During month 6 I tipped my way over the half way point of the race. 5 Asian countries behind me, 1 African and 4 South American to go.
Let me take a talley for you…
80 new friends
65 cold showers
20 squatty potties
130 plates of rice
4 mystery meats
8 language barriers
274 bug bites
90 nights sleeping on the ground
11 villages
6 cities
6 beaches
2 islands
2 Himalayan mountain ranges
22 taxis
12 tuk-tuks
9 buses
7 flights
3 trains
13 sermons/testimonies
6 microphones
360 Burmese refugees
25 orphans
12 slum kids
9 college students
6 sex trafficked women
26 English classes
13 temples and wats
8 souls saved into the Kingdom
5 calls home to the parents
4 different dress codes
2,000 crocodiles
47 monkeys
18 elephants
2 scorpions
1 camel
1,200 cement blocks
800 shovels of dirt
18 coffee shops
15 soccer games
12 hosts
and 17 different beds……. WHEW!
We have seen things, we have changed. The Lord calls us each day into deeper intimacy with Him. He is working wonders and performing miracles. And I wouldn’t trade a single one of my 47 squadmates or of my 6 teammates to be walking through it all with in this thing called community.
We grow because we trust. We call eachother higher in saying both the hard and the loving. We speak truth into one another. God made us to operate in these ways and benefit from them. The most important things I have learned on the race so far are:
1) Give people’s hearts the benefit of the doubt.
2) Do not carry a spirit of offense.
3) Get your heart posture correct in the morning. Being correct on the inside means you can overflow correctly on the outside to those around you.
4) God is always working for our good in every situation.
5) Everyone in the world is just looking for love in different places.
6) Anything is possible.
7) In India I lived with a man who has been tied to trees and beaten, and in Ethiopia I lived with a woman who has been thrown in jail and had guns held to her head. Both for their faith. That is only a couple testiments of how strong our beliefs and love for the Father should be.
8) God does not call your name saying “what have you done”, but rather just “where are you”. He does not seek to name you by your sin or the fact that you have failed again. He simply wants to be in relationship with you.
9) Be you who happens to be a leader, not a leader who happens to be you.
10) Authority in Christ: is God giving you permission to use His power. Authority flows out of intimacy with Him, and intimacy flows out of obedience.
11) There’s no place like home.
And they all said, “Amen!”
(Church in Harbu Chulule, Ethiopia)
