Here’s a recap of each country and what ministry looked like this past year on the race! If you have any questions or are curious about knowing more, I’d love to talk about it!
Month 1: India
Team Ahava Chara was in Ongole, India this month partnered with ICM doing village ministry! We visited 13 villages and did door to door house visits within the village, praying healing and protection over a lot of families. Afterwards we would then hold a church service in the village church where we sang and gave a message each time. The Lord has given me such a deep love for this country and a desire to go back one day! Our team experienced a lot of spiritual darkness this month. We dressed in the traditional Indian attire and got to experience some REALLY spicy, but delicious, Indian food!! (still my favorite food of all the countries!) With it being month 1 of the race and being a new team, we had a really great time trying to figure things out together. A lot of good memories I carry from this team are from India. I also got to celebrate my birthday during this month. It fell on one of our off days so we took the day and went to the beach!
Favorite memories: Chai time everyday (it’s a real thing for the Indian!), worship on the roof of the church we lived at, the food, my birthday at the beach, the excitement of it being month 1! Basically everything about this month!
Something the Lord taught me: How much I really love village ministry, how real spiritual warfare is and in that, just how much he truly protects us.
Month 2: Nepal
This month was all squad month so all 55 of us lived in ONE house in Kathmandu, Nepal. We partnered with Brian and Sarah Williams in their ministry TAMI. Ministry was a variety of things. We did a lot of prayer walks at Hindu and Buddhist temples, we did prophetic paintings and then passed them out to women in the red light district, we did some listening prayer activities, a couple of days we went out and played soccer with slum kids, visited slums, and we also got to do some bar ministry. One night, the girls on my squad had a session and did an activity called “Stand Up For Your Sister.” A lot of freedom was found that night for most of us. The last part of the month, they split the squad up and half went to the jungle and the rest of us went to the mountains. While there, we did a TON of hiking/prayer walking over the city.
Favorite memories: Flying up to see Mt. Everest, dance parties and popcorn with my team, praying for rain for a pastor and it immediately starting to rain, the stand up for your sister night, getting to visit Pokhara and every morning walking out and seeing the mountains.
Something the Lord taught me: Just how beautiful the works of his hand are, what extreme community really is (ha)
Month 3: Vietnam
Team Ahava Chara was in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam working with Pastor Joel and his ministry The River. The River is a life skills program that offers basic life skills to 2 different groups of children and teaches Christian qualities such has compassion and loving people well without blatantly calling it a Christian organization. (Because he would be shut down) One group being children of the poorest families and the other group being children of the richest families. We also had the opportunity to visit a children’s home that houses over 300 orphans with no official identity because they don’t have birth certificates leaving them with no opportunity in their futures. This was an amazing month! Joel’s wife also has her own ministry working with girls rescued from sex trafficking and placing them in a house she has where they’re taught basic skills such as sewing, and education so they can become functioning women that won’t return to prostitution and instead prosper. Vietnam is still a closed country under communism so religion is not allowed therefore we had to be creative with how to share the gospel with people. It looked more like simply loving people and showing it through our actions than with words.
Favorite Memories: American hosts that were great, the children we worked with all month, the staff at The River, getting to ride on Grab motor bikes (Grab is a taxi service like Uber but they have motor bikes as an option), living in the city, Cu Chi Tunnels, visiting the Mekong Delta with Jessica and Mikayla, pho and spring rolls.. pretty much everything from this month I loved haha
Something the Lord taught me: the gospel can be shared through actions and not just words, how much he loves children
Month 4: Cambodia
Team Ahava Chara was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working with Charles and his wife Ai. They were 1st time hosts but you’d never be able to tell! Ai started a school years ago for children of Vietnamese refugees than came over during the Vietnam War. This month, ministry consisted of 2 of our girls teaching English everyday at the school and the rest of us did a few different manual labor jobs. Several of the days we worked on sanding and painting pallets that we later assembled into a pallet bed for our hosts, 2 other days we got to help paint the inside and outside of a riverboat church that is also an orphanage the pastor started, our hosts anniversary was coming up so one night we babysat there baby, Jedlinh, so they could enjoy a date night, and we also help put on a sports camp at the end of the month for all the children in the community! This was a tough month because of the heat but a lot of growth came from it! While we were in Cambodia, they were celebrating their Khmer New Year and everything closed down for several days. With it being our last month as a team, one of my teammate’s mom, wanted to treat us to a bungalow at the beach where we spent a couple of days relaxing and spending time together as a team.
