Halfway. I’ve crossed the halfway point of my World Race.
Looking back it’s crazy to see how much has happened since I signed up for this journey. I thought I would take this chance to recap and take a look back…because if this last half goes as quick as the first I’ll be back home in no time.
Here is an attempt to highlight the last 5+ months:
Before I even left America I switched squads to a newly formed ‘C-squad’, on a route I wasn’t excited for and a whole new group of people.
I spent the first three months leading a team of 8.
In January I lived in Honduras, at a safe house for children out in the countryside. My days consisted of manual labor, teaching English, playing games and leading bible studies.
In February I lived in Guatemala, sleeping in a tent up in the mountains. I helped clear a mountainside for a new church, volunteered in a hospital, played soccer with locals and prayed with the sick and homeless all over the city.
In March I lived in El Salvador and spent the month meeting new ministry partners for future World Race teams. We arrived with no place to stay, no plans or itinerary and watched God provide in incredible ways. I played basketball with locals almost every night and spent time painting, doing construction and working with different orphanages.
There was a team change and I was asked to step down out of leadership.
In April I lived in Bulgaria, most of my time was spent in the capital city of Sofia. We did construction and painting, lead worship and bible studies at the church and worked with refugees from the Middle East and Africa. A week of our month was spent in the countryside at a boy’s transition home, where we lived and worked with a group of 18-22 year old boys every day.
I was asked to step up and Squad Lead.
In May I lived in Albania, preparing a summer camp property that was getting over a thousand kids within the next three months. We whitewashed rooms, painted, cleaned out pig stalls, organized materials and prepared obstacle courses.
In June I am currently living in Zambia, in the southern part of the country near Victoria Falls. We have spent time with kids at schools and orphanages, taught bible studies, lead church services and shared the gospel in villages.
Over the last half year I have shared the love of Christ over three continents. I have stepped foot in 10 different countries, spent over 100 hours on buses, over 30 hours on airplanes and countless hours in the back of pickup trucks or crammed in vans.
I have seen gang members accept Jesus Christ as their savior, seen the sick healed and chains broken off people all over the world.
I have stood knee deep in pig poop, cleared out fields for fish ponds, leveled mountainsides for church grounds, painted orphanages and cleaned buildings that hadn’t been touched in over a decade.
My relationship with God is more intimate than ever before, because I rely on him EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
Most days the last 6 months haven’t been overly glorious. If you follow my journey from back home you see the picture of Victoria Falls, the snowcapped mountains of Bulgaria or the sweet faces of kids. You don’t see the physical toll sleeping in a tent can take on you, the small bucket of water I have to shower with or the cockroaches crawling all over the kitchen. The last 6 months haven’t been easy, but that’s ok…because I didn’t sign up for easy. God didn’t call us to ‘easy’.
I knew my Race was going to be wild, going to be grand and going to be full of HIM.
The first half of my World Race has been incredible…but I want more. This second half isn’t a downhill coast to the finish line, it’s a summit of the peak…the most demanding part of the journey but also the most rewarding.
Let’s go.
