So, it’s been a little while since my last blog post…and despite what some may have thought, luckily I did not disappear into a black hole! At the end of June, I came down with some sort of illness, which was causing a whole long list of symptoms. After weeks of having different blood tests done, seeing different doctors between Thailand and Cambodia, and trying different medications without any improvement, I decided to come back to the States in order to figure out what it could be and to get the correct medication. I feel very fortunate that it wasn’t something urgent, as in I did not need to be flown home the very next day. However, after not feeling like myself for a close to a month abroad, I knew trying to stick out my symptoms until the end of the Race would not be good for myself or my teammates.
After being back in the States for over a month now, I am happy to say that I am almost completely better. I saw multiple doctors here in the States, and while they were able to rule out a number of things, they were not able to diagnose a particular disease, other than it likely being some sort of virus. The medication I received helped tremendously though, and now joint pain is my only lingering symptom, which means I am good to go back to the Race! While my time at home has been a refreshing and energizing time spent with family and friends, I am so excited to be returning to my team. I will be landing in Manila, Philippines on Tuesday, September 2nd!!!
Family time spent on the water:)
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While it has been a little while since Month 6, I still want to share about the month of June in Laos, because it has been one of my favorite months on the Race so far.
First off, Laos is absolutely beautiful! There is so much French influence in this country and I absolutely loved every bit of it, from the architecture to our favorite Parisian cafe, to the abundance of gelato on every corner:)
The Patuxai Arch
Before our team arrived in Laos, my team spent some time praying together for the upcoming month, and it was awesome seeing so many of those prayers answered. My biggest prayer for Laos was that we would have a host family and to be able to live in a place that would feel like home. And God more than provided. Our team was blessed by a loving host family, and a lovely home that we were invited to share with them. While living in a hut in Thailand and sleeping in a hammock in Honduras have all been amazing experiences on the Race, by Month 6, living in an actual home, and having a host family there to spend time with was just what we all needed.
Because Laos is a closed country, we spent the majority of our time teaching English. Depending on the day, we would either be teaching elementary school students, high school students, or university students. On the days we taught elementary school, we actually taught at a school and in the classrooms. Although it was quite terrifying at first to stand up in front of a classroom without any teaching experience at all, it was so heart-warming to see how excited the kids were each time we arrived to teach them. I was in a Level 3 class and taught the kids the days of the week, months, different types of fruit and played various games with them.
Other days at the school when we weren’t teaching, we led games such as the hokie pokie, head-shoulders-knees-and-toes, and red-light green-light. The kids loved it:)
And on our last full day in Laos, we were able to help our host family move banana trees to their farm, which was super fun!
Our team had a blast in Laos, and it is one of the countries on the Race that I would go back to in a heart-beat. With it being one of my favorite months on the entire Race, it’s crazy thinking that Laos wasn’t even on our original route! Month 6, our whole squad was supposed to be in Myanmar, however after a shortage of missions organizations to partner with there, we were one of the teams that got sent to Laos. But looking back now, it’s easy to see that Laos was where we needed to be in order for God to answer our prayers for a host family, a home to live in, and more.
Reflecting back to our route change from Myanmar to Laos, and now to my own personal route change from Cambodia to the States, God needed me home in order to answer my prayers of being healthy again. While being away from the Race for so long has been difficult, I am so grateful to be home, healthy, and to have the opportunity to return to my team abroad again soon!
Throughout all of this, I know God is increasing in me a confidence in prayer, as John talks about below, as God answers my prayers time and time again.
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of him”.
1 John 5:14-15
