CHINA
1 Word: Smelly
Ministry: College outreach, evangelism, and relationship building through Milk & Honey Land Café.
Highlights: Evangelizing on Day 1 of ministry and leading 2 female university students to Christ! Singing “Firework” in front of 2,000 people.
Lowlights: Learning to cope with eating rice everyday and everyone being constipated all month. Learning to function as a team.
God: Despite popular belief, we didn’t have to be all 007 when talking about God. It was actually quite easy and people were open to hear and discuss! Many Chinese see Christianity as a “western” religion and are more loyal to the government and traditional beliefs than having a relationship with the Living God.
Fun: Great Wall of China, Tiananmin Square, Olympic Stadium.
Thailand
1 Word: Fun
Ministry: Planting gardens, ministering to children in refugee homes, relationship building, encouraging believers.
Highlights: Anna and I getting to have a sleepover with the girls at “Promise Land” and just having fun with them and loving on the girls so much! Getting to go into Burma for a day and minister in a leper village as well as have a spontaneous picnic on the side of the road with a Burmese family. Going to Lucky Tea every morning to build relationships with the workers and eat lots of chick peas and naan.
Lowlights: Jake being hospitalized for chronic dehydration and constipation.
God: I was greatly encouraged to come alongside native and foreign believers and just see all the amazing ways God is moving there and in the hearts of people all over Thailand! Lots of ministries and hope coming at that nation.
Fun: The Monster Challenge at Famous Ray’s. Sweaty hiking adventure. Sleepover at Amy’s (alumni Racer/longterm missionary) house. Setting off floating lanterns. Riding elephants. Bamboo rafting down the river. Climbing waterfalls. Visiting a Starbucks coffee farm and drinking coffee.
Cambodia
1 Word: Sweaty
Ministry: Teaching English all day every day (public school in the morning/village school in the evening). Door to door evangelism, painting.
Highlight: Bethany and I teaching “1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians…” to our public school class/loving the kids in our class. Morning runs with Jake on the dirt roads through rice fields. Getting to talk about Jesus to my students and sharing my testimony with them. Throwing an American Thanksgiving for everyone!
Lowlights: Sweating 24/7 with no escape. Drinking hot water all month. The dishes and lack of sanitation *shivers*. Getting sick (probably from the dirty water). Everyone getting infected with pink eye. Eating the same thing every day.
God: What I learned about God this month is that He is THERE in literally “the uttermost parts of the earth”. He is so alive and active in Spirit through His chosen ones. People have a hard time accepting Him though due to other religious and generational practices.
Fun: Visit to Ankor Wat, getting interviewed for a NatGeo documentary and getting to witness to the dude. Going to the beach with the team and all our contacts/staff. Visiting the genocide memorial.
Malaysia
1 Word: Slow
Ministry: Teaching piano, teaching English, prayer walking, relationship building.
Highlights: Living in a place with A/C. Spending Christmas, truly centered on Jesus, and New Years with my team and another team. All night of prayer with my team. Doing a Christmas Eve outreach for children in the Chinese community and sharing the Gospel. Meeting Mimi and her family on a prayer walk. Having our contacts prophecy over us.
Lowlights: Ministry being reaaaally slow. Our Christmas Program at the English center. Not being able to talk about God openly since living in a Muslim community. Referencing God in code as the “polar bear”, haha.
God: Malaysia is a very closed country. It was difficult because we really had to be careful with what we said concerning why we were there and what we’re doing. While we couldn’t freely initiate conversations about God, it was so cool to see the doors God opened for us to conversationally walk through after building trust and relationships with the people living around us. Pray for the Light of Truth to penetrate this dark country!
Fun: Weekend getaway with the team in the Cameron Highlands. Getting to see Frozen (twice) in a real movie theatre. Spending time in Kuala Lumpur/the mall/Petronas Twin Towers.
Japan
1 Word: Family
Ministry: Pioneering! ATL (Ask The Lord aka Prayer walks), pouring into our host families, building relationships, college ministry.
Highlights: ONESEN (Japanese bath house). Living in a home with a mom, dad, and 2 little sisters! Heated toilet seats. Having a cool God moment and sharing the gospel with a Japanese girl at Starbucks and with another random guy we met. Getting to attend a women’s home bible study meeting. Spending time with our host mom and dad in Kobe. Homemade Japanese food- YUM!
