I’m back.
Well, technically, I’ve been back. I returned to the United States on June 22nd, and it’s taken me a while to finally write this blog.
Or any blog, for that matter. For the last two months of the Race, I felt no motivation to write a blog. I didn’t have any ideas for blogs. I didn’t want to take the time to sit down and do it. I was distracted. I was stressed. I was emotional about going home and all the changes that were slowly getting closer and closer.
But, despite all that, here we are! I hope you didn’t miss the blog too much.
Like I said, I’ve finished the Race! It feels good, sad, and exciting all at once. Before I dive into the actual topic of this blog, I wanted to say thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to every single person who donated money, took the time to pray for me, and read these blogs. Thank you for believing in what our Jesus can do through me. Thank you for encouragement and listening during hard phone conversations and celebrating even when you didn’t understand the experience I was having. Thank you to my squad. Thank you to my friends, my church, and my family.
You guys are incredible, and this journey was yours as much as it was mine.
Okay, now, onto the ~content~! One of the most commonly asked questions I’ve had since being back is “which country was your favorite?” (well, technically it’s been “how was it?!” which I can barely even respond to because how can I begin to describe a year of traveling and missions from such a basic question??). Other common questions are similar, but more to the tune of “what was your favorite experience?” or “what was the hardest part?”
So, in response to those questions and to a lot of reflection on the past year, let me introduce to you, my World Race Highs and Lows!!
I’m going to break down each country, month by month, and give you the sky-view rundown.
Let’s do this.
Panama
high – I met a lovely woman named Nupcia at a playground we had a VBS event at. She and I chatted in Spanish about her grandchildren and her husband, and she was the first person on the Race I gifted with a physical print of the photo I took of them. Watching her face light up with surprise and excitement made the entire month for me and made me even more excited about giving out photos to people I would meet for the rest of the year.
During our month in Panama, I also got to teach my first photography class with my friend Amber. We had four students who were eager to learn about how to use a camera and it was an absolute blast watching them use the skills and concepts we taught them in a fun photography scavenger hunt!
low – I struggled a lot during this time with feeling awful about how I reacted to the blessing of watching my friends get healed. I talk about it in depth in my healing blog, but basically I was feeling rejected and upset as I watched others get healed rather than myself.
Costa Rica
high – My first high here is pretty obvious, but I got healed this month! After almost two years of dealing with chronic pain, some of my squadmates (and dear friends) prayed over me and Holy Spirit told me to stop taking my medication. This was scary and exciting all at once, but seeing how God worked during this month by healing me keeps Costa Rica at a high place in my heart. Again, you can read more about it here.
I also got to work on creating challenging and new videos for the ministry we worked with. I was really excited to use my skills for ministry the whole month and feel like I was contributing in a way that was really valuable and that I was equipped to do. You can watch those videos here and here!
low – This was the first month the mosquitos got real. Like, so real I expected to get bit the moment I went outside. We would keep our doors shut as much as possible to preserve the sanctity of our living spaces. It was a nuisance for sure, but also not that big of a low, since this was my favorite month it’s hard to find a real low here.
Nicaragua
high – First of all, during our first day of evangelism ministry here, my friend Rachael and I had the privilege of praying over a woman for healing and she was healed! It was incredible watching the joy we could see in her as she felt Holy Spirit move in her and it made me feel more empowered in praying for healing for others.
On top of that, Nicaragua was my birthday month, and if it wasn’t enough for me to get to celebrate my birthday in a country I love so dearly, I also watched my friend Ozzy get baptized on my birthday and was surprised by an amazing birthday dinner with all the ladies I spent the first month of the Race with! I felt so loved, even when it was hard not being able to talk to my family or friends in the States.
low – During our travel days to Nicaragua, I woke up one morning with a tight elbow and I couldn’t fully straighten my arm out. This terrified me because it seemed like some of my symptoms I had been healed from could be coming back. But, I affectionately started calling it my “crooky arm” and, to be honest, the “crookiness” still comes and goes, but it has taught me a lot about leaning into Abba and His promises even in the midst of things that are confusing or difficult.
Honduras
high – While in Honduras, we worked with kids, all day, every day. Which I was not super stoked about at first, but then, I met Kedmith, aka the sweetest, cutest little gal probably in all of Honduras. She and I would hang out and play with plato together and take lots of pictures. I looked forward to spending time with her every day.
This was also the first month our team, Kintsugi, was actually alone. No squad leaders, no other teams, just us. We celebrated this by writing a song about the first four months of the Race together and by spending a lot of quality bonding time together. It was pretty great.
low – Honduras was a very emotional month for me. I struggled hard with comparison – in almost every way. I feel like this was a climax, a bubbling over of all these emotions that had been boiling up inside me. I wrote a blog about my struggles with comparison that you can read here – ultimately I think this struggle hurt so much because it was a refining time for me, which is always good.
Malawi
high – In Malawi we literally got to have Christmas down in Africa and it was pretty incredible. Our wonderful squad leaders Rachael and Alyx woke up our team to Christmas music, cookies, hot chocolate, sweet notes and singing an original song. Then, we had a cookout in our yard with a bunch of local kids, Team Mike and Ikes, and joyful African dancing! We even finished off the night by showing one of our hosts the joy of the movie Elf – it was a pretty incredible Christmas.
This month also ended in a pretty amazing New Years bash – and we got to enter 2019 before the United States, which was cool but also kind of strange!
low – Now, one thing they tell you on the Race is that your likelihood of getting lice is very high… You’re playing with kids all the time that love to get close and touch your hair and, unfortunately, Malawi was the month we discovered the lice infestation. This was not only uncomfortable as we scratched our heads constantly, but also a big tension point as we tried to check each other’s heads for lice and treat it without any actual lice treatment available. That, along with the abundant cockroaches in our tiny home made it clear that this was not a good month for us when it came to bugs.
