It has been a while since I’ve posted a blog. I’m still alive and healthy. I am no longer in Africa; I’m in Cambodia as, can you believe it, a month 10 racer! When I was catching up with the girls on my team after a weekend apart, they casually mentioned that there are only 46 more days until we hit the American soil. Woah!
While it has always been hard for me to find words and topics to blog about on the race, I think it gets harder as the race continues.It isn’t because there are no amazing and bizarre things happening left and right, it’s just that those odd and wonderful things have become life. I have come to accept this – I am no longer on the race. This. Is. Life.
Just casually this blog in my hammock on the balcony of Lighthouse Battambang with my “home” in the background. Tenting and hammocking are the new normal.
Here is a glimpse of what the past 3 months looked like… aka 4-mini-blogs-in-1.
Namibia – My team partnered with Emmanuel Kingdom Missions of Emmanuel Church in Windhoek, Namibia. That was the largest church I’ve partnered with on the race. Their missions department currently has 19 areas of involvement and it continues to grow. Through this partnership, we had the opportunity to be involved a variety of ministries. Some of our favorites were being a part of a local Chinese house church, serving alongside a team of Romanian missionaries in Bushmanland, spending time with the hard-of-hearing and deaf children, and joining their Mission Team Building day. This church’s tag line is “Blessed to Be a Blessing” and they truly live up to that. Going in thinking that we will be giving, we were the recipients of this church’s blessings. We were overwhelmed by their hospitality and welcome to my team, I was even more overwhelmed by how they sent my squad off to Asia. Not only did they allowed our entire squad to stay at their church before our travel day and provided us vehicles and drivers to take us all to the airport at 4am, they, or at least the lead pastor, had something else in mind. After their offering in their evening service, Pastor Matt led a second collection of offering in the context of sowing seeds. As he was wrapping up, he mentioned that there was a team passing through and he wanted to bless them (us) with the money collected. That took me by surprise. To make it even more special, as the team leader of the team they hosted, I had the honor of accepting that on my squad’s behalf. We, as a squad, have agreed that once we receive the money, we will divide it amongst our squad mates who are still not fully funded.
Malaysia – My team went into our first month in Asia with a lot of anticipation and excitement because the host we were assigned to was our squad mentor’s favorite host when she was on her race! We worked and lived in an english-speaking kindergarten in northern Malaysia, only about 8 KM away from Thailand. My team taught in small groups or one-on-one with the students in the morning, tutored our host’s children or led the english conversational classes at the national schools in the afternoon, and hosted english workshops or joined the Tamil service at the community church weekly. On top of that, I spent most of my time working on a newsletter for my host and his family. In order to obtain the information for the newsletter, I had the opportunity to spend an extended period of time with my host and had the honor to share his stories through my words in the form of an e-newsletter. For the safety of my host, I will not disclose his name or his ministries over open internet. If you are interested to learn more about my host and his heart for missions, feel free to reach out to me via email, I would love to share in person or even share the newsletter with you.
Team Change @ M8 Debrief in Penang, Malaysia– As we entered the last season of our race, we went into M8 debrief anticipating our second team change. While it was humbling to be invited to leadership again, I did not know what to expect. On the day of team change, I stayed behind in the hostel that morning to prepare my heart and prayed for my future team without knowing who that will be. It was nice to share a room with another team leader and had the opportunity to chat, encourage, and pray for each other before we head to the team leader meeting to find out about our team. I had a strong feeling that I would be on a co-ed team but leadership could shuffle the men up in any combination. For those of you who do not know, we only have 5 men on the squad and Jason was raised up as a squad leader at this debrief, leaving 4 men to be placed on teams. When I received the piece of paper with my team, I was very excited because all the men on the squad are on my team along with two precious and sweet women. Meet Team Aspen.
From left to right – Doug, me, Liz, Campbell, Zach, Jon, Josh
Thailand – Team Aspen spent our first month together in Chiangmai, Thailand at the Agape Home – Nikki’s Place. Agape Home is an orphanage that raises children living with HIV in a loving environment. Our month was primarily manual labor. They had two projects for us – breaking a wide strip of cement outside their education center to plant trees for shading to the building and making skipping ropes for Sumaritan’s Purse. By the end of the second day, my team collectively has about 30 blisters from either the jack hammer or pulling and cutting ropes. During our stay, we had the opportunity to get to know two amazing families from Australia. It was quite normal for us to be piled in the back of a pick up truck when they go to town as we were limited in our local transportation funds. We even got to spend Songkran with them! What a time to be in Thailand!
We are in Cambodia this month and my team is placed in Battambang. We live in our ministry called Lighthouse Battambang. It is a subsidized home for students from the surrounding rural area for better education. These teenagers and young adults are amazing. There is so much laughter in this place and more on that on the next post!
Prayer Requests:
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For us to end the race well and strong – we will step foot on American Soil on June 23. It’s so close but yet so far. Prayers for us to stay present and excited even though the heat here can be brutal.
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Health of the squad – Many of my squadmates are sick – a few of them made trips to the hospital or admitted to one. In addition, a few of them are fighting spiritual attacks. Prayers for the overall health of the squad as the living condition this month is rough for some of the teams.
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Post-Race Plans – It is inevitable to begin thinking about post-race plans. This race has awakened many dreams of mine and I have been encouraged to pursue one of those post-race. I have a lot of peace about it but the unknowns still makes me nervous every now and then. Prayers for awakened passion and guidance in my next steps.
To all of my supporters, thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and financial support to make this trip possible. Often times on the race, we hear from local people or our host that it is such a blessing for us to be there. Truly, I am blessed to be a blessing to those I’ve come to know on this journey. You made it possible. Thank you.