Lowlights: Being so freakin’ cold. Getting lost EVERY DAY. Walking, walking, walking. ATL. Inadvertently and obligating(ly) having to eat sushi. Being fed TOO MUCH food.
God: Japan is a nation that needs to hear the Hope of Jesus. Depression and suicide are rampant in this workaholic environment. This is non-religious country that practices idol worship religion only out of superstition when felt inclined to. These people are so hungry for the Truth. They just need people to tell them there is hope!!
Fun: Floating Garden Observatory in Osaka. Movie Studios in Kyoto. Beach in Kobe. Onesens. Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. Any time spent with either of our 2 host families.
Asia Favorites
Asian babies and Asian people- the sweetest! Bicycle transportation in Thailand. Beauty in simplicity. Perfecting my use of chopsticks. Kuala cookies, roti, naan, and Pad Thai. Beautiful landscape. Delicious bananas. People freaking out because we’re American. People being very open to hearing the gospel. Rice fields in Cambodia. Sunrise/sunset/nightsky in Cambodia. Saying “Sa-wa-de-kaaaaaa”. Cheap cheap cheap! Heated toiletseats in Japan.
Asia not so Favorites
No English anywhere. Smelly squatty potties. Red ants. Always having to take shoes off before entering homes (I hate being barefoot). Having to learn how to say “no meat” in every language. So hot. Cold showers. Strange smells. Having to walk somewhere, anywhere, to get wifi. Not being able to drink the water. Eating a fried grasshopper. Seeing my breath inside my house in Japan (no central heating). Mayonnaise on everything. Hearing Islamic prayers over the loud speaker in the middle of the night. Always remembering to take your own toilet paper wherever you go.
Albania
1 Word: Depressed
Ministry: Partnered with a Nazarene church. Taught English to local high schoolers. Jacob and I taught piano and guitar. Pouring into and ministering to the youth from the church.
Highlights: Getting to share Jesus with my 2 students, Ana and Ina. Encouraging the youth and seeing the love of Christ shine in them! Pizza, pizza, pizza (carb overload, oopse)! Lots of cheap produce for the win! Hanging out at the suflaqua place and befriending the worker guys. Orange ministry.
Lowlights: Unemployed men creepin’ everywhere. Our students dwindling and stop coming to class.
God: While the church and pastor we worked with were overflowing with the Love of Christ, the nation around them is very broken and in need of the Truth. I was so blessed to see the joy and hope the youth at the church have and how strong they much be in their faith in spite of the beliefs of their family.
Fun: Sightseeing in Berrat (old coliseum and town). Visiting the Adriatic Sea.
Bulgaria
1 Word: Hard
Ministry: Unsung Heroes
Highlights: Making really solid contacts! Getting to travel and see the whole country. Getting invited to several American contacts homes and feeling like family.
Lowlights: Too much downtime. My hardest month personally and spiritually. Snow.
God: Since our ministry was to find new contacts anywhere within the country, it was awesome to meet and partner with so many different ministries for a short time. There are many Faithful followers and witnesses in His name there. Many are coming to know the Father through the Love of His children!
Fun: Weekend trip to Greece! Seeing (and living in) the city of Plovdiv- one of the oldest cities in the world. Sofia and Varna are both awesome with cool stuff to do and see, which we made the most of when being there. Our Razgrad contact taking us around to other parts of the country to sightsee (old fortresses/towns).
Romania
1 Word: Excitement
Ministry: Gypsy outreach, assisting to church and missionaries, home visits, children’s ministry, evangelism.
Highlights: Parent Vision Trip (duh)! Getting to work alongside a wonderful couple, Mark and Florina. Family dinners in the mission house. Squad worship in Brasov for debrief. Squad Dodge ball tournament.
Lowlights: Bed bugs/fleas. Scary stray dogs.
God: The believers in Romania are so passionate about reaching their own people with the gospel. The church we worked with was absolutely amazing and so firmly rooted in the Word. People in Romania believe in God but are mostly attached to their generational upbringing of Orthodox, which makes the idea of having a personal relationship with Jesus difficult to grasp.
Fun: Night out with the parents in Bucharest. Hikes and exploring Brasov.
Ukraine
1 Word: New
Ministry: Building relationships, teaching English, discipleship.
Highlights: Overload of cookies. Hanging out with all our Ukrainian friends (5+ whos names were Tania). Living in community with a new team in a nice place. English Camp. AWANA fun day in the forest and handed out Operation Christmas Child boxes.
