The last couple
of weeks have been busy with traveling, plans changing and fun
experiences. Our squad met in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday the 21st, and
we were supposed to help with a youth conference there. However, for
some unknown reason to us, the conference was canceled at the last
minute. So, we ended up with a few free days in Kampala. It turns out
that’s exactly what we all needed. God could see we were tired and
drained, so the free days were a great time to rest and be refreshed
before more traveling.
We also had a great time of worship together
Tuesday night. I was not really excited to go, but it ended up being
a huge blessing. Many times you don’t realize how much you miss
something until you have it again. That’s the way it was with
worship. We’ve had some great African worship, but we really needed a
chance to do worship the way we’re used to with songs we know. We
spent a good two hours just singing, praying and worshiping God. It
was so good!
Wednesday, we
traveled from Kampala to Nairobi, Kenya. It was a very long trip (16
hours including 2 hours spent at the border crossing waiting on
transit visas), but we made it safely. Thursday night we flew out to
Dublin, Ireland. My group had layovers in Dubai and London on our way
here. We flew on Emirates airlines, and it was awesome! We each had
our own TV screen with hundreds of movies to watch, including new
ones. It was awesome! I I should have tried to sleep but instead I
stayed up to watch movies! It was definitely not World Race style.
We arrived in
Dublin Friday evening. We had a couple days for debrief, and today the
Awakening conference began. I’m camping out with about 300 current
World Racers. Some are about to return to the States while others are
just in their first few months. This is the second annual conference
for all current and past World Racers. We have worship, speakers,
breakout sessions and other fun activities.
I’ve had some
time for site-seeing in Dublin, and I love this city! It’s so nice
and clean, and the people are super friendly and helpful. I
definitely experienced some culture shock coming from Africa, but
it’s so nice to be back in the western world. We ate at Subway for
lunch yesterday and have enjoyed other delicious food. Finally a
break from beans and rice!
With Amanda Glenn in front of Christchurch cathedral in Dublin.
In September, my
team will be working with an orphanage in Romania, near Bucharest I
believe. Then the next month, we now have the chance to ask the Lord
where we should go and what we should do. Our team gets to choose our
own ministry in one of these six countries: Hungary, Czech Republic,
Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia. So, we’ve started praying for
God to show us where to go. Our last month will still be Ukraine.
So, there’s an
update of changes and what I’ve been doing the past two weeks. Africa
has been challenging as well as rewarding. Ireland comes at the
perfect time to refresh us, and I’m looking forward to what eastern
Europe will bring for our last three months.
