Ways I’ve seen love put into action through others and myself while on the race:
- Sweet middle age woman that put her arm around my front/ back as a seatbelt as we sat on the bench facing backwards and the driving was a little cray cray & there were so many people crammed in the bus (Nepal)
- 5 pasos short for a Gatorade at a colmado (lil store) man overheard & covered it (DR)
- Shelby buying me ice cream in South Africa
- Holding a hand, rubbing a back, praying for people (basically every country)
- Everyone that donated to my wr trip hello $18,600
- After sharing my testimony in a trailer in the ghetto I heard a middle school girl with tears in her eyes say “I’m speechless.” Then she told me she wants to be my friend & gave me a bracelet (Romania)
- Being served coffee, biscuits, mangoes by a Dominican family
- In squatter camp a woman that we met heard me coughing and she made me tea & gave us bread (South Africa)
- Washing each other’s feet (India & a debrief)
- Doing a handshake and feeling like family & friend to complete strangers (South Africa)
- Being handed friendship bracelets because it’s the first day of spring (Romania)
- Cleaning out foster home cabinets/ bedrooms that are infested with hundreds of roaches (India)
- Sharing the gospel and other books of the Bible to our classes in Zambia
- The bread at Baptist Haiti Mission (never tasted something closer to heaven)
- Our host letting us come sit in his home with ac, letting us pick out a movie, & I chose the sound of music. He served us coffee and cake from his cafe (Botswana). (it was a million degrees and we were melting & bored)
- Doing others’ laundry, sweeping their floor, cleaning their dishes, watering plants, holding their babies (South Africa)
- 3 different friends on my squad buying me a lollipop bc it reminded them of me and they knew I would enjoy it. DR, South Africa & Nepal
- Whenever making financial transactions you would put your the left hand on the crook of the right elbow as a sign of respect (Botswana & zambia)
- Being fed snacks, orange slices & spicy chip like things, while cleaning dirty walls in foster mom’s rooms (India)
- Complimenting someone’s outfit or appearance when you notice they put in effort
- Men holding hands walking down the street (India & Nepal)
- Braiding/ playing with each other’s hair
- This sweet elderly couple filling up our water tank with their own water supply cuz we didn’t have running water for like 2 weeks (Botswana)
- A friend helping you put on eyeliner when you forget how
- Paying for someone else’s coffee on Christmas (shoutout to Jules)
- A middle aged man that clearly knew I couldn’t read Romanian & helping me pick out a water bottle in the grocery store that was good & non carbonated
