Cambodia- The month of walking, bugs and preschool.
Ministry- Worked at a Teen
Challenge Site that had just gotten up and running. Taught preschool to poor kids in the
neighborhood, as well as to the children living on the compound. It was a tougher month as there were a lot of
communication barriers, but the Lord turned into one of the most beneficial
months in hindsight.
Highlights/New Experiences:
·
Walking around the villages for hours in
the afternoon, praying for the people and talking about life
·
Experiencing bugs to the max, mosquitos,
lizard beetle-lookin’ things and maybe some lice…
·
Getting so excited to shower in rain water
when our only other option had been dirty pond water
·
Watching movies with my teammates almost
every night
·
Teaching preschool/keeping the little
children from fighting eachother
·
Reading the bible in our hammocks
·
Eating rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner
·
Getting to know Mom Pansie (the cook/house
mom to the women on the compound) and learning so much from her servant heart
·
Getting the sickest I have been on the
race, not once, but twice. It was bad.
·
Learning to fight for joy!
Malaysia- the month of Braille books, rooftops
and diversity.
Ministry- Truly the strangest
ministry we did on the race- working at a library at a home for the Blind. We categorized the books. Sometimes that’s
just what ministry looks like…
Highlights/New Experiences:
·
Laying out on the rooftop, looking at the
stars while listening to Sigur Ros
·
Listening to NPR while categorizing books
·
Meeting fellow Wisconsinites who were
working with YWAM
·
Sharing an apartment with Lilbean’s team
·
Celebrating Valentine’s Day with rose
petals, handwritten notes, delicious dinner, a downpour and a serenade by the
two guys on Lilli’s team
·
Singing worship songs with Emily Rae while
walking the streets of Penang
·
Exploring the world’s smallest national
park and stumbling across a beautiful white-sand beach
·
Drinking the most delicious freshly blended
apple juice EVER
·
Working at the Adventist Hospital, singing
and dancing to raise funds for surgeries
·
The diversity of Penang- Little India, China
town and Muslim influence all within three streets
·
Worship with the YWAMers
China- the country of my heart.
Ministry- We
worked with the underground church, meeting with college students and teaching
English.
Highlights/New Experiences:
·
Living with only three girls in an apt, one
from my team and two from another.
·
Experiencing WINTER. It was cold and snowy!
·
Going out to eat every meal but breakfast.
·
Eating with chopsticks!
·
Having the Lord speak to me through dreams
and the bible almost every day.
·
Meeting Chinese students with the craziest
English names (Jack Sparrow, Rice and Teddy Bear are a few of my personal
favorite)
·
Giving Chinese students English names
·
Drinking hot chocolate with jellies (think
bubble tea)
·
Getting stared at ALL the time. Seriously,
we were celebrities.
·
Having church in the apt. we were staying
in
·
Getting to throw a birthday party for one
of the Chinese girls we had gotten to know J
·
The toilet clogging on numerous occasions
and having to get creative…
·
Going to a tiger park and seeing lions, tigers
and…ligers! (oh my?)
·
Sharing Jesus with a girl on our train to
Beijing and her accepting the truth of who He is!!
·
Climbing the Great Wall of China
·
Going to Tiananmen Square (and getting
asked at least ten times to take pictures with random Chinese people)
·
Getting to see my beautiful friend,
Roberta, in Beijing!
·
Meeting Sadie, Ning, Baby Isaiah, Steph,
Jake, Sherylyn, Hannah and all the other beautiful people serving the Lord
faithfully in China.
Ukraine- the month of questions, sour cream and
friendship.
Ministry-We partnered with CCX, a
Christian college ministry and ran English clubs, as well as attended classes
where we spoke about our experiences and answered any questions that the
students had. It was a great month
filled with great friends and fun outings!
Highlights/New Experiences
·
Fitting in…until we opened our mouths
·
Starting to process questions such as “what
was your favorite month?� and “what is the grossest thing you ate?� because they
were asked almost every class period
·
Getting a walking tour of the beautiful
Kiev
·
Having GOOD CHEESE available…and bread and chocolate!
·
Going to the Friendship Arch and riding a
crazy, topsy-turvy ride
·
Having a girl’s sleepover and watching chickflicks
J
·
Receiving packages from home- such a sweet
surprise!