Zambia
high – One of my favorite parts of our time in Zambia was that we got to help start some really cool ministry while there. We would visit homes in the town and sit down with families, talking to them about scripture, answering questions they had, and encouraging them to dig deeper into their faith. We often spent time with the women who would stay at home all day cleaning, doing laundry, braiding hair and cooking, which birthed a beautiful woman’s ministry. We had an amazing Beauty for Ashes event this month along with starting a woman’s Bible study that we got to empower the women to lead on their own. It was a beautiful picture of what more longstanding ministry can look like.
This month I also got to do a lot of vegan baking (we had an oven for the first time!!), put chords to a song I wrote, go on a Safari in Botswana, and my crooky arm went away! So it was a pretty cool time overall.
low – A low for this month would have to be our white water rafting experience. The Zambezi River has some of the most intense rapids in the world, and myself and several of my squamates hadn’t ever been rafting before. I wrote a blog about the experience, but basically I had an experience where it felt like I was going to drown. I don’t regret the trip, but it has left me with more hesitancy when it comes to bodies of water.
eSwatini
high – While in eSwatini, I got to bond with another magnificent kiddo. A little girl named Spo (this is a shortened version of her name) would hang out at the carepoint we served at. She would walk around with her brothers with their containers for the food we served there in tow. We spent time playing on the playground, taking pictures and, if you held her just right, she would fall asleep in your arms.
We also got to celebrate Valentine’s Day this month, and, since we had all the ladies in our squad together this month, we had a big Galentine’s Day party. We ate lots of delicious food, exchanged gifts to our assigned “Galentine” and watch a movie together. It was a real blast and left us all feeling super loved and cared for by our fellow ladies!
low – A low this month was learning about the realities of what way too many kids in eSwatini have to go through. From the AIDS epidemic leaving many children orphaned to evil witch doctors using body parts of vulnerable children for spells – it was a really harsh reality we had to face and we felt really helpless a lot of the time. You can read more about it in this blog.
Cambodia
high – Besides the fact that Siem Reap was full of all the great vegan food and cute coffee shops, we also had a lot of freedom in our ministry. We were able to build relationships with shopkeepers, baristas, and and tuktuk drivers. It felt a lot more like what “everyday life” ministry could be like when we returned to the States, and that was a valuable experience.
low – The other side of the coin in having a lot of freedom in ministry is that it led to a lot of feelings of purposeless in ministry. Sometimes it felt like we weren’t doing enough or we couldn’t fill our time well, and that could be frustrating, so it was a hurdle we had to work through individually and as a team.
Thailand
high – First of all, Thailand was the month my mom visited!! Whooo! We painted walls, went to temples, learned to cook Thai food, and she got to meet my family for the year!! She got to witness us in the midst of true, honest worship times and hear testimonies of the Race, which was super cool.
Then, our team travelled to Pattaya and we were met with blessings on blessings, from free lodging in a missionary couple’s home to working with the amazing organization, Shear Love. This was an “Ask The Lord” month where we didn’t have any solid plan on where to go or what to do, and that led to a lot of amazing opportunities. For example, the missionaries we stayed with had been praying for someone to help with their website and create a video for them, so it was definitely a Holy Spirit thing that we showed up and could provide them with just that! You can check out their site here.
low – Walking Street is what they call the main street in Pattaya where the clubs and brothels are most concentrated. We embarked on Walking Street several nights to pray and hand out condoms to women working on the street. It was really, really overwhelming for me the first time we did this, and I had quite the breakdown. It was heartbreaking to see the women in this situation, and it hit my heart really hard, but you can read more about that experience here.
Malaysia
high – This month, we had the privilege of working with the International House of Prayer. They took the time to teach us about how to be prayer warriors, the importance of Israel and what it really means to intercede and contend on people’s behalf. They also incorporated a lot of spontaneous worship into their worship time and had a songwriting workshop, which drew me into songwriting again. I even wrote and put chords to a song all by myself for the first time! If you want to hear that song, you can go here. Speaking of songwriting, our team also wrote this pretty dope rap about our time together, so you should definitely check it out!
We also got to live with some really awesome missionaries – one of them being a former World Racer! Some of my favorite times here were spent hanging out with them, chatting, praying, and digging into scripture. They were really cool girls and people who I felt like I would genuinely be friends with outside of the Race.
low – I felt particularly attacked in the realm of loneliness this month. I felt alone within my team a lot of the time and felt misunderstood. It wasn’t the fault of my teammates, but it was the struggle in my mind this month. This struggle opened the door for more honest conversations with teammates, which was really cool and allowed me to be vulnerable and advocate for myself how I needed to.
Indonesia
high – Indonesia is a country known for it’s beauty, so that almost goes unsaid, but we also had the privilege of staying in Bali for this entire month. We spent all the free time we had on the beach and Bali is known for being a vegan paradise, so I was pretty darn happy. But, one of my favorite parts of this month was that we finally got to teach English! I hadn’t had a ministry like that before, and wow it was so fun. We bonded with the kids we taught, played lots of fun games, and it was really cool to watch them learn and see as they grew in their language skills!
low – With this being our last month on the field, there also comes the struggle to be motivated. There was often talk of how excited everyone was to go home to the States, but that made it a lot more difficult to feel present. I had to constantly remind myself that this month, ministry and country deserved as much of my attention as all the others did.
And there you have it! Now no one will ask my any more questions about how the Race was, right? Kidding, kidding, this is just a very broad look at my experience, and there’s so much more I could go into and would love to talk about. Feel free to ask me more questions down below, but, I would really love to hear what some of your highs and lows were for the past year! What was really exciting or special? How did you struggle or hurt? I really want to know. 🙂
grace + peace
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