It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog. Life has been so crazy, but oh so good.
I am currently in India in my seventh month of the race. The time has FLOWN by!!!
Before I get into India and what my life is like here, I want to catch everyone up on what Peru held for me and where the Lord has been taking me.
My team had the chance to partner with a ministry in pacasmayo, Peru for month five. Upon arrival I immediately fell in love with this small quaint city. The people are beyond welcoming and the atmosphere of this place is so inviting.
Once settled into our room on the compound (used to be an orphanage), we wasted no time jumping into ministry. Our first month of Peru looked like morning VBS, afternoon English, and youth group at night. We got the chance to spend ALOT of time with the youth around here and it made my heart happy. Seeing so many young faces chasing the Lord and striving to better themselves is an unexplainable feeling. You can just feel how eager they are to learn.
As month 5 came to a close my team was excited to hear that month 6 would be ALL SQUAD MONTH here in pacasmayo. A whole month serving in the place I’ve called home for 3 weeks with everyone?? YES!
As month six began I knew walking in that the Lord has been speaking rest over me. Not just sleeping, but self-care. Taking time to heal the wounds, sit in his presence, and fill up in all the love around me.
My last month in Peru was just that. Restful, and full of so so much love.
Once all the teams got here and we exchanged hugs and got to catch up on where the Lord had us in the last month, it was time to discuss ministry. We got the opportunity to take a lot of ownership in month six about how ministry would look and time spent with our teams. We were given two ministry projects and then we created committees.
Our ministry projects were painting murals in one building of the compound, and the other was digging up pipes.
I got the chance to be on the pipes, because I’m all for manual labor and painting just isn’t my strong suite.
Let me tell you something, the sun here in Peru is HOT. We dug pipes for several days and I now have some pretty sweet tan lines.
Besides our ministry projects we also have committees.
They are:
-Worship
-Fun
-Work out
-Media
I of course signed up to be on the Fun committee and boy it didn’t disappoint.
When it came around to our fun night we had so much in store.
We baked homemade pizza, played games, did trivia, and watched a movie. I also got the chance to put together a video of pictures from the last 6 months of the whole squad. It was a time of pure laughter. It was a break from all the emotions and everything going on to just sit with the squad and have FUN.
As month six began to come to a close we got a bomb dropped on us.
Our squad leaders gave the announcement that we were having team changes….
As sad as it was to think of leaving team Priceless I knew that the Lord had so much in store for these new teams in India.
As the days went by I couldn’t help but think everyday of who would be on my new team and how we would take on these next three months.
Finally, after what felt like forever we got our new teams.
My new team is Team Haven.
I went from an all girls team to a co-ed.
Meet my team.
Jenna Rose White
Melanie Lender
John Mark Weaver
Alec Dupree
San Nevien
Joel Larsen
And our amazing squad leaders
Mason and Emily Alpert.
To say I’m excited to take on these next months with them is an understatement.
No one can replace my old team, but I am over the moon to get the chance to do life with these humans.
Fast forward a now,
IM IN INDIA!!!!
What?? Month 7??
Where has the time gone?
I can’t believe my race is almost over.
After three days in Ecuador for an event called the awakening, a 26 hour layover in Chicago, and 3 flights later, my squad has made it to Manipur, India.
This place is magical and not like anything I could have expected.
The weather is moderately warm during the day and cool at night.
It’s rains a lot, but I don’t mind because we have tin roofs and nothing compares to that sound.
The people are so inviting, and where we’re staying the majority of the people living around us are believers.
My squad has the chance to work together with a medical clinic for a week and I’m not sure how that will look, but I know we will reach as many lives as we can.
This is my first month with my new team and although we’re still with our whole squad, I can’t wait to see what life is like with these six people.
I know God has big plans for India.
I cannot wait to see all it is!!!!!
Here’s to my last 2 1/2 months!!
(And hopefully more blogs so I can keep y’all updated)
Thank you again to everyone who has been so supportive of this journey. I couldn’t have predicted all this race would hold for me, but boy God really knew what he was doing when he led me to the race.