·
Going on coffee/pizza dates with college
students
·
Attending ICA-church and hearing a guest
preacher from WI
·
Celebrating two Easters- American Easter
and a Ukrainian Easter
·
Going with one of my teammates to meet her
Ukrainian Aunt and Uncle- spending sweet time with their family
·
Geocaching for the first time
·
Going to see “The Chariot� a hardcore
Christian rock band and LOVING it
·
Taking a team vacation to Uzhgorod, a
beautiful picturesque city in Western Ukraine
·
Doing a wine tasting in a castle in
Uzhgorod
·
Getting led around the city by the students
every Saturday
Romania- the month of prayer, gypsies and
change.
Ministry-
We
worked with a church in Draganesti Olt and did anything and everything! We did logistics (writing emails for the pastor
and doing any research he needed), children’s programs (these were held in
various villages and usually consisted of games, songs and a bible story), yard
work/setting up a greenhouse/gardening/heavy labor, evangelism
in rural villages around Draganesti Olt and
helping with an Afterschool Program for underprivileged children.
It was a fun month as
we were paired with two other teams and as it was also my first month as team
leader.
Highlights/New
Experiences
·
Becoming team leader!
·
Living in a mission house with two other
teams
·
Having two hour prayer mornings every day
·
Bed bugs and fleas :/
·
Living in a gypsy town
·
Starting our half marathon training (still
going strong!)
·
Teaching little children bible stories
·
Team Leader Appreciation Day J
·
Watching the most beautiful sunsets from
the balcony
·
Learning and playing Dutch Blitz
·
Playing soccer in the park with people from
the community
·
Having rebel teenagers knock on our windows
and doors throughout the night, trying to scare us
·
Finding “Sammy�, our little puppy, behind
the shed in our backyard
Moldova- the month of cherries, teaching
English and hospitality.
Ministry-
This past month, we have been so blessed to be working in Anenii Noi, with a
local church. We have been teaching
English each day, going into villages and evangelizing, visiting elders in the
community, running a week-long VBS and doing some painting in their conference
room. It has been a great last month for
sure!
Highlights/New Experiences
·
The Church community here has absolutely
been the biggest blessing- they are so hospitable and loving towards us. My life has changed because of the loving
service they have displayed.
·
Having a washer, dryer(!), bed and
shower. It truly is the little things.
·
Buying a HUGE bag of cherries for $1. Eating a TON of them. Then later realizing that every 3rd
cherry had a worm in it…so definitely taking a deworming pill this month…
·
Teaching a group of adults English every
night with my teammate Emily Rae.
·
Having a huge potluck our last day of
class. We made guacamole and the student’s
reactions were “we eat this??�, haha but they ended up loving it.
·
Running a VBS!
·
Living in the church with another family
from the community
·
Chasing the four little girls from that
family
·
Eating the most delicious, freshly made doughnuts
·
Continuing our half-marathon training. We have been running through beautiful fields
with cows interspersed within (it kind of makes me feel like home, haha)
·
Being able to legitimately joke around with
our contacts and get each other’s humor.
·
Cooking an “American� meal for the church
community here- Burgers, fried, homemade tortilla chips, salsa, pasta salad and
no-bakes!
·
Going over the different homes for
delicious Moldovan food
·
After teaching the story of Noah, asking a
little kid what appears in the sky as a sign of God’s promise to us, and his
response being (in Romanian), “a crocodile!�, because in Romanian, crocodile
sounds like the word for rainbow, haha.
·
Feeling so loved on my birthday!
·
Preparing to go home…
·
Retreat for my team in the capitol before
heading to Bucharest for final debrief
Wow,
well there is it; my year in an extremely short recap.
Overall:
·
I’ve learned that Jesus is always the most
important. Always.
·
I’ve lived in the most intense community ever. Seriously, I realized today that when I go
home and sleep in my bed, I will wake up by myself, which hasn’t happened in
over 11 months.
·
I’ve learned that obedience to the Lord
takes work, but is always worth it.
·
I’ve learned that I AM a leader.
·
I’ve gotten dirtier, smellier and wiser
this past year.
·
I’ve learned to get over myself and prefer
others when I really didn’t want to.
·
I’ve learned to let the Holy Spirit guide
my steps.
·
I am much more grateful for the little
things in life.
·
I’m slightly overwhelmed thinking about
re-entering back into the U.S. .
·
I know though, that there are far better
things ahead.
·
I’ve seen the impact that a small team can
have all over the world.
·
I’ve learned the power of a smile.
·
I’ve learned humility…the hard way.
·
I’ve met some of the loveliest people
around the world. I now have an
international family.
·
I’ve heard incredible stories of
redemption, persecution and healings in Jesus’ name.
·
I’ve embraced that I am a daughter of
Jesus, so loved and secure in His truth.
Thank you everyone, love you all.
