Hey all,
So we just got back from our 12 day excursion into the Amazon (more to come later) and we have found out that my teams route has changed. The rest of the squad will be continuing on to Peru like the original schedule but me and my team are headed to…..
Ecuador!
We don’t know much besides that we will be church planting and staying in Guayaquil. My team and I are really excited to for this changed and blessed that we have been chosen to follow this call.
The bad news of our route change is that we have roughly 77 hours of bus travel over these 5 days. We left from Apolo, to La Paz, to Cusco, to Lima, to Guayaquil. Four different buses. So please pray for rest, sanity, and no crying babies.
I’ll update you more once we are settled in Ecuador about our month in Bolivia but for now here is the second half of my answers to yall’s questions. Enjoy!
- What is the most unlikely place you feel the Lord showed up for you during your journey so far?
- One of my favorite moments where we felt the Lord show up where we didn’t expect was in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal. Half the squad was out on the street waiting for the rest of the squad to arrive and we started a huge rock paper scissors circle and got all these people off the street to come hang out. The area is in the middle of big bar scene in a really busy part of the city and we had a group of about 50 people around us seeing what we were doing. The rock paper scissors circle turned into a spoke word session and then to evangelizing to the strangers around us. It was an unexpected sweet moment.
- What fears do you have about re-entry?
- The thing I fear most is forgetting where I’ve been on this trip. And I don’t mean physically where I’ve been but rather my spiritual and emotional journey. My memory is pretty bad, even answering these questions took a long time for me to think. But I don’t want to forget the growth I’ve experienced on this amazing trip.
- How has living in Christian community (with your fellow WR racers) changed or sharpened you?
- This has to be one of the defining steps of growth I’ve expereineced on the race. I’ve lived in good community before but never a God centered, Christian community for a long time and I think I struggled with that on my first 2 months. But pushing through those tough months I can honestly say that the community around me has had a big part in my development this year. I now extremely value the state of my community around me. Being able to call each other to a higher way of living, walking in humility but also in the authority that we are given has been hard at times but good.
- Are you going to wash your hair and feet more regularly when you get home? #dirtyhippie
- Probably less because I’ll be less dirty.
- When will you get your hair cut?
- Not sure. Imma ride this new look out and see where it goes.
- What has been your favorite country and why?
- Cambodia. It was manistry month so all the guys together on one team. We dug irrigation and drainage lines all month and worked for a safe home for little girls that had been at risk for being sold into sex slavery. It was a combo of beautiful scenery, tough/rewarding work, living in community to Godly men, and showing/receiving love from the most innocent of peoples.
- What’s the strangest thing a stranger as said to you on the race?
- Well I think the most strange thing said to me was probably in another language so I didn’t hear it. Can’t count the number of times an intoxicated person has come up to me on the street and proceeded to tell me something I couldn’t understand. But in our time in Argentina, we were giving food out at a homeless shelter. After hearing we were Americans, a guy came up to me and literally talked for 20 minutes about conspiracy theories about our government and gave me a CD with some software he wanted me to use to get information for him from America and send it to him, all in Spanish by the way. I gave the CD to Ellie on my squad if your curious. I never put in in my computer for fear of what would happen. I’ve also been compared to Brad Pitt from Troy, Heath Ledger, and the Thor guy but those are getting more normal ??
- Have you or anyone of your mates pooped your pants yet? When and where?
- Oh no doubt haha. I would say confidently that 50% of the squad has had this happen. It’s hard to pick a specific story because they are so many and have become pretty normal occurrences.
- What is the most beautiful moment you’ve experienced this year?
- Most beautiful…Well physically the most beautiful sight would be Ha Long Bay in Vietnam or a sunset over the Okavango delta in Botswana. But most beautiful moment in all aspects of the word I think would be the whole experience from PVT. Being able to meet other parents and see the impact the race has on them and them able to do mission with their racer was pretty amazing.
10. Has anything made your cry this year and if so what?
- I got pretty sad when my grandmother passed away and the last conversation we got to have before she passed was pretty heavy. There’s been some moments of great vulnerability between teammates and struggling times but the most emotional was definitely with my grandmother.
11. What’s the grossest thing that happened to you involving your phone?
- Nice try…
12. What’s the one things that has put you furthest from your comfort zone?
- I think being a preschool teacher in Swaziland. I love kids but being able to lead a morning class keeping the class engaged while also keeping your sanity after repeating “Which one is the blue crayon?” a billion times and they still don’t know is tough. Also for manistry month the guys threw together a fashion show for a group of young girls that came from bad living situations was pretty uncomfortable. And the always present unacceptability of being called up to lead a church sermon at any moment.
