123 days on the Race, and time is flying by. It's feels like yesterday we were getting on Quatar airlines departing out of Washington D.C. So much amazing things have happend, and God has moved in stunning ways. No list could contain all his works, but here's a list of things funny and serious that have been memorable from my race thus far. Thank you for all those that have supported me thus far. We head out on November 3rd for Penom Pehn, Cambodia, where more memories are to be made, and where bringing God's presence to others is sure to happen!
Enjoy!
- Traffic jams caused because we're Americans
- 3 Squads singing the national anthem to a squadmates American Flag tank top.
- Praying for ice cream in the hot DC sun. God sent an ice cream truck.
- Jamming with squad musicians in the Calcutta airport
- An old lady in India holding a pile of cow poop, thinking WE'RE weird
- Every meal has rice
- Fitting 17 people into a tuk tuk
- Inconsistent electricity
- The Indian head bob
- Hot tea or coffee on hot days
- Drinks served in a plastic bag with a straw.
- Pouring water in a squatty and seeing cockroaches crawl out
- Throwing trash anywhere. It's the norm.
- Playing the "Slap the buffalo" game in India
- Being excited about countries that actually have trash cans
- Mystery meat hamburgers
- Cramped bus rides
- Burning piles of trash
- Four hour church services not in English
- Quarter tones in Indian church worship
- Never wanting curry again
- Eating the same meal breakfast/lunch/dinner
- Casting out demons
- Cars always drive on the left side. America is weird apparently.
- Living off of bottled water
- The caucophony of car horns
- Hearing early morning hindi chanting over the LOUDEST loudspeaker
- India always smells bad
- So many games of Dutch Blitz in our off time
- Sharing a bug net with Drew
- Beautiful smiles on Indian children
- Eating with my right hand as a lefty wasn't fun
- Praying for rain to cool me off in the heat.
- Bucket showers leading to immediately sweating.
- Losing my tent poles
- Pollution in Kathmandu makes people wear ninja masks
- Seeing healed limbs and shrinking tumors
- The food poisoning double rainbow
- Seeing the milky way at night while riding in a dump truck
- Getting a tattoo in Nepal that is evangelizes to the Nepali people
- Living in four places in one month
- Bathing in a river
- Then crossing the river in a tractor, feeling like I'm in Oregon Trail
- Driving a motorcycle for the 2nd time in crazy traffic
- Drew throwing rocks in the river during his brokenness
- Watching the most pure worship from orphaned children
- Dealing with a runaway teenager from our ministry contact
- Joel cleaving his thumb near off
- Watching an elephant parade
- Witnessing a whole family accept Christ and throw away their Hindi idols
- Eating an entire can of Pringles in one sitting
- Praying over a muslim man and him feeling the presence of God
- Watching The Dark Knight Rises in Hyderabad
- Learning the importance of communication in the team
- Sweating like I'm doing an Insanity work out, but without the actual working out. THAT HOT.
- Having a rave with Nepali bible students.
- Discovering chocolate/white chocolate combo hazelnut spread
- Sleeping in a hammock inside a church
- Watching the Passion of the Christ in Nepali
- Being bathed by random villagers at the village water pump
- Finding camoflage overall shorts in a thrift store in Thailand. SCORE!
- Losing my ipod on the first day of the Race
- Holding a monkey in Phuket
- Rooftop worship on a YWAM base
- Rejoicing for having an actual shower
- Singing Aerosmith at a hotel music bar with a guitarist we named "Thai Clapton"
- A 25 and a half hour prayer and worship burn in Ubon, Thailand
- Hours upon hours of fooseball in Malaysia
- Choco-banana milk. Thank you Thailand
- Setting my watch by the regular monsoon storms in Nepal
- Watching the faithfuless of Drew grow as he deletes all his jazz recordings off his computer
- Being on 4 different beaches in one month in Asia
- Preparing a "sermon" with 5 minutes notice for the Nepali bible students
- Praying over anointing oil in India and not knowing why.
