on any mini-updates or fun things through our group chat and Marco Polo. We are all in a good place, and are looking forward to a virtual game night within the next few weeks. . . One of my favorite things from last year's blog was doing Teammate Spotlights, where I recognized each teammate on their work this year and our relationship. It allows me to honor them, and allows you to get to meet my new friends! So each day (hopefully) for the next week or so, I will drop a new Teammate Spotlight, and I'm so excited for you to meet them all! Until then, thank you for an incredible second year!