Hey everyone Abbey here reporting back to you! 

I've had a lot happen in the last week or two so I wanted to update you. Before I get too ahead of myself, we have to start in Tbilisi, Georgia. On August 5th we started what was supposed to be a “mini debrief”. The squad was originally going to come together, switch teams, then head to Uzbekistan by the 8th. But, little did we know that mini debrief would turn into a week-long time as a squad, and we would end up not knowing where we were going at all. 

Uzbekistan, where we were planning to go next, is having issues with visas and are backlogged for 8 months. This means we couldn’t get the documents we needed to go there. So for a few days, we didn't know where we would be going, but after prayers from our squad and leadership, we were told we would be heading to Armenia! 

While all that was happening, we had some time to process the last three months with our old teams. Then, our new teams were announced! Thus far in the race, I have been on all-girls teams, but I am now on a coed team! Once we were in our new teams, we came up with a team name, checked in with how we were doing, and had time to just hang out together. 

As we were trying to come up with our name, we kept coming to the book of Job. We watched a Bible Project video on Job where they explained the two creatures mentioned- Behemoth and Leviathan. It explained how both creatures are not evil, but that God is actually proud of them. In the video, it talks about how they encapsulated God’s creation: how it’s good but not perfect, ordered but wild, and beautiful but dangerous. After a long time of deliberation, we decided to name our team Leviathan. We looked at verses in Job (41:15-17) and Psalms and felt like this was the perfect name for us. Knowing how good and perfect God is but how imperfect we are, we loved the idea of being wild and dangerous but also beautiful. Our team wanted to have a cool name and Leviathan had a cool ring to it with biblical meaning. It was cool to learn more about it and it’s encouraged me to even dive deeper into Job and Psalms. 

After team changes we had a few days to pray into our time in Armenia, asking God what He wanted us to do. If you want to know what those things are, subscribe for updates to read my next blog!! 

Please pray for my team as we are in Yerevan, Armenia. Pray for hearts to be open to God's word and His love.