Hello friends and family!
I am home now! It has been an incredible year and I am so so so grateful to all of you who have made this possible. I have learned so much and have some many memories of a lifetime.
I know it has probably been hard to follow along throughout the entire year. And, I know that I haven’t always done the very best at keeping you updated. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to update you as often as I wanted to. So, I want to write a blog that kind of sums up my experience this year. I want to let you know where I was each month, what ministry I was working with, what I learned, and some of the highs and lows. So, here it goes!
Month 1
Country: Costa Rica
City: Way up North, haha
Team: Team Power (The Powers) – Daniel White (Team Leader), Carson Stutzman, Heather King, Chelsea Gehring, Kendra Hixenbaugh, Maria Bayles
Ministry: La Fundacion Resplandecer
What we did: Physical Labor (digging holes, whacking a path through the forest, scrubbing stairs, etc.), children’s ministry on weekends
What I learned: The importance of staying positive.
Hardest Moments: Staying positive despite a lot of negativity
Best Memories: Playing with the kids, living in the jungle, learning to like hot sauce and coffee, awesome adventure days (surfing, tubing down a river, etc.)
Month 2
Country: Nicaragua
City: Chinandega
Team: Team Power (The Powers) – Daniel White (Team Leader), Carson Stutzman, Heather King, Chelsea Gehring, Kendra Hixenbaugh, Maria Bayles
Ministry: Vision Nicaragua
What we did: Door-to-door evangelism, put on church services
What I learned: To trust the Holy Spirit to give me the words to say, to trust God with my family back home, importance of daily quiet time, and to be willing to work through conflict rather than avoiding it completely
Hardest Moments: Team stuff, door-to-door (way out of my comfort zone)
Best Memories: Putting on a program for kids during church, riding in the back of the truck, volcano super close to the base, amazing sunset on the beach
Month 3
Country: Honduras
City: Talanga
Team: Team Power (The Powers) – Daniel White (Team Leader), Carson Stutzman, Heather King, Chelsea Gehring, Kendra Hixenbaugh, Maria Bayles
Ministry: Heart of Christ
What we did: Christmas gift distributions, hanging with the kids, manual labor building a new home for the kids
What I learned: That I like ice cream a little bit too much, that only God can heal the deep, deep wounds that some people have – and that it takes some pretty incredible people to do what Gracie and Papi Lee do at Heart of Christ
Hardest Moments: Hearing the stories of what some of these kids have gone through
Best Memories: Gift distribution days, runs along the road, Christmas festivites
Month 4
Country: Guatemala
City: Antigua
Team: Team Lightning – Katie Sadowski (TL), Colleen Smith, Jordan Wilson, Laura Brown, Chelsea Gehring, Maria Bayles
Ministry: Nueva Generacion
What we did: Translated school documents from Spanish to English, taught at a school, helped move bricks at a house that was being built
What I learned: That I’m pretty terrible at Spanish (oh wait – I already knew that!), love is a daily choice, I love teaching, I would be perfectly happy living in Antigua, I went from drinking no coffee before the race to way way way toooooo much, God’s looking out for us
Hardest Moments: 2 hour, one way commutes starting at 5 am to school, having patience and choosing love
Best Memories: team workouts (shout out to Kayla), so many coffee shop dates, throwing bricks, playing games with the kids in school, exploring Antigua, chicken buses, learning that God really was looking out for us – a tree fell through the roof of a room we have been moved out of only a few days earlier
Month 5
Country: Malaysia
City: Kuala Lumpur
Team: Team Parkour – Julia O’Keefe (TL), Anna Beth Lowrey, Heather King, Jonathan Hogue, Keaton Curtis, Michael Rojewski, Maria Bayles
Ministry: Unsung Heroes
What we did: Tried to find new ministry contacts for Adventures in Missions/The World Race to partner with in the future, helped out a school for refugees
What I learned: Sometimes God provides way more than we could ever ask or imagine, I have a huge and loving support group back home that I can truly count on when I’m in a really rough spot, and continuing to learn to trust God with my family back home (big theme throughout)
Hardest Moments: At the beginning it was pretty difficult to find contacts, getting sick and going to the hospital while having our mini vacation in Thailand
Best Memories: vacation in Thailand, working at the school for refugee kids, exploring KL, drinking way too much Starbucks, getting to know my new team
Month 6
Country: Thailand
City: Hat Yai
Team: Team Parkour – Julia O’Keefe (TL), Anna Beth Lowrey, Heather King, Jonathan Hogue, Keaton Curtis, Michael Rojewski, Maria Bayles
Ministry: Wisdom Plus School
What we did: Taught English, did campus evangelism with CRU
What I learned: Again- how much I love teaching! To step outside of my comfort zone and trust God to get me through it
Hardest Moments: Long days, being in a skit
Best Memories: School with the kids, #tubinginthailand, our awesome host
Month 7
Country: Cambodia
City: 1.5 hours outside Phnom Penh
Team: Team Parkour – Julia O’Keefe (TL), Anna Beth Lowrey, Heather King, Jonathan Hogue, Keaton Curtis, Michael Rojewski, Maria Bayles
Ministry: Shalom International School
What we did: Taught English
What I learned: I want to teach. That you can have your favourite month on the race in some of the hardest conditions. I need to drink less coffee and more water.
