One month down… wow it is cray to think about the fact I have now been away from America for one month. We now have eight months left on the World Race… eeek. This blog is a little different than my others, it’ll (hopefully) be longer than most haha. basically I am going to tell stories, explain my ministry, and tell what the Lord has taught me this first month.
Alright!! Story time woot. Probably one of the funniest things that happened was one night when Logan and I were sitting on the roof when we heard screams from the other building. Him and I look over the side to see Lo standing on a chair and the other girls nowhere in sight (screams continuing). So we rush down to the room to find out there is a giant rat running rampage… well at this point I’m also standing on a chair because heck no. So eventually after more screams and lots of running around Alex comes to the rescue and gets the rat out.. but that isn’t where the story ends… it ends up running into the boys room closely followed by myself, Rod, Jackson, and Elijah, lets just say probably one of the funniest things was witnessing the boys attempt to catch this huge rat. By this point Babu (one of the hosts) runs in. The boys are screaming and throwing bricks while I stand to the side dying of laughter (if you’ve ever seen a bunch of boys loose it over a rat you’d understand). So eventually they corner the rat in the bathroom and hit it with a shoe. Rod, thinking the rat is dead, decides to throw this “dead rat” into the girls room. At first it was silent then we hear shrieks, they finally opened the door and lets just say, that rat was not as dead as we thought. So round 3 of chasing the rat goes underway (that thing straight up came back to life). Closing up this story, the rat ends up dying and all is finally quiet. The end 🙂
Alright so story number 2. The day was beautiful, the sun was shinning and there was a nice breeze sweeping around us. My team and two hosts decided it would be a wonderful day to take a trip to the Indian beach. As we pull up to this private stretch of beach we find no one in sight. How amazing right? As we kick off our shoes and run into the water all we have is giant smiles on our faces. We played frisbee and had chicken fights and swam around for awhile, all in all, a really great time. Then.. “cues the intense music” we hear our ministry host screaming “SNAKEEE”, we all turn around (well most of us) to see a snake in the ocean just swimming along, well we booked it out of there, whelp, all but one. Next thing we know we turn around to see the snake around Gwyn, her having no idea what is going on. She turns around and starts screaming and getting out of that ocean faster than anything I have seen yet, to finish the story, the day got interesting, no one was injured, and we got ice cream after. The end 🙂
This is not really a story, but I got to live out a dream of mine and go to an Indian wedding!! It was so hectic and crazy but defiantly worth it!
Ministry!! So ministry can look like a lot of different things, from walking the streets and evangelizing, to playing with kids, to preaching around to different churches, but ministry can also look like staying in the compound and fixing things up. That was my ministry this month. I know I have touched on my teams ministry, but ill open up a little more about it. So basically we have our host Babu and he gives us odd jobs here and there to do around the organization we are staying at. We have painted bathrooms, puddied walls, organized closets and store rooms, and cleaned up the millions of bugs coming from the ground. Apart from all of the “dirty” work, we have played lots and lots of volleyball games, I mean we are totally pros now right? From 5pm-6pm every night all the workers would join us outside for a friendly (intense) game. When playing in India there is honestly no rules, it is a free for all haha. Building relationships with the workers here has been such a highlight. One night we had a full on intense game, a betting game, a game where loser buys winner ice cream. That game was the best one I’ve played yet, sweat was dripping down our faces, our energy gone, our hands shaking, but there was no giving up easily. After back and forth and back and forth my team finally won against the other team (that ice cream was real good). Ministry can look like many different things, and even though it would not have been my first choice for a month of work it was very eye opening. It showed me a lot about relationships and myself and to find the joy that is in everything. The Lord has moved and is continuing to move.
Coming into the race I had lots of goals and expectations, no one told me I would be broken in the first month though. I will be honest, I have had some rough days here so far. This is not all fun and games and laughter. I have had to trust that the Lord has me here for a reason and not waver on that trust. The Lord has opened my eyes to finding joy in the little things and the things I’m not too pleased with. Lots of times I have found myself alone, sitting in the presence of the Lord. If you know me, you know I am not one to be alone a lot. The Lord has taught me that being still in Him will bring me closer to him. My goal for the 9 months is to read through the entire bible (lots of the racers are doing it). My number one prayer for this next 8 months is that the lord would give me wisdom in the word, that I would have knowledge and more understanding of him. To get that knowledge though I have to also put in work, I have spent countless hours just sitting with him, talking to him, and reading the words of him. It has been amazing to see the way he is already working. I have been broken, from frustration with being stuck in a compound for a month, to getting tired with people around me, he has taught me to stay happy and continue to be the light he has called me to be. I think I thought it would be easier, especially month one, psh broken already? Who would have thought, not me.. I cant wait to see the way he will move over and through me the next coming days, weeks, months. He has put this mission in front of me and I am going to take it head on. Yes, the road ahead will be bumpy, I mean month one was tough, I still got quite a few more to go. But what I do know is that the lord will run, sit, and walk beside me through the entire thing. I will get tired, frustrated, annoyed, sad, and angry, but what I do know is the Lord will uplift me and bring me past that. I have total confidence in the lord for bringing me here. He has opened doors and will keep opening them. I love the Lord so much and can’t wait to grow in him even more than I already have.
Eight months left, may seem like a short amount of time but it really isn’t. That is over 200 days left of ministry that I’m so ready to take on. God will do insane things and I can’t wait to journey through the world he has laid out infant of myself and my team. God is good and will always be good. Thank you to everyone who prays for myself and my squad, we greatly appreciate the amazing support system back in the states. Peace out India, hope to see you soon. Next stop => Nepal.
Love from India,
Mara
