i just did a really long blog for 2 hours with pictures and everything and it ALL got erased. i will try and add pictures later. i do not have the patience to do it right now.
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry
that I received from the Lord Jesus Christ,
to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. “
Acts 20:24
312 days ago I got on a plane and headed from Jackson, Mississippi to Matamoras Mexico not knowing what I was getting myself into. All I knew is that the Lord called me and told me to go so I was on a plane headed to a place I didn’t know to people I didn’t know with money I didn’t have. Here I am 312 days, 22 countries, 87 bag packing times, hundreds of miles of walking with an enormous backpack on, many laughs and tears, with a family I love more than anything later. The year is over. Time has come for us to grasp what the Lord has taught us this year and to go our separate ways.
I have had the amazing privilege of being able to travel the world and experience this crazy journey with 23 amazing people. We started out as strangers then became enemies then became friends then family and now we are more than family. To say good-bye to these dear people to this life to this year is going to be the hardest thing I have ever done.
I have been with these people 24/7 for the past 11 months. We know what makes each other laugh, we know what makes each other cry, we know more about bodily functions than we care to know, we have seen each others beauty and even seen the not so pretty sides, we know each others spiritual gifts and the way the Lord uses those probably better than some of our own family. To think that it is time to let all this go and trust that the Lord is going to catch us when we fall is so hard.
The Lord has done amazing things this year…
In Mexico we were able to ride bikes through the flood and go door to door in the different villages evangelizing and seeing salvations and healings in ways that many of us never would have imagined.
In Guatemala (after climbing the volcano from hell and having our possessions stolen from us) we were able to love on the disabled orphans and have the Lord show us and give us His heart for those children. He also tested our faith in how much we trusted Him and we watched Him sell our car in less than 24hrs.
In China we were faithful through the freezing cold weeks of prayer walk. He told us to trust in Him, in His voice and called us to stay there for another week while all other teams traveled. During this time He opened up an entire school to us where we were able to go in and share the gospel.
In Thailand he ripped my heart out and left it on Patbong Street, in the red light district where we were able to pray for the girls in the sex slave industry. We prayed that the Lord would send His spirit to set those girls free of the bondage that they live in and come to the realization that they matter. They are more than just a number.
In India we saw the Taj mahal and suffered through some intense heat but had the awesome privilege of staying in the orphanage lead by Dr Samuel Thomas. He was in prison with a bounty on his head all because he loved the orphans in India. He loved the lowest of the lows. We saw the faith those children had, the way they fasted until their leader was released from prison, the way they loved the Lord and they truly are ready and willing to die for the sake of the gospel. “To live is Christ, To die is to gain”… this truly came alive to us.
“For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but
also suffer for his sake.”
Philippians 1:29
In Bosnia we were dropped off at piece of land with nothing. We found ourselves making everything from fences to kitchens to toilets to poop holes to a coffee bar. We built camp and joined together with the other Christians for weeks of encouragement and prayer for their country and to see nonbelievers come to Christ.
In Europe we traveled from Croatia to Italy to Greece and then Turkey. We were able to go through the Apostle Paul’s journey. We experienced the things he did while taking the time to stop and pray for the people that are now there. To travel through 4 of the places where Paul wrote the letters to the 7 churches.
In Egypt we not only got to see the Pyramids but the Lord opened our eyes to a “different” world. A different Christian community and that is the Coptic Orthodox Church. Here Bishop Thomas shared with us his heart, his story and how the Lord has used him and worked through him. He showed us though we might think it’s weird that everything is sung in a way that drives us crazy, but the way they love each other and the desire they have to serve the Lord is amazing.
In Kenya we not only met lifelong friends but the lord sent us to a field ready to be harvested. As we went from door to door doing dramas and open air crusades we saw so many people come to Jesus Christ for the first time. The Lord took us and showed us that through us being faithful during the year through all things, this was our reaping time and took us to the largest slums in all of Africa to do so… Kibera.
As I look back over all these months and memories I see one constant thing and that is through all the times we had, good and bad, the Lord was growing us and stretching us so we would be ready for “now”. For an entire year we have had a family where we know each other so well. We know what makes us tick and what hinders us, we know what makes us excited and what makes us scared. We have held each other up during the hardest times. Now is the time that we have to trust what the Lord has taught us, to step out into the unknown and be the leaders that He has called us to be. We can not go back to the life that we once lived. We now have a responsibility and that is to wake this world up and bring them to the full realization of Jesus Christ.
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is near
than when we first believed.”
Romans 13:11
I will never forget this year or the people that experienced it with me. The Lord is calling us in many different directions and though many of those callings will never allow us to cross paths again, they will forever be in my prayers and heart.
Thank you for following us around the world. For reading our blogs and being so interested in knowing what is going on. For being there and laughing with us and even at us. More than all, thank you for all of your support, financially and prayerfully. I pray the Lord will continue to bless through next years racers.
I Love You.
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform
our lowly body to be like his glorious body,
by the power that enables him even to subject
all things to himself.”
Philippians 3:20-21
