there’s a lot of things I haven’t done recently.
I haven’t drove a car,
I haven’t hugged my mom,
I haven’t been home,
I haven’t hung out with the people I normally see everyday,
I haven’t had chickfla,
I haven’t gone a day without seeing Gabby Moran,
I haven’t pet my dogs,
I also haven’t blogged in way too long. and that’s so not cool of me. I haven’t been letting y’all into my crazy life called the world race. even tho it’s only been two ish weeks that’s still two ish weeks too long.
I think I haven’t wanted to blog because I didn’t want to write something halfheartedly yet I was scared to get real with myself.
I didn’t want to slap something down to check off that I blogged for the week, yet I really didn’t want to be vulnerable and say hey i’m on a missions trip and things aren’t as perfect as they seem.
but y’all are the ones who helped me get here and not sharing what’s up is a crime. y’all should be included!!
so buckle up, here’s what’s been up with me from the past week and maybe longer.
-WE ARE IN TRUJILLO PERU! we are working along side savage ministries for this month. we are staying at a school and helping out here.
the Lord blessed us with a flat rooftop that has some killer sunsets that make alone time prime time. we have been eating goooood here too (don’t go worrying mom)! we have an awesome host- him and his wife are so goofy to be around.
so far, everyday has looked different. for a few days we helped repaint the school so it could look it’s best before kids started in the upcoming months. we also spent two days scrubbing paint and crayon off of kids chairs and tables so they are squeaky clean for the new year as well. then weekly we do evangelism and meet people around town to invite them to our church! also we go to church a bunch here- a few times a week but it’s awesome cuz we get to meet and build relationships with the members. it’s been awesome because our host includes us in the services and let’s us pray for people and preach!!
-something I forgot to mention, hehe, oops, but i’m now the treasure for my team! ever since chile I have been serving my team by handling finances. it’s been a cool learning experience. there have been some good moments but for sure some mess ups where I had no clue what I was doing. i’m excited that I get to hold responsibility and serve my team in this way
-i’ve read almost nine ish (in the middle of two) books so far on the race! and I never read at home. it’s been an awesome pass time that i’ve really enjoyed. currently reading Love Does and on book five of Harry Potter! so any book recommendations? i’m all ears!
-we went to cajamarca for this past weekend to see and serve at our host’s second location. it was an awesome, full weekend. we for sure made the most of our time in cajamarca. we met a bunch of sweet people, I saw a pig (my fav animal!!!), we went to the Baths of the Gods, prayed over the grounds where the church will be built (they start construction soon), and I got to hold a baby (first baby i’ve squeezed on the race, he was SO CUTE). it was a weekend full of the lord and it was cool meeting people who seriously wanted to get into our space.
-we went sand board surfing and wow was that h. a. r. d. I pictured it as this super awesome thing that everyone would be so perfect at and we would get super good footage at and would go a bunch of times. but we get out into the middle of the desert and start the trek up this sand dune. YALL. it was steep and hot. like real hot. and real steep. we reach the top and completely eat it multiple times before really getting the hang of it. once we did our first full run, it was hard to think there was gonna be more times of us doing this, it is a hard hike up and based on all the churros i’ve eaten, it wasn’t too easy to climb up the dune, hahahah. but it was a great day and we ended up doing it three times, laughing WAY too hard at each other fail, and sharing good conversation. i’m truly glad we did it- but it was hot.
-in trujillo, we are around the block from a small store owned by a lady named Judy. let’s talk about Judy. she’s a super sweet women that makes some seriously good chocolate cake. and a fat slice of chocolate cake for one sol (about thirty ish cents) is hard to resist daily. so… naturally everyday we pay her a visit, haha! it’s produced good conversation and happy world racers full of cake
-yo I got reposted on instagram- that’s dope. i’m pumped about it!
-I hiked macchu picchu in cusco at debrief! that was a full day, waking up at 3 am but WOW was that seriously beautiful. it was an awesome day that chessie an I spent with our other all women’s team. it was super fun making other American friends there and almost getting attacked by llamas haha.
-something I don’t want to write down is how i’m actually doing on my walk with the lord. I don’t feel like I can share since i’m on a missions trip. I feel like I should be all fine and dandy with the lord since i’m out here in peru serving him. but actually i’m super struggling. i’m struggling with hearing him. hearing the lord is something that is still new to me. I never really knew that before the race people had like actual relationships with the lord and talked with him. I ALWAYS strayed away from the people that always started sentences with “oh the lord told me to say…” because I thought they were always crazy. but now I know that you can be in contact and conversation with the father and it’s SO cool!
my relationship started out looking like people saying things that all lined up together and me finally being like okay lord i see what you’re trying to tell me! then it matured to me having conversation with him throughout the day. just kinda lil thanks and hey what’s up every now and then. that was fun. then I transitioned to the season i’m in now where i’m feeling alone. i’m feeling like i’m deaf out here. it sucks, not gonna lie.
for most of chile I took it super poorly and gave up almost. I rarely sought out time for the lord and just thought I could go without him. then sometimes if I would make time for him it would be SO good but then other times wouldn’t measure up to that and that was disappointing.
so I thought there was going to be a changing point at debrief as we came into peru but it honestly feels the same. I feel like i’m in square one of having no idea what’s going on and what i’m even doing.
but! with all the frustration comes endurance. and i’m enduring! i’ve borrowed a book called seamless and it’s helping me go through the bible and understand it as a full story. i’m really excited about learning and can’t wait to see the progress and to find the lord in all of it!!