- Drew punching my nose in the middle of the night while we're asleep.
- Being forced to take naps at a 79 year old pastors house in India.
- Tuk Tuk racing in Hyderabad
- Having a "silent" (headphone) dance party in the customs line at the Bangkok airport.
- Stuffed waffles at the Bangkok night food market.
- Wrecking a moped in Phuket. NOT MY FAULT!
- Being in a country illegally because we overstayed our visa. EEK.
- Buying my favorite pair of sunglasses thus far for about $2 USD
- A teammate peed her pants in Little India from laughing so hard. literally.
- A 66 year old man with a mohawk beat everyone in chess
- Fireball grandma got fired up about how to share our Best Friend
- Being inside a building and thinking its weird to see peoples shoes on their feet.
- Team shake face pictures during Kaitlyn's birthday party.
- Having a yelling contest with a monkey at a beach in Malaysia.
- Playing frisbee in the Pacific Ocean
- Daily eating lime-sicles (like a creamsicle, but with LIME, people!) in Penang.
- God blessing me with a computer as a gift from another Racer.
- Bro dates with Drew walking through the streets of Kathmandu
- Playing Bach cello suites on the viola to fundraise for heart patients in Malaysia.
- Having conversations with the "chirping" geckos, and thanking them for eating all the mosquitos.
- Learning "crab core" from a YWAM DTS team.
- Praying for families in over 30 homes in the span of 2 hours in an Indian village.
- Riding a camel that just happened to be tied up in the street.
- Meeting a baby elephant in Phuket named Brad Pitt. He was awesome. He did tricks.
- Dinner consisting of lemon pepper chicken with butter garlic naan, a frozen Fanta slush, and watching “Taken 2” in a theater that constantly had Malay and Chinese subtitles at the bottom of the screen all for under $8.50 USD
- Seeing three nights of religious parades complete with fireworks.
- Hearing a man's testimony of deliverance from the occult and his life with the Lord and his prophetic anointing.
- Traveling to a rehab center in a van that keeps breaking down from the radiator and wishing we had tea bags to make tea from the boiling water.
- Dressing up as a Chinese dragon with my team for Halloween.
- Bobbing for instant coffee in gross water at the Halloween party.
- Riding in an ambluance BOAT.
- Being awestruck at the kindheartedness and trust of a taxi drive who shelled out 150 Ringit (30 USD) for a back brace for Ga'Nene.
- Having my heart for "soaking worship" confirmend by one of our squad coaches.
- Heart restoration and healing in a broken relationship between myself and my teammate, Alison. God is glorified!
- Playing a game of licking squad members elbows with Kaitlyn and Phillip.
- A team change in Phuket, new team: Tyler Vessels, Kaitlyn Wolff, Amanda Kerr, Alison Grey, and Ga'Nene. Team Ascend the Hill is ascending!
- Another team change. Addition: Mike Clevenger! our team is stoked.
- Gangam Style with the whole squad.
- Taking a hot shower in Thailand for the first time in 3 months.
- Watching the Walking Dead with Andrew and Grayson. Even on the World Race, you have to prepare for the zocalypse!
- Meeting two missionary teachers who were on vacation in Penang on a bus.
- Learning how to clean laundry without a washing machine. They were clean, but didn't smell much better.
- Having a bed for two months, but missing an excuse to sleep on the floor.
- Holding a one week old kitten that stayed next to a homeless man.
- Interceding for religious freedom for Malaysian muslims, that Penang would be a city on a hill for the rest of the country, and declaring that God would perform signs and wonders in that city at PenHOP.
- Commentating and judging the parking success of cars in front of the Tesco Lotus for evening "fun."
- Cradling Michael Green's head as he laid across our laps in a Tuk tuk in India.
- Late night discussions with Tyler about how God speaks to us.
- Hearing of the amazing growth that my parents are going through while I'm away as a great testimony to God's goodness and faithfulness.
