You know during a marathon… people get to mile 20 or 22, and they say they’re hitting the wall. Well that was my month 9 on the race.
1. Iglesia Bautista
This month, Samson’s Mullet partnered with a Baptist church in a suburb of Santiago, Chile named Lo Prado. The attendance of the church has been slightly declining the past two decades. It’s a rather older neighborhood and unfortunately, the congregation is either passing away, getting very sick and unable to physically attend church, or growing up and moving to a different part of Santiago. With that being said, I’ve never seen so much love, sacrifice, dedication and hospitality than from the the existing members of this church. I absolutely have fallen in love with this church and my Chilean brothers and sisters of Christ.
I had the opportunity to introduce my Houston’s First Baptist pastor to the pastor of this church (more details about this story later on in my blog)! I got to hear the challenges of not only this church but the church in Santiago. Chile is a thriving nation… and with more luxuries and wealth, comes with less time for church and more time working to maintain the lifestyle. Hearing this absolutely broke my heart. It gave me a perfect mirror image of America.
2. Children’s Ministry
Apparently there’s a saying between pastors but you have a dead church if there’s no youth. Like I said before, it’s been extremely hard to keep youth at this church but they aren’t quitters! They’re doing anything to invite children and young adults into their congregation. One day, we literally piled up into a truck… blared music…. blew up balloon animals and picked up kids around the neighborhood for a children’s service! Some of my favorite moments from this month include playing Ships and Sailors (en español), and hours and hours of fellowship over games! 
3. Se Regala cafe or te
One of my favorite ministries for this month was on Tuesday and Thursday nights! We would stand outside of the metro station with signs saying “Se Regalo Cafe o te,” which translates, “we have a gift of free cafe or tea!” People would be so confused… why would anyone want to give out free coffee or tea? They would come up and we would have an opportunity to tell them that as much as we love giving out free hot drinks in this cold weather, Jesus has a bigger free gift for them… we just have to individually accept it. I loved meeting all the neighborhood dogs, practicing my Spanish, and of course… offering prayers to anyone who needed it!
The coolest story from our metro ministry would be of a young man carrying a big guitar-looking case.. He came up to us wanting a coffee and Pastor Samuel got to talk for a while. Apparently, he grew up going to church with his grandma but when he got older, left and has never been back. He boldly told us that he was worshipping Satan and participating heavily in demonic practices. Of course, our hearts were hurting when we heard this but we tried to love him the best we could. Pastor could see that this man was carrying a heavy weight with him. He was able to pray for him and after 30 minutes, the young man ended up giving himself to The Lord again… bawling in tears. Right before the young man left, he gave Pastor Samuel the case he had been carrying around. He said he wanted nothing more to do with Satan, including animal sacrifice. Pastor Samuel said inside…. was a sheep’s head. I don’t know much about animal sacrifice but I do understand the burdens of the world and idolatry and each one has it’s own consequence against the life that God has called us to. Praise God for James 2:13, “Mercy triumphs judgment.” Angels and Saints were dancing in heaven with our Father when this young man turned away from His sin… not holding it against him. No matter how far we think we run away from God, He’s right there to lovingly forgive us…. even when we don’t deserve it!
4. Abuelo Ministry
It seemed like this month, we had grandparent ministry. A lot of former members aren’t physically well to come to service (due to aging or sickness) so we brought service to them! We did a lot of house visits with the pastor… sharing stories of the race, encouragement, prayers, and worship. One man named Benjamin has been battling cancer for years and tears swelled up in his eyes when we all filled into his living room. And of course in good Chile fashion, we would end each night with fellowship around the “once” table! Lots of guacamole, sopapillas, ham, cookies and cake!
Also, this is Arnoldo and Eva. Audi, Bekah and I stayed in their house for the month. Every night, we would come home from ministry and gather around the living room and talk about each other’s day. We had the privilege of celebrating Eva’s birthday and Father’s Day with Arnoldo. I’ve never felt so loved by a host like the grandparent love from them. They have two sons but Arnoldo would always tell us that God’s finally given him an opportunity to have 3 daughters! They were seriously the cutest. I told them that they’re 
% invited to my wedding… but I’m only 50% I’m getting married. Either way, this won’t be the last time seeing my Chilean Abuelos.
5. I gave a sermon to a church!
I had the honor of sharing my testimony, COMPLETELY in Spanish the first week. (I’m not saying it was good… but probably understandable haha). And on Father’s Day, I got to give a whole sermon about worrying/our Good, Good Father! That’s something I never would have had the confidence to do back at home!
