This weekend was huge for me, in more ways than one. It started out with thinking mid-week about how I hadn’t preached all year and probably would not have a chance to. At first, I was excited. I freak out in front of crowds. I hate talking in big groups and often feel that I don’t have anything to really say. However, then I thought about it more, I was kind of sad that I had never really felt called to do it. I prayed that night that if God wanted me to preach, that he would open up the doors. They always say to be careful of what you pray for.
Friday, I was called into Pheakdey’s office to talk about plans for the weekend. Katie and I agreed to go out with him to a providence for a overnight visit that would include some youth stuff, teaching English and some home visits. Part of the talk included him asking me if either one of us would be willing to preach. Since speaking was Katie’s major in college, I signed her up, with the little thought of what I had prayed about earlier creeping into the back of my mind. When he mentioned there were two spots and would I like fill the other one, I told him I’d think about it.
I went upstairs, met Katie and told her that she would probably be preaching. I mentioned there was another spot that was open and how I had not preached all year yet. Katie said, “Anne, I think this is God telling you that this is your time to preach.” I knew she was right and tried to reason it out, but in the end, I told her I would preach on Sunday. (and then went into my room and cried)
The whole weekend, every time I thought about preaching, I would start to shake and feel sick to my stomach. How on earth was I even going to get through the weekend? Could I get out of it someway?
We left Saturday morning, picked up a guy I work with named Donnie, and headed out to the provience on what was probably the bumpiest ride I’ve had yet. The ride out there was just so beautiful. The scenery reminded me of the scenery of Peru and the beauty that was there in the mountains. During the ride, we heard of how both of the guys we were with were living miracles, with their lives saved in a “moto” accident 4 years ago. When we arrived at the house, there was another man that had a accident 6 months ago. Just a friend of the family, who was no longer capable to do anything on his own, and the family just poured love out onto the guy and cared for him with what little they had. The family lived in simplicity. There was no electricity and the bathroom was large, but only had a toilet in it. A big tub was in the one corner the caught the rain and that was used for showering.
We were shown to our room. Katie and I would be sharing one of two beds (in one of two rooms) in the whole household. The family’s sacrifices and ways of life were really touching me.
We ate lunch and then went out to teach English to a bunch of teenagers. A funny part during our lesson occurred when Katie went to explain a story that involved a drive-thru window. They looked at us strangely, and we realized that they had no clue what a drive-thru window was. So, we acted it out! We are getting pretty good at doing that during our English lessons!
After that we made some home visits, and visited a cell group where we prayed for healing of some of the women. 
Then they took us (and about 20 kids) to some really neat old temple ruins. We came back home for about a hour and then took off for some more home visits and finished up with a youth service that Katie preaching at. 
We went back to the house and ate by the front porch light that was working thanks to a car battery that it was hooked up to. We stayed up and talked with the pastor for a while.
I realized that I still needed to prepare for the next day. (which I was becoming less stressed about) I also realized a small problem that I had. I only brought my tennis shoes and planned on wearing a skirt. You wear many interesting combinations on the World Race, but this was not one that I was ready to attempt.
The ground was so wet outside, that I had no idea what I would do. There was only one option left. It came down to that I would wear my shower shoes (hot, pink flip flops with little swirls on them) with my black skirt. As far as a message went, I knew what I was going to talk about. Being a leader had really been on my heart lately, and when we sat and talked with the pastor that night, he talked about how he wanted people in his congregation to step up and lead. (I even leaned over to Katie and told her that’s what I planned to talk about) So, I stayed up and worked on my message in candlelight for about a hour longer.
By 8am, church was already starting. After a few trips to the squatty potty outside, I headed in. (the nerves were getting to me) The service went for 3 hours, and I ended up being the last ½ hour. Things went much better than I expected and I was rather calm through out the whole thing. 
I shared my story of the past two years of my life and then went into talking about leadership and different leaders of the Bible. About 75% of the church was under 20, and it was kind of fun to watch them all take notes. (They love taking notes here, even in every day conversation) It was easier in the fact that due to the translation, I had time to look ahead and get my thoughts in order and make them easy to understand. It was hard though to, in that not all of what I had to say could be translated. But I made it!!!
We ate lunch at the house and prayed for the guy they were caring for before heading off. 
We stopped for another house visit and ended up eating another really good lunch and talked with a guy that was very into building up young leaders in the church, for they are the ones to someday lead this nation. 🙂 After that it was another long, bumpy ride home and good time to just process what had happened all weekend.
The weekend was just so much fun and I would even say it was probably the best time I’ve had on the trip so far. As I stepped into our air-conditioned apartment, I was thankful for the small (and much needed) trip that God had taken me on this weekend. What a difference it has made in my life!
