A Year in Pictures

We have about two weeks until we are on US soil again. Two weeks left in Transnistria…two weeks left on the race. Its hard to believe sometimes, and sometimes I’m so glad its almost over. I’ll miss a lot of things and I’ll be glad to get a lot of things back. Pictures don’t really do the past year justice, but here is a small glimpse into the past year of my life. 

Team LinC 10:10 at Cracker Barrel in Tennessee. 

Us and a family that we treated for jiggers and then were able to provide with shoes. We spent the month doing jiggers treatments for different villages around Kakamega and doing house to house evangelism.

Asanti – this girl wins the prize for cutest African child. It just makes your day when she sprints at you to be held. We lived at an orphanage in Mbarara and her mom helped us cook for ourselves. We did plenty of crusades this month. 

And for some fun times…

Bungee jumping and rafting the Nile River in Jinja. Laura and I tandem jumped together. Rafting was possibly the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life. Its the best thing I’ll never do again.

This is my class of 5 and 6 year olds that I taught English to in Kabuga. Sweetest kids ever. Love them. My team did a lot of teaching English and some evangelism towards the end. 

Also…

This is what your hair will look like AFTER being braided African style for two months. FYI.

Little beanie. Cutest and most loving kid in the entire world. That guy brought me up when life was hard. So much joy. In Manila, we pretty much did anything and everything…digging dirt, working at an orphanage, hanging out at the girls home, street kid ministry, feedings. Plus, we had the best food ever from the cook Malou. 

AND…

New teams this month! Erin, Tommy, Carl, Sarah, Jenny, Allie and I-Team Cannonball at Thanksgiving dinner.

Sarah, Erin, and I with one of the girls we became close with at the bars. The men did manistry that month and harvested tapioca in a different part of the country while us women did bar ministry in the Red Light District in Phuket.

Plus…

Christmas AND New Years on the beach. So good.

We worked at a boys home in Takeo for the month. We taught classes for a couple days, then spent the rest of the time scraping, washing, and sanding walls. Yep.

A few of us and a Muslim family that we taught English to in our church in Kuala Lumpur. (a pretty big deal in the area we were in) We spent our time there inviting people to church and English lessons and doing house to house evangelism. 

Sarah and I with some of the girls we spent time with in Harbin. We did a lot of English lessons that month. A lot.

This deserves an extra picture…

Erin, Sarah, and I at the Great Wall. No big deal.

Team Cannonball with some of our friends from Odesa (and Yemen and Iraq). We did a lot of English and Russian clubs and Bible studies with the university students there. It was a really international place so we got to meet friends from all over the world while we were there.

We lived about 10 minutes from the Black Sea. Too bad it was too cold for anybody but our Canadian to get in. (Seriously, Jenny actually got in for about a minute before she ran out again.)

Brian, Megan, Rebecca, and I with the girls we spent a lot of time with during our time in Draganesti-Olt. Those four pretty much made my month there. 

We chisel bricks. Everyday. 

My year summed up in five words: beautiful, challenging, life-changing, freedom giving, unforgettable