Wow it is crazy to think I am over 2/3 done with the world race. Starting tomorrow, my return home date will be only double digits away! THAT IS INSANE.
I wanted to just take some time and go over the past seven months and tell you my favorite ministry opportunity of each month and my favorite personal moment of each month.
We get to do lots of different types of ministry throughout the 11 months on the race. Often times in just one month we will be doing many many different types of ministry. So I will just be telling you about my absolute favorite thing I have done for Ministry in each country.
I will also tell you one happy personal memory from each month. This could be an adventure day, and after ministry coffee outing, something with my team where we were living, or anything not during ministry times.
So here goes… my favorites from each month…
1. The Dominican Republic
– Ministry: My favorite ministry this month by far was working with the family horse Dominguez. I wrote a blog about this with my teammate Mantha month one if you want to know more about what that looked like. I like this ministry so much because it used a unique skill that I have to help people!
-Personally: In The Dominican Republic there was a local missionary living with us named Imensky. At the end of the month he found out it was my birthday and wanted to do something special for me. So on our next off day he took me and three of my good friends (ALexa, Levi, and Chrisitan) with him into the city. We good great Haitian food (his home country) and then we drove out to a spot by the river where you can ride horses. So I got to trail ride and ride through a river for my birthday with some of my favorite people! It was a really special and fun day. (shout out to the time we went down the road with all three boys entire upper bodies out the car window #freedom)
2. Haiti
-Ministry: My favorite ministry in Haiti was kids ministry. When we did this we would travel to a village or a school and all the children would gather. We would tell them a bible story, including acting it out, and then do a craft or play a game with them. We would discuss the story as best we could and then just play with the children and have fun while they try to get me to speak creole.
-Personally: In Haiti we traveled almost everywhere in the back of a truck that had two benches running down the sides and a rack on the roof. Our driver Shamma was 20 years old but I would trust him to drive in the most extreme situations. Even with all the crazy traffic, uneven roads, and branches that would attack me, some of my favorite times that month were on the back of the truck. I would either stand on the back or sit on the roof of the truck and feeling the wind blow by me made me think of all my years on my families boat. I felt free and home all at the same time.
**2.5 Between Haiti and South Africa we had a long layover in Boston. My mom, dad, and Jeff flew in to see me there. This was one of the most magical days. It honestly felt like a dream to be with them, see fall leaves, and be able to walk around a city!
3. South Africa
-Ministry: My very favorite thing to do in South Africa was a program called City Feed. Our host Love Story has been providing food for the homeless every weeknight on the streets for many years. We got to partner with them and help cook meals during the day and help dish and hand deliver a hot meal to each person that showed up on the bus station steps. I absolutely loved being able to provide for this basic need and just get to show the love of Jesus to the homeless community of Port Elizabeth.
-Personally: One of our adventure day and rest day weekends Mantha, Alexa, and myself took an overnight bus to Cape Town. We stayed in an air bnb and explored the city. This was the first time on the race that I had slept in a room with less than six people in it. I was able to get away and feel like I was just having a girls weekend with my besties. We ate good food, saw a new city, did an amazing sunrise hike, drank wine, relaxed in a park, put nutella all over popcorn, watched movies, and just enjoyed life!
4. Botswana
-Ministry: This month was a hard month for ministry. Our partners, Youth for Christ, do the majority of their work in schools. The month we were there was exams for the students and so we were not able to go into the schools except once. I was also sick this month and missed some of ministry due to that. With all that I did spend a week with another team participating in a training called Kairos. This course is all about missions work and what it means to be a missionary. This was my favorite time of ministry in Bots because it gave me a better insight into what I am doing and why I am doing it. Reaching the unreached is so cool and so biblical!