6. Exposure Intern
This month, our team had the privilege of adding two new teammates for the month! Adventures in Missions has a program called Exposure, which allows individuals to join a World Race team on the field. They are in the age range for a Gap Year Program but may not have the time or commitments to do so. Exposure gives these college-aged students a chance to work alongside us, getting a little taste of what The World Race is like! Meet Tiffany and Sam. Oh boy do I love them.Sam (on the very right) has so much wisdom and knowledge. He wasn’t afraid to call us higher and jump right into ministry. Tiffany (on the very left) My girl. I miss this ghetto-fabulous girl from Florida. She’s intentional with everyone on our team, loved our host family better than I’ve seen anybody do on the race, and has the absolute biggest heart… filled with child-like faith and joy. Tiffany and Sam became integral parts to Team Samson’s Mullet and I was so incredibly sad to see them leave. I know they both will be incredible World Racers if that’s what God is calling them to in the future. I’m honestly just blessed and so grateful to have had the opportunity of two people with fresh eyes come and to remind us to see every opportunity and gift it is to be on the race.
7. Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le… VIVA CHILE!
My team finally got to go to a South American soccer game! While printing off our tickets, we met an amazing man named Daniel. He said that he and his family were also going to the game and offered to escort us there and home! Our team wanted to go all out so we went to the local market and bought Chile jerseys! When we first arrived at the stadium with Daniel and his 5 sons, we got stopped to be interviewed by Fox Sports!
Chile won 3-0 against Burkina Faso during an International Friendly Game! 
Also, finally…. a Texas Longhorn, Baylor Bear and a whole lotta Texas Aggies cheering for the same team!
8. City Adventures
Santiago is one of my most favorite cities in the world. It’s a rich city with beautiful architecture. Some of the highlightable moments: 
Plaza de Armas, Museo Historico Nacional, San Cristobal Hill, Llama sighting, Patio Bellavista… oh, and eating Taco Bell for the first time in 9 months. #NoShame
9. Valparaiso y Vino Del Mar
On one of our off days, we decided to take an hour bus ride outside of the city to Valparaiso. It’s a beautiful city by the bay!! They’re known for their artists and wall graffiti art. It was one of our last weekends with our favorite interns, Sam and Tiffany. We ended the day by watching the sunset over Vino Del Mar. I will always remember this day for the rest of my life.
10. Once
LOL. In English, that looks like “once upon a time.” In Spanish, that looks like the number 11. But in CHILE, once is dinner time. Oh how funny translations are! When we first got our schedule, it looked like “once… slash… dinner” would have been at 11 at night! WOW. Thankfully, we had dinner around 7 pm every night prepared by our lovely and wonderful house mom, Susana. And Praise God that it wasn’t at 11 because some of my favorite moments coming home from the race would be during once. Dinner time was always filled with laughter, and jokes… lots of guacamole and sweets…. sometimes sopapillas, ham and scrambled eggs, homemade chocolate made by Susana… card and dice games with the team… and making our host family laugh so much, tears would come out of their eyes. I love Claudia and her fiancé, Juan, and Jose and Susana so much, they became my Chilean family.
11. God’s Answered Prayer
Like I said in the beginning, I was hitting the wall of the race. Honestly, I had cried more times in one week this month than I had the whole race combined. I was tired. Exhausted. I wanted to go home. I wanted to see my family and my friends. More importantly, I made a verbal commitment to another organization after the race so anytime I thought of home, I realized how little of home I was actually going to get. If I didn’t have supportive teammates, prayer warriors from back home and the most loving hosts this month, I definitely would have started looking for flights back home.
I kept praying over and over again…. “Lord, don’t let my emotions and my flesh dictate my walk with you right now. I’m tired. I don’t want to finish the race, nor sent out as a missionary anymore… but I know these are my feelings. And you’ve taught me, feelings are real but NOT reliable. I know you’ve made it clear for my calling after the race and I’ve commitment… now I need to trust you and to feel your peace and JOY through my obedience. And God answered.
My Missions Pastor from Houston’s First Baptist Church happened to be in Santiago this month and saw from one of my Facebook updates that we were in the same town. I ended up meeting with Jerrell and his friend who was with YWAM. They treated me and my squadleader, Bekah, to an AMAZING breakfast at The Ritz Carlton. But more importantly, Jerrell and Jorge spoke so much truth and wisdom and gave me the encouragement that I needed to finish the race. They helped me realign my focus and shift my perspectives… all to God. I couldn’t have thought of a better divine appointment from God because of course, He knows exactly what we need better than we do.
27 DAYS TILL I’M BACK IN TEXAS