Favorite memories: painting the riverboat church and seeing the amount of joy and thankfulness the pastor had for us coming to help, the Mexican restaurant in town that was as close to American Mexican as you could get, visiting The Killing Fields and S21 and learning about the genocide that greatly affected the people and country.
Something the Lord taught me: his sovereignty, how to love my team well through some difficult times, how to see and love the people around me the way the Lord sees and loves them
Month 5: Thailand
First month with new teams! Team R1:16 was in Rayong, Thailand partnered with Pastor TJ and his wife Joy. We spent most of this month making house visits to church members. We had the privilege of visiting a woman and her family who were new believers so we prayed over their family business and home. We prayed over a church members land that they were in the process of turning into a shrimp farm, and we also got to go to a juvenile detention center where the gospel was shared and 6 boys accepted Jesus as their Savior while there was a giant buddha literally within feet of us in the room but the Lord still worked! The last half of the month we went to 4 different schools and taught English all day and were able to share the gospel at each as well. This was probably the hardest month for me.
Favorite memories: seeing the 6 boys accept Christ, going to the beach for a weekend on a few of our off days and riding elephants, the thunderstorms we had everyday
Something the Lord taught me: He has a purpose in everything even when we might not understand it
Month 6: Albania
Our first continent change! This month my team was in Pogradec, Albania and our host were Clause and Marie Hoffman (Marie was american so we both enjoyed each other’s company quite a bit!) Something I immediately learned coming here was just how beautiful eastern Europe is! Our team was partnered with Christ For the Nations Bible School. It was summer time so school was out but there were several interns that lived at the school year round so we did life every single day with them- slept with them, ate with them, cooked with them, cleaned the school everyday with them, and did all ministry with them. They were so incredible! Ministry this month was also a variety of things. We did house visits, children’s ministry, women’s ministry, youth ministry, cell group at one of the interns homes, and cleaned the school everyday before lunch. This is also one of my absolute most favorite months! On one of our off days we hiked a mountain and then rented bicycles and biked over to Macedonia. Coming from Asia, we were starting to feel the effects of traveling and exhaustion. The Lord knew we needed rest and man, did He truly provide this month. We felt SO refilled and refreshed when we left. Not only did we have the opportunity to pour into the Christian community around us but we were poured into SO much as well. This was the hardest goodbye I said on the race. I truly hope I can go back for a visit one day!
Favorite Memories: literally every minute of this month- the relationships built with the Albanians, the FOOD (2nd favorite after Indian food), the country itself and it’s beauty, running every morning on the lake
Something the Lord taught me: That only He can provide full rest for me, the importance of building up and pouring into the Christian community
Month 7: Greece
This month was a little different than all of the other months on the field because it’s what we call ATL month. ATL, Ask The Lord, month is when leadership gives the space and the freedom for each team to spend intentional time in prayer to see where the Lord wants us to go for the month. There is no assigned ministry or host like all of the other months nor is any lodging set up. With the exception of a few countries, we were allowed to go pretty much anymore. This month was designated for Macedonia but after spending 2 full days in prayer about it, we felt the Lord was calling us to Thessaloniki, Greece to do street ministry. Ministry included handing out flowers to women one day, passing cold waters out to people, public worship, coffee shop ministry, holding up signs in the public square asking “What are you thankful for today?” and “What’s one word to describe your life?” which got great responses and allowed us to have really good conversations with people and even allowed us to pray over a few others. Public evangelism is actually illegal in Greece and one of the nights while holding up the signs, there was a big group of policemen that came and parked their bikes right out in front of us but never said a word to us. That was definitely the Lord! For me the biggest part of this month was the one on one relationships several of us got to build with the locals. I and another girl on the team we were living with for the month became great friends with a local Greek girl who was around my age named Eleonora. We got together at least once a week during the month we were there and just got to hang out and get to know each other. We still talk to this day and will continue to do so!
Favorite memories: Eleonora, Tom’s coffee shop where I became friends with one of the baristas, getting to visit Athens for a weekend
Something the Lord taught me: That He WILL provide in everything if we just trust him, He’s a creative God and speaks in so many different ways
Month 8: Bulgaria
This month, Team R1:16 was in Pomorie, Bulgaria and our host was Daniela! Daniela was another 1st time host for me but again was so wonderful to our team. Ministry this month was honestly pretty slim (part of having a 1st time host and figuring out how things work) so a lot of ministry was what we made it. We spent quite a bit of time with the youth group so we decided we wanted to make ministry pouring into them for the month. One of the weeks we were there, we actually attended a huge youth camp they put on every year up in the mountains where youth groups and families from all over Bulgaria come together spend the week worshiping the Lord. We also finally got to use our tents that we carried around with us all year haha It was such a great time of community and seeing the younger generation on their knees surrendering everything to Jesus. Because of the free time we did have, this was also a great month for our team to rest with the Lord, prepare for another continent change and to simply come together since it was our last month as a team.
