I am coming home in just 12 days with 14 more stamps in my passport and a vast experience of other cultures! As I said in my previous blog, here are some specific questions to give you an idea of things to ask when I get home. Some are serious, some are funny, but all relate to the past year of my life and will give you a better idea of what my experience was like.
General
What did you learn about being a believer this year?
What did you learn about being a leader?
What were some of your favorite moments with your teams? (Estuary & Piñata)
What places and moments broke your heart?
What places and moments did you feel most alive?
Who are your closest friends that you made on the Race, and why?
What were some of your worst living conditions? What were the best?
What ministry was the most challenging?
Which ministry was your favorite?
If you could live in any country you’ve been to, where would it be?
What was your favorite country and why?
What other countries did you go to that were not on your route?
What was your favorite continent?
What was your favorite country in each continent?
What was it like to live out of a backpack all year?
What were you most nervous about before you left?
What was one of the best days on the race? Worst day on the race?
When were you most homesick?
What did you learn from being on an all girls team? Co-ed team?
What were the biggest differences in being on an all girls and co-ed team?
Ask me about all the animals I have seen. Wild, stray dogs, puppies, etc!
Europe
What were your expectations of Eastern Europe before you got there? And what was the reality?
What was the hardest part of being in Europe?
What was the transition like into Europe from home? How was the homesickness?
What was it like to be with your whole squad in Romania?
What does ministry look like when you have 43 people in one place?
Ask me about my teammate waking me up at 4am in Romania.
How was your trip to Greece?
What was the food like in each country?
Who were your favorite hosts? Why?
Ask me about a ministry that interests you!
Painting a kindergarten in Albania, and planning a whole vacation bible school, teaching English through bible stores in Romania, building a church and teaching English in Bulgaria.
Asia
What was traditional (Malaysian, Thai, Burmese) food like?
What was the weirdest thing you saw people eat?
What was public transportation like?
What were bathrooms like in Asia?
What did you see in nature that amazed or inspired you?
Ask me about my teammate having to stop a whole train to go to the hospital on the way to Thailand.
Ask me about off days/adventure days in each country and what they looked like.
Ask me about our overnight chicken bus to Myanmar.
How did Cambodia get added to your route?
What is the Awakening?
How was your birthday in Thailand?
How were the holidays overseas/Thailand?
Ask me about a ministry that intrigues you!
We worked in a homeless shelter, and did street evangelism in Malaysia, taught english in Thailand and Myanmar, and street evangelism in Cambodia.
Africa
In what ways did Africa surprise you?
What did you do when you visited Victoria Falls?
What were bathrooms like in Africa?
Ask me about our house keeper in Zimbabwe.
Ask me about the stars in the Southern Hemisphere!
What is public transportation in Zimbabwe like?
How did Lesotho, South Africa, and Zimbabwe differ?
What was it like to go into a prison and share your story in Lesotho?
Ask about the missionary family also living in Lesotho.
Ask me about Townships in South Africa.
What was it like to have your mom visit for a week in South Africa?
What animals did we see on our safari?
Ask anything about any of our Hosts in Africa!
What people were the hardest for you to say goodbye to from each month in Africa?
Ask me about a ministry that intrigues you!
We shared the Gospel in hospitals and prisons, we gardened, and built a fence around said garden, taught a bible stories in a school, and sang in church on Sundays in Lesotho. We helped set up for PVT, did a lot of manual labor, and registered people for a life skills class in South Africa. We did a lot of evangelism, helped out at nursing homes, did house visits, and spoke to youth groups in Zimbabwe.
Caribbean
How was your layover in New York?
How was it seeing your dad and brother, during that layover?
How was your travel from Port-Au-Prince to your ministry place?
How did you deal with your spiritual warfare at the beginning of the month?
How was it working in a children’s home?
Ask me about the kids I worked with, and their stories.
What was it like to have to give extra special attention to a sick baby?
You can ask me about sponsorships for the kids in Haiti, if you are interested in that!
How was month 11 in the Dominican Republic different?
What was it like to find your own ministry?
What are some intense things that happened to your squad mates while in the DR?
Ask me about a ministry that intrigues you!
We worked at a school and a a children’s home, and made a music video, in Haiti. The Dominican Republic was a lot of processing the last year, prayer walks, working at a medical clinic, visited and elderly home and a home with children with special needs, but really it was mostly enjoying the last couple of days with my squad.
I cannot wait to get home and tell you all about my trip. Please ask me questions! All the questions! The more specific the better! Please don’t mind if I ask you questions back, as I have said, I want to know your past year as well. American life can seem routine or transparent, but I have not been part of that life for a year and it is something I want to hear about.
