Dear Family, friends, friends of family, family of friends, acquaintances, supporters, my prayer warriors, fellow laborers, young and old, Instagram follows, Facebook friends (especially the one who only has 3 pictures and no mutual friends so you’re probably not a real account but I accepted your request anyways), Christians, my indie-fundies (short for independent fundamental Baptists), non-denoms (short for non-denominational), non-Christians, whether Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, or what have you, and everyone/anyone else.
The Worldrace has been awesome!
Sincerely, Jason Love Albano
P.S. This is about to be the longest postscript ever. I would like to reiterate the last and only statement in this letter’s body. The Worldrace has been awesome!!! In just the first two months alone, I’ve gotten to travel to 6 different countries that I’ve never been to! And we still have 9 months to go! We’ve gotten to dance around Budapest, and you know we played George Ezra’s song all the way through. We got to travel to Greece, Whaaaaat!? Yeah, Greece – where we went beach hopping and at one of those beaches we went cliff diving off 40-ish foot cliffs into crystal clear water. Spontaneous early morning train rides to new cities became a regular occurrence as well. Along with that goes late night train rides back from zed cities. Oh, and puppies! Yeah, like practically every day.
Pretty rad right!? Well strap in because these aren’t even the best parts yet. The God of the universe has used us, a bunch of overly-spontaneous coffee-fueled millennials who’ve seen way to many indie-films and eaten way to many crepes, cereal, and apple cores to take his love past boarders. He’s using our squad to reach the unreached; bringing love and hope to those in desperate want.
While here in Romania, in this past month alone, we’ve gotten to partner up with a church called Hope Church. Alongside them we held an eye glasses clinic which brought in over 200 people to receive new pairs of prescription reading glasses. Upon receiving those reading glasses, they got to use them to read a few verses from the Bible! Oh and before receiving those glasses we also provided them with counseling and prayer. Each of them got to hear the Good news of Jesus Christ and will have follow-ups through home visits and phone calls.
We also joined forces for something called the New Testament Project. Through this project, over 10,000 people received New Testament bibles. These were people in villages that still don’t even have churches in them. While handing bibles out, I got to personally witness 4 people pray to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts and I know that the 43 other racers on my squad have amazing stories just the same, if not better.
Accommodating 44 Worldracers is no easy task, but our awesome ministry host has done a great job to allow God to work in and through us all. We were all broken into different teams and given different ministries to focus on. My team of three got to work with a church plant called Hope for Maruntei. We got to design their website, create newsletters, email supporters and partners, and so much more. We even got to visit the small village of Maruntei to do a little manual labor. We tore down a concrete fence for the local elementary school, fixed up the park where they do their children ministry, and do home visits. I have no doubt that God used my other squad members to do other wondrous things with their ministries as well.
I love my squad. I love my brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, God has used us to dive into ministry here, but he’s also allowed us to dive into biblical community as well. Every morning we would walk to the Church’s sanctuary to meet for 2 hours of worship and prayer. We worshipped and worshipped and worshipped and worshipped. We also prayed a TON for the local, regional, and international ministry as well. Oh, did I mention that we worshipped? We even had a special night that we set apart for worship. The stairwell of our mission house was filled with us racers and we lifted up musical praises to God that night. It was seriously one of my favorite memories that I pray I never forget.
The Worldrace has been awesome. To all of you reading and/or hearing my words, thank you. Thank you for taking time to step into this journey with me. When asked what one of my main goals for the Worldrace was, my answer was the cliché, “Welp, to glorify God of course.” But the Holy Spirit also pressed upon my heart to strive for another goal as well. I want to use the Worldrace to get the tone for the rest of my life. To serve with all my heart now so I can continue to do so after the race. To absorb the gigatons of lessons God is teaching me so I may share them with everyone I ever encounter. To grow in my prayer life and develop a greater love for God and others. To direct all those I encounter towards the Lord and continue to do so through connecting them with local missionaries, consistent distant contact and prayer. Call it selfish, but I want to use this Worldrace to set the tone for the rest of my life. Once, again thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I know I talk way too much so I’ll shut up now. 🙂
*Highest Hopes and Deepest Prayers