Favorite memories: Being on the beautiful Black Sea, our last team time washing each other’s feet, praying over each other, and ending it with communion together.
Something the Lord taught me: Even though I struggled this month with feeling the Lord’s presence, I had to trust that He was still there, Ministry is everything we do and to stop putting it and Jesus in a box
Month 9: Zimbabwe
Team change AND continent change! Team Giraffes were in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe! We were partnered with Jabulani at Hope Ministries. The first part of the month we went out with several pastors that work alongside Hope and made house visits with their church members and church elders. It was such an incredible time getting to sit down and listen to life stories and see how much they truly love the Lord and all the ways he’s working in their lives. The last part of the month, we went out into the bush for several days to a place called Binga! Hope Ministries is in the process of building an orphanage and 2 team houses out there so that’s where we stayed. While there, a few people helped make bricks to finish one of the team houses, and the rest of us went out with Pastor David (a local pastor who I actually still talk to him and his wife because they’re incredible people!) and some of the church elders there and made more house visits. While at house visits, one of us would give a testimony or short message and then there was always a lot of singing and dancing involved! Once we left Binga, we had the opportunity to go to Victoria Falls and stay with the Phillips family that our host is friends with. They were some of the most God loving people I’ve ever met.
Favorite Memories: The Hope Ministries staff we worked with everyday, cutting off chicken’s heads and cooking them for dinner, having Jacob (one of our raised up squad leaders) with our team for the month, Binga and all the amazing people we met there, Victoria Falls and the Phillips family
Something the Lord taught me: People’s stories matter, that I have a true passion for hearing people’s stories
Month 10: Swaziland
Team Giraffes were in Nsoko, Swaziland! This month was half squad month so there was 31 of us that lived in one house again. Ministry was serving at a carepoint where children can come everyday for a hot meal and a safe place after school. We walked 5 kilometers every morning to our carepoint where we would then hang out with the kids too young for school and then in the afternoons all of the older kids would come. This was a month of just getting to love on children that may not receive it at home whether that was by letting them fall asleep on us everyday, pushing a car around that the kids made out of wire, pushing them on the swing set, or helping them pump water into the 5 gallon plastic bottles we brought for them. 80% of Swazi children are abused in their homes, Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, Nsoko being the HIGHEST in the country, and life expectancy is only 51 years old. This was an INCREDIBLE month and will also by far be one of my favorites.
Favorite memories: Kulile and Koskona (2 of the children I got extremely close with..ask me about them because I love talking about them and showing pictures), learning about the country, living in the bush,
Something the Lord taught me: He’s my ultimate sustainer and my only true source of energy (the thought alone of working with children everyday 10 months in to the race was exhausting but the Lord provided)
Month 11: South Africa
Our final month on the field! Team Giraffes were located in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa with Hannes and Mari Bekker! They again were 1st time hosts but were just absolutely wonderful to us and made it feel more like home than any other place we’d been. That will definitely be a continued friendship. Jeffrey’s Bay is a small surf town all the way south and is the 2nd biggest surf spot in the world! As soon as we got there, we fell in the love with the place. Ministry looked different for all of us as we were split up in 3 different places all month. Mari is a manager over a hotel restaurant so the 1st two days there, we got to go with her to work all day and help her cook for people staying at the hotel and also help her prepare for a bridal shower. After we finished with that, Sarah and I got to help out at the Healthy Mom & Baby Clinic working in the clothing shop, 2 other girls worked on a horse farm all month, and the other 3 worked with a ministry called Books & Beats. The last week of the month, our hosts took us to Capetown where we were able to be tourist for a few days before heading to Durban to meet up with the rest of our squad for final debrief. This also is one of my favorite months!
Favorite memories: Our hosts and everything they did for us, Victory Church and the people we built friendships with, cage diving with great whites in Mossel Bay, exploring Capetown
Something the Lord taught me: With it being our final month and going home was coming so quickly, I was stressing over what’s next. The Lord kept assuring me that he has such a great plan and purpose for me and I just need to trust him. Also, that my quiet times with the Lord don’t have to look one specific way.
