I have officially been on the race for about a month now and I haven’t given too many updates as to what I’ve been doing, learning, staying, etc. I want to make a quick post about what life was like in Australia and what I’ve been doing in Indonesia!
Australia was amazing, we were with our entire squad during this month in Coffs Harbour. We stayed at two local churches that opened up their space to us! A normal day looked like meeting together, going out and doing some form of ministry, eating meals together, and processing our days together by giving each other feedback. We did a wide variety of ministry ranging from helping local churches pass out fliers, visiting nursing homes, prayer-walking around the town, partnering with Red Frogs (a local organization) to help keep young people safe at a local music festival, and more! My favorite ministry was visiting a local drug and rehab center. We got to go here twice. We would do a devotional with the men and share some food and tea with them, and then do some work that needed to be done around the property! In Australia, we had one day to sabbath each week. I usually took advantage of this time by going to the beach and local coffee shops. Australia was fantastic, and it was a great month to help get me adjusted to life on the race without having too big of a culture shock!
Currently, I am in Canggu, Indonesia. This town falls on the island of Bali. I will be here for 10 days with my whole squad, and then we will split off into our teams and go to a different place. During these 10 days, we will have 4 days of debrief (reflection time), a sabbath day, and 5 days of additional training. We are staying in a rather touristy area, so most people speak English. While here, I have been enjoying rice, noodles, more rice, more noodles, and all the exotic fruits! We start our additional training tonight, during this time, my team will pray into where we want to go and what we want to do. While in Indonesia, we don’t have a ministry host to assign us ministry each day. It is up to us to be proactive and rely on God to guide our steps during this month, how cool? We will all end up in Jakarta at the end of the month and travel to India together. There will be no debrief in India and no more training for the rest of the race, so it will be a typical month on the race!
Since being on the race, I have felt a deep closeness to God. I am learning more and more each day just how much he loves us. I am learning the value of being still and patient (another blog for another time). I am learning how to love my squad and strangers well. I am learning that I used way too much toilet paper back in America. I am learning that humans over complicate God. I have been trying to soak in each lesson like a sponge, and I am feeling completely full! God has been so loving and gentle in this season of transition, he is so so good!
I think I got the basics covered. Australia was awesome, Indonesia is just getting started, and God is good. Thank you all for your prayers and support, I promise I will be better about posting!
