W Squad traveled to Astana, Kazakhstan for mini-debrief!
At mini-debrief I was raised up as my teams leader! I was super nervous at first but found comfort in the fact that this was what the Lord had called me to do.
I was so thankful that I still got to experience fall this year even though fall in Michigan is tough to beat!
Our final night of mini-debrief some friends & I were walking to dinner and ran into some people at a crosswalk. We got to talking and ended up inviting them to dinner with us! We shared that we were Christians and although they were Muslim they voiced how cool it was that we all prayed over our shared meal together.
Missing my moms birthday this year was really hard. I’m so thankful she has such wonderful support back home and all of her friends threw her a surprise party!! She cried and of course I did too! Thankful for FaceTime to still be apart of it even if that means waking up at 4am because of the time differences!
I got to FaceTime my little cousin Max while he competed in a surf competition in San Diego!
Keeping up with the FaceTime dates theme…catching up with my grandma & aunt Lori while they visited the apple orchard back home.
We moved to a new city, Almaty, and partnered with YoungLife. Ashton & I were both involved with YL back in the states and jumped at the opportunity to serve in Kazakhstan!
We celebrated Courtney’s 30th birthday!!
Back in Astana, I chipped my front tooth on a peanut M&M (how silly, I know!) and found a dentist in Almaty to complete a tooth restoration. The lady pictured spoke English and was able to walk me through the whole process. We ended up exchanging numbers and I got the chance to meet up with her a week later. I got to share a bit of my story with her and told her who Jesus was to me and what he did for us. She told us that her religion, Muslim, has been decided because of her parents and it was so sad to hear. She agreed with a lot of things I said so I fully believe the Lord is working inside of her. How funny is it that the Lord used me, through a broken tooth, to work in her!?
Big Lake Almaty – an absolute (hidden) beauty of the world
Some of my WyldLife girlies
We took a lot of taxis in Kazakhstan and this guy was a Christian!
Medeo – the world’s largest high-mountain skating rink
Capernaum cooking class! The pastry chef from the Ritz Carlton volunteered his time & provided materials for all of the kids to cook muffins. It was my favorite day of the month!
We had a hard time saying goodbye to the staff at YoungLife. Although my team was ATL this month and technically did not have a host, this team took us in. We are so thankful for them and they are making such an impact on their community!
My team spent our last weekend in Kazakhstan in a cabin, in the mountains!
These men were an absolute gift to our team. We used Yandex (Central-Asia’s Uber) to call taxis to take us to our cabin. When they showed up they teamed up & helped us load up. Upon arrival we found out that the wrong address was put into the app and we were at the wrong place. Through Google Translate we found the right place and they joyfully took us there! We finally got to the cabin and it was very far away from any city and no WiFi. I quickly thought that these guys would be a great option for our transfer to the bus station because we were heading to Kyrgyzstan in just a few days. Not only did these guys pick us up three days later, they also arranged a van for us to cross the border and take us to our next ministry site. The story doesn’t end there though. These men also arranged for another, larger team, to cross the border and to their ministry sites! What an unexpected blessing!!
