Hi everyone!
This week was our half way mark of the race! About four and a half months in, about four and a half months left. As Gabrielle Montez once said “I wish everything would stop, or at least slow down”. Time is flying by and I’ve been trying to reflect on all the things that have happened so far. I’ve been gone for around 20 weeks. I really wanted to write a blog about all the things I’ve seen and learned in that time but it’s hard to sum up that much time in a few sentences. I’ve decided to give you my top 20 – things I’ve learned, funny memories, ministry stories – really just 20 things that I never want to forget about the first half of the race.
Here we go friends.
20. The dirty day at Joyela. The wind was awful and it was cold and our team came home from ministry looking like we hadn’t showered in days. It was a rough days but it’s one of our favorite memories to look back on and laugh.
19. Swazi church. Loud, hot, so full of the Holy Spirit and our worship leader was runner up in the eSwatini Gospel Music Talent Search Competition!
18. Finding peace over leaving home. The first few nights I cried because I was so scared and I missed home. One afternoon I spent a lot of time in the word and slowly found a lot of peace and freedom in really releasing my family and friends into Abbas hands.
17. Safari at Kruger during month one debrief.
16. The day we walked two hours to the grocery store/gas station to get supplies to make cookies and then realized we did not have a working oven.
15. Our host Davids teaching about identity – learning that I have already been made clean. (John 15:3)
14. Party day at Joyela – all the kids singing and dancing, getting them special food, spending all day with all the kids! So much laughter and love!!
15. Jesus as your husband classes – Our team leaders taught the girls on our squad what selfless love looks like and how to begin to walk in freedom from a lot of past hurts. A beautiful time of building community with the girls!
14. Cooking and having Thanksgiving Dinner together as a squad!
13. Watching all of the Twilight movies with Jessa and Moriah during our last two days in Swaziland.
12. Saying goodbye to Moriah at a gas station in the rain.
11. Hour long bus rides to Samuels house everyday – good times for naps and podcasts!
10. Teaching English to the younger kids – finding joy in public speaking, dancing, singing made up songs – learning to walk in FREEDOM
9. Worship and prayer with Samuels family – the Holy Spirit is so evident in their small home and I loved the time we got to spend talking to Jesus together.
8. Christmas!! Service with Samuel and the kids, team dinner and gift exchange, facetime with Moriah and got to call my family!
7. The Olympics we had with the kids!
6. Our farewell service with Samuel. The kids sang and prayed over us and they gave us handmade shawls from their home state! Such a hard goodbye but Samuel said “We are always together on Gods field so this is never really goodbye”
5. Five hours lost in a taxi trying to meet up with our squad to come back to Thailand.
4. Squad worship and Champ being baptized on the last night of midpoint debrief! So much fun being all together and getting to catch up with everyone and hear how Jesus is moving!
3. First day of ministry of Thailand – realizing our ministry is farming! Also shoveling dirt in tight jeans because I did not know that’s what we would be doing.
2. Waking up early for quiet time on the roof and watching the sun rise every morning. Something I’ve done in every country and it’s one of my favorite times of the day.
1. Worship!! Whether as a squad in Swazi or the group of girls living here in the city I love worship with this squad! I love getting to do life with people who are so intentionally seeking the Lord and getting to grow together.
I know these were kind of random but it’s real. Life isn’t always picture perfect but there’s been some really good memories and things that will have a permanent impact on my life. Here’s to the second half of the race!
all my love
abby 🙂