-Personally: One of my very favorite memories from the race is what seems like an insignificant moment. It was month 4 in Botswana, one of the hardest months on the race for me. I was sick of my team, sick of the heat, homesick because of holidays, and physically sick to top it off. Overall, it was a dry month for my spirit. I was not living out of a place of joy or abundant life at all. But one day among all the heat and heavy spirits…. it rained in the Botswana desert! Alexa, Mantha, and I ran outside and instantaneously began dancing and singing t-swift songs (she sings about rain a lot)! As I was spinning in circles with my bare feet in the dust, my arms out stretched, and my head tilted toward Heaven, I couldn’t help but genuinely thank God for the rain and for my life. I thanked him for my friends, for music, for pula, for bringing me to Africa, and for everything else even the hard things! It seems simple…. dancing in the rain. But it was HUGE! God knew it was exactly what I needed to shift my mind, body, and spirit from the slump I was in toward joy and thankfulness!
5. Zambia
-Ministry:In Zambia my favorite day of ministry was one of our very first days. We planned out a kids camp and ran it. We went out to the village and told all of the children the Christmas story. Then we broke up into our pre-planned stations and just showed the kids a good time. I got to work with one of the hosts wonderful daughters painting the faces of every child there. I painted too many Christmas trees to count!
-Personally:On Christmas Eve in Zambia I got to touch and feed elephants. Real, live, huge ELEPHANTS!! It was amazing. Elephants are beautiful and intelligent creatures. Mantha and I got to spend the day together with some of the coolest animals on the planet. I was in awe of how massive and gentile they were. This was one of my very favorite days. I love God’s creation and creativity when making so many beautiful creatures!
6. India
-Ministry: In India ministry looked relatively the same every night. We drove out to a new village, set up and played the Jesus film, one person gave a testimony, one person gave a message, and then we prayed over each and every individual there! Sometimes after we were invited into a home for chai, or cold sprite, or even dinner. I enjoyed getting to pour into these communities of believers and get to encourage them!
-Personally: There is no one specific event that I can call out in India because my absolute favorite thing was just spending time with my brothers. We had eight brothers who were orphans living at the host home we stayed in. The older ones often did ministry with us and the younger ones were always there to say “good morning sister” when I went down to use the bathroom at 6 am. There were so much fun and so loving. Any time we got to spend with them from watching movies, to dance parties, to playing games, to eating meals, to watching them wash clothes, to them laughing at us wash clothes, running after the popcorn cart because we want snacks, to just shaking hands and saying hello… those were my favorite moments in India!
7. Nepal
-Ministry: My favorite ministry in Nepal was when we trekked for two days to get to a remote village. We walked until we thought our legs would fall off, then we walked some more. The views were breathtaking and the sunrise was the most beautiful one I have seen. When we finally got to the host homes we were staying in night two we put our stuff down then our host said lets go and we walked some more to the very top of the mountain. We split off into three teams and went to different houses. My team went to a house of new converts that had just become Christians when the last team trekked out. When we got there we realized that the family was not home. We tried to call them, we searched the land, and we could not find them. So, we left the bible we had brought for them on the door step and we let the Holy Spirit lead us. We walked up the hill some more until we came to a random house. This was the one. We called over the fence and asked if we could come in. The accepted us with open arms and began making fresh milk tea for us. The house was occupied by an older couple who told us all about how they eloped to be together because they are of different casts and their families did not approve of the union. Then we got to tell them the ultimate love story of how Jesus died for all of us. They were so open and accepted bibles and said that they would pray and consider all we had said! It was a divine appointment and definitely my favorite day in Nepal!
-Personally: Wile in Nepal I was able to drive out to the border of Tibet and stand on a wobbly suspension bridge then plummet into a riverbed head first. Yes, I went bungee jumping and had a harness on. Man it was the most exhilarating experience falling head first. I felt like I was flying with nothing attached to me. I hate to say it but it may have been better than skydiving!
So here I am in month eight and I have gotten to do so much! I can’t wait to share my favorite things with you guys from month 8, 9, 10, and 11!
Thank you for reading this far and I hope this gives all of you amazing people who have been supporting me a clearer picture of what I have been doing the last seven months!
