I am long overdue for a blog and for that I apologize. Better late than never, right?
Currently I am in Nepal and I absolutely love it here. I love the family I am staying with. I love the community. I love the culture. I love the clothes, the food, the views. I love that I get to see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayan Mountains.
I cannot upload photos to this blog anymore… Not sure why, but maybe I will try again in a few days. I do have a photo on my facebook which you can see by clicking here …
Are you jealous? I would be! Except that I can see those every day! 🙂
So here’s the skinny. I have been in Africa and now I am back in Asia. I loved Africa. It was hard. It was muddy. It was sometimes smelly. But it was always filled with God’s love everywhere. I loved riding boda bodas (motor bikes) through the African hills. I loved doing life with some of the most real people I have ever met. I loved worshiping and dancing in the churches.
And I saw tons and tons of animals! You know.. Goats. Cows. Chickens. Dogs. Sheep.
Ok, I did see wild Zebra on my last day in Kenya (last day in Africa in general). Thanks for not letting me down Africa!
While I was in Africa, I was praying a lot about the next season of my life after the Race is over. I have been offered my dream job… 😀
Back up to month 1, Costa Rica. School was out of session, but I got to meet a great group of the kids that attend Glory Christian School. If you remember, I was able to do some of just about every kind of ministry there. Homeless ministry. Prison ministry. Elderly ministry. Evangelism. Youth group. Teaching English. Manual labor. Games with local kids. House visits with some of the beautiful local ladies. Preaching. I feel like this list is a little short compared to the month I had!
Anyway, I loved Costa Rica so much. I loved everything about it. And now I feel God calling me back there for a little while. I will be a teacher at Glory Christian School.
Oh, and here is something nice and ironic for you.. So, this whole race I have been trying to overcome a pet peeve of mine.
Growing up, I was not allowed to use incorrect grammar. When I said something wrong, I was corrected. This had me think that I could correct others when they spoke with grammatical errors. WRONG! I don’t correct people at all anymore. Ever. But I do correct them in my head. I will repeat what they said with the corrections and miss the next sentence they say. This has been getting better over the past few months, however.
The ironic part is this… I was walking with my team leader, Gabe Bedford, one day in Kenya and I was talking about the different teaching positions available at GCS. I was going through the ones I would want and the ones I wouldn’t want. The only one I was quick to say I didn’t want to do was teaching High School Grammar.
Two days after this conversation, I got a message from the principal of GCS saying she thought I would make a great High School Grammar teacher. ……
Oh. Great. After some thought on this and talking it through with my team, I came to this conclusion. God doesn’t want us to do the easy things. And this is probably God’s way of redeeming me in this pet peeve of mine. Oh, and since I will be a grammar teacher, I get to correct my students when they say something grammatically incorrect. 🙂
(Don’t worry Melissa, I am happy to teach High School Grammar now!)
So, all that to say, I will be teaching at Glory Christian School in Costa Rica. I move there in June. I don’t need support for this next phase of my life at the current moment. I will need between $550 and $700 a month ($6,600 – $8,400 for a year). But I will figure all of that out later.
Costa Rica is not the only country with which I fell in love so deeply. I hope to return to some of the others one day too. But that depends on where the Lord leads me.
For now, I am in Nepal and I love my life. I am still not fully funded and am about $1,800 away. If you would like to help me finish, once and for all, fundraising for the World Race, you can do so by clicking here. It should only take a few minutes 🙂
I will be home in a little under two months and I am very excited. I miss home so much and can’t wait to see my family and my friends. I will find out more about my arrival date shortly. When I get home, I want a continental breakfast, pizza, taco bell and a sweet tea! And some other yummy food too 😉
