It has already been over a year since I left on the World Race. I ran into an old co-worker the other day and he asked me what I was doing in the US. I told him my 11 months was already over. He couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe that it has come and gone. I still haven’t come up with one sentence or phrase that can really describe it. It was an amazing year, a hard year and a year of growth. It was a year of a broken heart for the people and a heart full of love. There were many tears cried and an equal amount of laughter.
If I haven’t already said this let me say it now. THANK YOU. Thank you for the support that you have given me this past year in whatever form it may have been. The financial support or equipment I needed to go, the prayers, following my blog and commenting on it and the letters I received from family at the end of this race. All of these things were so much appreciated. It is because of your support that my squad, my teams and I got to do these things.
This is my first team; Iron Life in Moldova with Pastor Vasille and Gicu; our translator. Pastor Vasille has been called by God to build churches and to be the Pastor of one of them. So that is what he does. We guessed that he has built about 20 churches but in humility he would never tell us. In month 3 we got to help him with his calling. We got to help them do some demolition on an old building on the property he was working to build a church on. We pulled a bunch of weeds almost as tall as me, dug ditches and built a fence. While we were there he told us “I don’t understand why you would be willing to come over and do this sort of work for free.” We got to be an encouragement to him this month just as much as we gleaned so much from him.
In India, month 5 my team got to go out to some rural villages in India and work with their after school kids programs. The kids are sponsored by India Christian Ministries (ICM) for their school fee’s and uniforms and then after school they come to the church for help with their homework and to hear about God. While we were there we helped with English, taught hygiene, did skits of Bible stories, and taught them songs. We all loved this month, getting to love the kids, and play with them. In one of the villages we were in there was even a dance party that broke out when some of the older boys wanted to show us one of their dances.
This group of women stole my heart. Nepal is a country where women are still considered property and to have little to no value. Women are raised to think they are worthless. In Nepal my team got to spend time every week with these women and declare that isn’t true, that there is a God who created them and loves them! They were so eager to hear the scripture, to hear truth. While language barriers kept us from talking it didn’t keep us from communicating. At times communicating would look like a game of Charades and lots of laughter.
There so many more stories that I could share, and I have pictures for days.
I would like to end this by sharing with you about where God is taking me next and to once again ask you to join me in this next step and to be praying about what will come after that. In just a few weeks I will be moving to Gainesville, GA to go through a four month long discipleship training course called Center for Global Action (CGA). I will be taking classes on Leadership and have a mentor who will be mentoring/discipling me during that time. In the afternoon I will be given the opportunity to do an apprenticeship with one of the organizations departments. I am praying I will be able to do my apprenticeship with the Kingdom Journey’s – Beauty from Ashes department. This is a department dedicated to woman’s ministry and sending out teams of women out to the nations.
This is where my passion comes in. God started to place the passion and love in my heart for where He is taking me next in month 5; India and month 6; Nepal without my even realizing it. He started to grow a love for ministering to women in my heart and that is where He is leading me now. Working in the office will give me the opportunity to be surrounded by other women with the same passion as myself, to grow in my understanding of women’s ministry and glean from those around me. After these four months are over I am not sure where God will lead but am praying about going on one of these Kingdom Journey’s trips in January following CGA and I would love for you to join me in praying about it.
By the beginning of CGA, September 11 I need to have $2,000 raised, but need a total of $4,000 for the four months. This will cover housing, and the cost of the training. If you feel led to donate you can go to my blog erikamichael.theworldrace.org, or fill out the card in this envelope. This $4,000 will not cover the rest of my expenses such as car insurance, health insurance and gas. I have a GoFundMe Account to cover these expenses. If you wish to help in that way you can go to http://www.gofundme.com/yajuxs8w, the link can also be found on my Facebook page and in my blog; erikamichael.theworldrace.org.
Will you join me in praying about going on this Kingdom Journey’s trip in January? Once again will you join me on where God is taking me next?
*This is the thank you and support letter that I sent out. If you didn’t receive one in the mail and would like to please let me know! Shoot me an email: [email protected]
