Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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This isn’t deep, but I just wanted to give you a glimpse into what our travel days look like.

It took us 1 week to travel from Mexico to Nicaragua and here’s the story…
 
I’ve learned that border crossings in Central America are quite adventurous. You never know what you’re going to expect. We left Mexico the end of July, a bus and 3 hours later, we arrived at the Mexican/Guatemalan border thinking it would take a few minutes to cross.
 
Oh no.
 
We get there and were told we needed a certain stamp that one receives after they pay a certain fee, which we never knew about. So, we had to send 2 of our guys back into Mexico for 3 hrs until they found the bank and paid the fee.

Another waiting 3 hours, several warm ham and cheese sandwhiches later and 4 -6 hrs on the bus, we (team Clay and Banah) arrivedint Flores, Guatemala, a beautiful little island we stayed on for a couple days.

Two days later, we jumped on a bus for 4-6 hours to meet the rest of our squad in Antigua, Guatemala. Returning to Antigua was like a World Race home away from home because we stayed at the same hostel the end of June/beginning of July before we ventured off to Mexico. Spending a night there, we met the squad and jumped onto yet another bus for our long trek to Nicaragua.

Here’s where it gets really interesting…
We passed through Guatemala / El Salvador border just fine. But we arrived at the El Sal/Honduras border a little late.  Because of the political situation in Honduras, the Honduras border closes at 9pm and we didn’t have enough time to cross over Honduras and DEFINITELY didn’t want to get stuck in Honduras over night,  so we were forced to spend the night in El Salvador.  After spending a lovely evening at the Esmerelda Hostel, (and lovely means of course, sleeping on the floor/in the heat or in a hammock) on the border of El Salvador & Honduras, for the night. 5:30am the next morning, I lost my contact down the sink and spent 20 minutes trying to fish it out. After pulling the sink apart, and praying profusely that God would miraculously let me find my contact, I turned the water on in the sink and my contact landed in my hand! Praise God! We then took a bus from El Sal to Honduras. Oh, what fun!  Just think… Hot, sticky, sweaty, and stinky. That sums up our 3 hour journey. Then, we get to Honduras/Nicaraguan border and spent 6 hours there. Mainly because they closed the border indefinitely. The whole issue with the president escaping to Costa Rica didn’t help much. So, we sat in the sauna, I mean bus, for 6 hours. We sweated, stank, melted, prayed, worshipped and waited. We waited for God to act. We waited for favor for the border control to let us pass. We bribed. We payed. And finally, 6 hours later, we praised the Lord when we passed through the border. We were half passed out/zoned out from the heat, but I think we kinda realized what happened and were thankful as we sipped water through little plastic. ☺

Team Clay and Banah left the rest of the squad to journey to our final ministry destination to the island of Ometepe. We spent another 4 -5 hours on the bus, spent the night in Managua, Nicaragua thanks to our friend Jeff who generously put us up in teh Hilton for the night. Oh yes, it was a major treat!  First time we felt A/C in 10 months. And honestly, the first time I really felt clean. Next morning, 2 hrs by bus and 1 hour by ferry and ended up our Island of Ometepe.
 
And that is a typical travel day or travel week for a World Racer.

I LOVE where we live for our last month of ministry. Yes, I’ve always wanted to live in L.A. and now I get to… in Nicaragua!  We’re staying at an orphanage where the kids have lived there for 9 years. They’ve basically grown up in this orphanage. We spend most of our days doing construction… building squatty potties ☺, laying brick, mixing and pouring cement, gardening, picking lemons, working in the kitchen and loving on the orphans. We eat mostly beans and rice… but we’re used to that because that has been our steady diet all year.  My mornings involve laying in a hammock, overlooking the lake, spending time with Jesus and reflecting on all the things this last year has taught me.
 
I’m working on a deeper blog that is all about what the World Race has meant to me. It’s coming soon.
 
Thank you all for your support and prayers. I’m excited for these last 2 weeks of ministry before we head to Costa Rica for our final debrief. I can’t believe the end of the Race is near. I’m excited for all the ways God has molded my heart over these last 10 months and what is still to come in these last remaining days.