Lowlights: 7 people crammed in a 1-bedroom apartment.
God: Like most other of the European nations, Ukrainians hold tight to their Orthodox religion. The church is small but passionate. I was so happy to find, though, that many were very interested and eager to learn about the personal relationship found in Jesus!
Fun: Traditional Ukrainian night at a friend’s house. Spent a few days in Poland at the end of the month and visited Auschwitz I & II. Exploring Krakow.
Eastern Europe Favorites
Easy(er) wifi access. Bread. So much history everywhere. Easy boarder crossing. More English speakers. Gelato. Good coffee. Beautiful landscapes. Southern hospitality. Loved the churches we got to be a part of.
Eastern Europe not so Favorites
Too much bread. People are (more) rude. Orthodox>relationship.
Swaziland
1 Word: Favorite
Ministry: “Manistry”, manual labor, children, organizing, loving.
Highlights: Wendy being my buddy. Buddy Talent Show. Taking the kids for a field trip off the mountain to a movie and pizza. Family dinners. Nightly worship and devos. Sunsets and night skies. Doing home visits and bringing Jesus and food to families in need. Handing out purses and slippers to the Aunties!
Lowlights: Cold.
God: Jesus is SO GREAT, and greatly to be praised, in a place where spiritual warfare is very intense. Through the obedience of His children, El Shaddai Children’s Home has taken in dozens of children who are nurtured, taught, taken care of, loved, and brought up in the way they should go. In spite of corrupt government and the strongholds of sin, I saw Jesus Shine so brightly through the little children on top of that mountain! God will work in and through each and every one of them in mighty ways to bring Hope to their own people.
Fun: Hikes to coffee rock. Watching the sunset on the rock. Going on a sunset/sunrise safari! Just hanging out with everyone.
South Africa
1 Word: Horses
Ministry: Horse ministry!
Highlights: Finishing out the Race really strong with my team. Attending Victory Church. Being adopted by a beautiful elderly couple and going to their house for lunch. Getting to hang out and minister to recovering addicts at one of their meetings.
Lowlights: Getting stepped on and bit by a horse. Cold. Not much relational ministry.
God: I saw the Hope of Jesus grip the hearts of those who desire a Full life. I saw transformation of peoples’ lives who were formerly enslaved by anger, drugs, and theft. I saw a young generation stretch out their arms as if a Father were reaching down and giving them a hug too large to hold. I saw the hearts of my contacts serve us above and beyond because that is what God told them to do, to bless us, to love us, because we love Him.
Fun: Zip lining. Sundowner. Living life on the beach all month/debrief, hike to the blowhole in Port St. John’s, outride on the beach in Jeffreys Bay. Squad Banquet.
Africa Favorites
English! Simplicity. African food. Finding enjoyment in the midst of nature. Super cheap avacados.
Africa not so Favorites
High crime. Dry. Overly crammed taxis. WINTER.
The World Race Favorites
Getting to meet SO many more of my Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Worshipping God in new ways. Finding freedom in my faith. Squad worship. Community living. Accepting and growing in feedback. Just being freakin’ weird… and that’s okay. Telling someone about Jesus for the first time. Getting to be involved with so many types of ministry. Having dozens of international friends. Sharing is caring. Loving people in spite of differences in every way. Church is not a building, but wherever I am with other believers. Not always having wifi. Getting acquainted with so many different cultures and people. Sunrise/sunsets all over the world. Trying new foods. Seeing the WORLD! Growing in gifts, confidence, communication, maturity, relationships, and love.
The World Race not so Favorites
Living out of a backpack. Wearing the same clothes. Being uncomfortable. Community living. Teaching English all the time. Having people immediately ask me for stuff after finding out I’m American. Can’t read/understand anything. Instant coffee. Never knowing what’s going on. Drinking out of 1 and only 1 water bottle for an entire 11 months (granted, my parents did bring me a new one during month 8). Having to be carefully quiet about Christ when all I want to do is shout His name. Working against language barriers. Not always having wifi. Pushing into brokenness and difficulties.
#THISISHOWUDOIT
Final Debrief, South Africa.
And to those 5 crazies who have loved me pushed me and driven me crazy for 11 straight months. I wouldn’t be who I am without you! It’s been an incredible journey and it’s been a privilege to see each of you grow and change. I love you Team UK/WOOF/COOL!
September 2013
July 2014
U SQUAD <3
