Team JUBILEE about to board the train to ROMANIA with all our STUFF!
(From left to right: me, Tyler, Tracy, Justin, Carin, Aly – our fearless leader, and Brittany) …and Nathan Salley decided to jump in the background of the pic – look for his arms, lol.
Hiking around the streets of Ukraine before heading to Romania… we didn’t stick out AT ALL. 😉
It’s day three of The World Race and after a 29-hour train
ride from Kiev (Ukraine), we finally made it to Bucharest, ROMANIA!! Woo! We’re
so happy (or should I say JOYFUL… we are Team Jubilee after all), to be here.
Honestly, the place we’re staying is like a palace. It’s called Casa Shalom
(House of Peace) and it’s just that. It’s massive, gorgeous, and feels like a
place of rest. We are so blessed to be here for the first month and be able to
ease into the World Race lifestyle. There’s actually some other World Racers
staying here with us (the L squad) and we got to meet and chat with them
tonight – it’s cool to gain some wisdom and insight from them since they’ve
been on the field for about nine months now and know the ins and outs of stuff
we know nothing about. We’re “World Race babiesâ€� as they call us. 🙂
I feel like so much has happened in the last three days…
it’s hard to articulate it all. But it’s all been wonderful and I feel more and
more blessed by this opportunity and by my teammates each day. They are so
legit. It’s beautiful to be in such a loving, genuine, and positive Christian
community. This is the way it was meant to be.
God has been providing in miraculous ways… and there’s one
story in particular that I want to share. Our budget on The World Race is
pretty tight… like, $3 a day for food tight. That’s going to be a lot easier to
do in Africa and not so easy in Eastern Europe (where we currently find
ourselves). We’ve been eating delicious meals of Nutella and bread, apples, and
salami and cheese sandwiches (I’m not being sarcastic… it’s been good… just
small portions).
Nutella and bread… SO GOOD! Notice the Swiss Army Knife. Yea, we’re hardcore. 🙂
Salami and cheese with our massively large packs in the background. Mmmmm. 🙂
So we packed all the food we needed for the beastly train ride
(which ended up being SO MUCH FUN!!! Everyone had a ridiculously positive attitude
the whole time… have I said I love my team??… and we all actually slept for
most of it. We really needed some good REST and God definitely provided. It was
like we all took sleeping pills or something, but GOD was our sleeping pill. 😉
I think I slept for something ridiculous like 13 hours, but I loved it. Ok,
back to the story… this is a long parenthesis lol.)
We love sleep. 🙂 …and FOOD! (Tracy shown snoozing here) 🙂
So we were getting a little
low on food towards the end of the trip when our “little angel in green pants�
arrived (that’s what we like to call her.) She was a small European woman and
came right up to our cabin to give us this package of Romanian-looking cream
cheese/ sour cream completely out of the blue. She didn’t speak any English,
but it was clear that she simply wanted to give us this gift with a smile. We
were deeply grateful for this gesture, thanked her, and began to open it up when
she came back again with a loaf of hearty whole-grain bread to dip in the
cheese. Amazing. She then continued to leave and come back about six more times
(I’m not over-exaggerating here) with other forms of delicious items that she
graciously gave away. We were literally overwhelmed with her generosity and in
awe at the provision of the Lord. By the end of all her giving, we found
ourselves looking at a feast of apples, cucumbers and tomatoes (which we called
Bob and Larry… yay for Veggie Tales!), pastries, sweet bread, regular bread,
three different kinds of cheese, nuts, etc. We were completely in shock but
filled with JOY at this. Our God is a GOOD GOD who likes to give His children
GOOD GIFTS when we depend on Him! It was so clearly His provision in this
circumstance and we all just couldn’t help but think about how He provided
MANNA to the Israelites in the desert and how this in turn was our “food from
heaven.â€� So amazing. 🙂
Carin with our first free items… we didn’t even know what to do we were so excited!
Brittany, Carin, Aly, and my leg – all enjoying our “manna” and the wonderful sleeper train!
I also want to add that our team is RIDICULOUS in such a
good way. My abs are sore from laughing so hard with them over the craziest
things every day. Laughter is a true sign of JOY… and boy do we have a lot of
it! We’ve started a quote book (which I will have to share pieces of in the
future) and have had some interesting experiences together thus far to say the
least. We can be in hysterics one minute and speaking deeply and intimately
with each other the next… the range is awesome.
We’ve decided on some team
norms for the duration of the race which will include: weekly Sabbaths, Bible
studies, and worship sessions, prayer for the other teams on our squad and
their ministries, and continuing with our morning prayer sessions and nightly
team meetings with prayer, feedback (or “milk and cookies� as we like to call
it – which includes constructive input for any of our teammates if we have it,
but mostly consists of simply encouraging and speaking LIFE into one another –
which has been incredibly fruitful so far.) So yea, I’m really excited to see
what God has in store for all of us! YAY for this crazy adventure for the Lord!
I am having a BLAST already and feel like this is exactly where I’m supposed to
be. Praise God. 🙂
ALSO enjoy some FUN FACTS from the RACE so far!
– I got hit by a car in Ukraine the first day I
was there. I’m fine though, don’t even worry about it. 🙂
–
I’ve nicknamed my massive backpack “Goliath� or “G-unit�
for short
–
We were rebuked by Ukrainian/ Romanian police
twice so far (we’re such rebels for sitting on window sills and the floors of
trains)
–
Most of the girls on my team haven’t shampooed
their hair for weeks – we’ve decided to
try baking soda instead (it actually works really well!)
–
Carin (one of my teammates) was questioned by
the Romanian border officials while we pretended to be sleeping for our 13th
hour on the train �” they asked her if she had any marijuana, money, or
problems. She sweetly responded, “NO,� to all of these and we were in the clear.
Praise God. 🙂
–
Brittany (another teammate) got stuck in the
metro doors with her backpack and had to be pushed in by an unhappy Ukrainian
man
– Any ab muscles acquired are due to frequent fits of laughter
– Spontaneous dance parties are a common occurrence
–
In three days of the race, we’ve already managed
to take 1 gig of photos and videos
–
We realized today that we spend more time with
these six other members of our team than anyone else in our lives �” and we
still love them 🙂
YAY for JUBILEEEE!!!
The Ukrainian police who rebuked us a few times. Don’t worry, we weren’t intimidated. 🙂
Our TRAIN ride!! (And Carin’s photography skills in action!) I love this. 🙂
Tracy and I excited about the Ukrainian escalator – it moved pretty fast – kinda like a roller coaster! 🙂
I like being in places I shouldn’t be – like in the back of a van with all our bags. PURE JOY. 🙂
Ok, I think that’s all for now. LOVE YOU ALL!! 🙂
p.s. MARY – HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY from the other side of the
world! I hope it was amazing… I LOVE YOU! 🙂
p.p.s. DAD – I love you SO SO SO MUCH and am INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL
for you and all your LOVE, SUPPORT, and ENCOURAGEMENT! HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