Hardest Moments: Visiting the Killing Fields, losing one of our students, finding a dead scorpion in my bed
Best Memories: Khmer New Year celebration at the school, Little Sally Walker, playing games in class with my students, getting to know the teachers (who are so sweet)
Month 8
Country: The Philippines
City: San Mateo
Team: Team Girls’ Night Out (GNO) – Katie Sadowski (Squad Leader), Julia O’Keefe (TL), Jordan Wilson, Sarah Roccaforte, Ellen Wilson, Anna Beth Lowrey, Heather King, Maria Bayles
Ministry: GROW Ministry / Wipe Every Tear (for Parent Vision Trip)
What we did: Kids camp, helped out at a snack shack / PVT – went into the bars to talk to some of the girls and invite them back to the homes that Wipe Every Tear has
What I learned: I am so blessed to have my family, to respect my authority even when I don’t agree with their decisions, go to Jesus when I’m struggling
Hardest Moments: Being told no and not understanding why, getting sick, walking into the bars
Best Memories: Hearing stories of redemption, living in the mountains, zumba nights, team sleepovers and movie nights, Rudy, water day with the kids
Month 9
Country: Rwanda
City: Kigali
Team: Team Mzungu – Julia O’Keefe (TL), Jordan Wilson, Colleen Smith, Caitlyn Duffy, Alysee Ballou, Maria Bayles
Ministry: Awakening Revival Healing Church
What we did: Door-to-door evangelism, preaching/leading Bible study, teaching English
What I learned: The importance of love and forgiveness and how incredible Rwanda is to have come back so strong from such a horrific past
Hardest Moments: My ears hurting from the crazy loud music at church, door-to-door
Best Memories: Riding in the bed of the truck, teaching the kids, African wedding, family nightly Bible study
Month 10
Country: Uganda
City: Kuluva, Arua
Team: Team Mzungu – Julia O’Keefe (TL), Jordan Wilson, Colleen Smith, Caitlyn Duffy, Alysee Ballou, Maria Bayles
Ministry: At Kuluva Hospital Mission Base
What we did: Preaching, women’s ministry, hospital ministry, door-to-door, kid’s ministry, visited an orphanage on a refugee settlement
What I learned: To go to God for strength and energy when I have none, what incredible hospitality looks like
Hardest Moments: Being sick, snake in the house, struggling to find the space to reenergize
Best Memories: Being surrounded by so many people who loved and cared about us, giving my first sermon in church (I cried afterwards but we’ll still put it here), playing with the kids on Sunday afternoons, safari!
Month 11
Country: Kenya
City: Athi River
Team: Team Mzungu – Julia O’Keefe (TL), Jordan Wilson, Colleen Smith, Caitlyn Duffy, Alysee Ballou, Maria Bayles
Ministry: YWAM
What we did: Door-to-door evangelism
What I learned: Kenya is cold.
Hardest Moments: Having to make the decision to go home early, saying an early goodbye to all my friends
Best Memories: Going for morning runs and casually seeing zebras all over the place, getting to work with YWAMers
