Awarding each country its proper superlative award according to the month I had there and what it meant to me. After nearly 3 months of returning from the field, I’ve found that I haven’t been able to get together with nearly as many people as I would have liked, and for that, I apologize. But I have finally sat myself down and put the year in review. Short blurbs and pictures about life, ministry, people, joys and challenges. I also posted links (for most months) of short, A-MA-ZING videos of life, culture, and fun that Abby Steverson and Johnfrank Dieguez have done a bang up job putting together! Enjoy…
BEST FOOD
Month 1: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. City: Arroyo Cano
We dove headfirst into a different life and lived to encourage and befriend Noky, a pastor who works tirelessly to bring the message of Christ and what it truly means to follow Him to a community drowning in religious tradition and empty hearts. In the spirit of bringing dead bones to life as eluded to in Ezekiel, we cleaned up and helped bring life to a dead church in a village where spiritual life is practically non-existent. I held patients’ hands as they receivedimmunization shots, taught kids stories from the bible byskits at a Compassion International school, and taught English twice a week (putting my teaching skills and guitar playing skills to the test.) Surprise, they learned some English! Oh, and we drank a lot of teeny cups of coffee 🙂
(Arroyo Cano)
(kids of Compassion International) (just another day, sitting in front of a shop,
chatting it up and drinking coffee)
CONSTRUCTION WORKER BY DAY, BEACH BUM BY NIGHT
(I know it’s not an award, just go with it…)
Month 2: HAITI. City: Grand Goave
I was blessed (although I didn’t realize how much at the time) to campwith my entire squad of about 45 people within the confines of a compound that backed up to the beach. We assisted the hardest working Haitian construction workers to rebuild Mission of Hope International; a church and school center that had been destroyed in the 2010 earthquake as well as lay the foundation for Be Like Brit, an orphanage named after 19 year old Britney, who had aspirations of opening an orphanage in Haiti before she died in the earthquake. People could be found swimming, snorkeling, reading in hammocks, playing guitar, walking on the beach, or playing card or board games any given day. This month set the tone for many friendships throughout the race, including my closest ones still.
VIDEO: at http://vimeo.com/44518054. (Courtesy of Johnfrank Dieguez, AMAZING footage)
(my view every morning as I spent time with Jesus) (MOHI construction site)
(clothes and bodies getting clean) (students seeking prayer for their futures)
(bricks, bricks, and more bricks) (day off with Team Mosaic at Jacmel beach)
MOST VERSATILE
Month 3: ROMANIA, Dragonesti-Olt
Finally, a bed, hot water, and a hint of privacy in our house while living on a rather wealthygypsy street. We worked with the only local Christian church. Whileevery morning we spent praying for the church, community, staff, and country, our afternoon ministries varied from day and day. I swept outside quite a few times (go figure), volunteered at a kids club, monitored a clothing drive, took clothes to and prayed for the elderly, widowed, and destitute, and got kicked out of a town when the Catholic priest called the mayor because he didn’t want competition for tithe from Christians setting up shop (yes, you read that correctly). And for the first (and second), and only time in my life I stood before an entire church congregation and played the guitar tolead worship. I’m no pro, but to hear Hosanna being sung side-by-side in English and Romanian was humbly wonderful. We even rummaged through Romanian clothes and had a Gypsy photo shoot… priceless.
(Gypsy photo shoot)
(kids club) (leading worship at Hope church)
(one of the widowed women to whome we brought clothes)
MOST LIKE NORMAL LIFE
Month 4: MOLDOVA, Cahul
With team changes, I was now on an all-girls team for the rest of the race. Team Oasis. And for the first time I was feeling just how far away from home I was when my niece was born and my aunt passed away within a close time span of each other. Although it was hard to not be home, I stayed involved as we did evangelism, assisted in a medical clinic, taught English, and planted a vegetable garden. Near and dear to my heart remains the days we spent the morning with kids at a deaf orphanage. We experienced culture through attending an Easter picnic, birthday party, funeral, and local play. We even went to Ukraine for a day and attended an opera on our day off.
VIDEO: Life in a Day: Moldova at http://vimeo.com/42879883 (courtesy of Abby Steverson)
(planting potatoes) (I love you is an international sign at the
deaf orphanage/boarding school)
(seeing my nephew love on my newborn niece for the first time)
FRIENDLIEST PEOPLE
Month 5: MOZAMBIQUE, Guija, Gaza
Africa. The bush. What you picture when you think of Africa, that’s where I lived. (Music from The Lion King starts to play.) We partnered with a South African missionary and his translating team to visit the sick, lonely, orphaned, blind, and dying each day. Our normal routine constituted drawing our daily water from the well each morning, visiting and praying for people, lunch… and typically followed up with lice picking in the afternoon as this was the month “the bug” was discovered on a few of my teammates. This was one of my most emotionally difficult months as I lived amongst the stereotypical AIDS epidemic and poverty of Africa… yet one of my favorite months for all that God revealed to me… and I would gladly do it all over again.
VIDEO: Life in a Day: Mozambique at http://vimeo.com/43354712 (courtesy of Abby Steverson)
MUSIC VIDEO (SCRATCHIN AT NIGHT: an ode to the lice)… Laugh and Enjoy at http://vimeo.com/43319442
(always enjoying my mornings with the kids at the well) (teaching local women on the kingdom of heaven)
(trekking our way to take clothes to villagers) (our daily chore… and friends)
MOST LIKELY TO INSTILL THE DESIRE TO TEACH
Month 6: SWAZILAND, Manzini
Girls month! All of the girls on my squad in one house… surprisingly awesome! More time spent with some of my closest friends who I was not on a team with. The month had countless games of Phase 10, Spades, and “I Never”. Workout “classes” were always taking place. And it was the best month of food since we got to combine all of our food budgets and cook for ourselves. Most girls worked daily at a Care Point to take care of, teach, and feed impoverished kids while I worked with a few other girls to create a curriculum and materials to introduce to other Care Points not currently being well served. We then took our curriculum to new classrooms and introduced it all for the first time. On our free time, I went on a safari, caving… and celebrated my birthday.
VIDEO:Life in a Day: Swaziland http://vimeo.com/45349636 (courtesy of Abby Steverson)
VIDEO:The SAFARI!!!! http://vimeo.com/44571190 (courtesy of Abby Steverson)
(one of my best birthdays, ever!) (curriculum packages included ABC chart, seasons chart,
3-D dice for activities, shape sets and more)
(Molly teaching a class our new curriculum) (Caving!)
(WHAT?!) (teaching vocabulary with their new flashcards)
Here’s where I pause. I’m tired of writing, thinking, and working. And you probably need a break from reading. Stay tuned to find out about life in South Africa, India, Nepal, China, and the Philippines… two of which were my favorite months on the race!
Until the next episode of “The World in Review”…
