It amazes me how quickly the time passes on this World Race. One minute I’m in Nicaragua and the next I’m in the Andes of Peru—how does that happen?? Here’s a quick rundown on what’s happened in the last few weeks:
- Our time in Nicaragua came to an end. We said many sad goodbyes, hugged countless people after our last Sunday service, and once again had to travel the road to another country. I’ll definitely miss the Schweitzers and all the others we ministered alongside, Grammy’s cooking, the ferocious wind and sand in your face each day, the puppies, the walks through the barrios, and of course ESKIMO! (our favorite ice cream stand) J We’ll miss you Nicaragua!!
- We packed our bags and made our way to a little camp on Lake Nicaragua where we met up with the rest of the racers for a three day debrief. It was awesome to see old friends, catch up on the news from other teams, process through all that happened in Nicaragua, and spend some time in the WATER!! Fun times.
- Hop on a bus to Managua, catch a flight to Lima, Peru with a quick stopover in Panama and before you know it, we’re on the next leg of the race. All 50 of us spent our first night in Lima at a local church which we received a ridiculously warm welcome from many congregation members at 2:30 in the a.m. Talk about troopers! After “sleeping in” until 8:30 teams received some directions and the race was on!
- This was truly an Amazing Race TV style—there were many different challenges and components to this race which made it super fun! For more of the scoop and pictures check out Steph and Tana’s blogs. Our team, Nessa finally came in FIRST PLACE!! …but we actually got last place by default—teams received time demerits for misinformation and taking shortcuts. (whoops!) It was quite a sad let down after all the excitement. (sigh) Oh well, Zeo, the defaulted winners, actually ended up giving us their prize money of $50 since they thought it was only fair because we actually made it to the finish line first. I’m pretty sure everyone felt a little sorry for us going from first to last in a mere matter of minutes! We decided to use the money to purchase Spanish bibles here in Peru because they are seriously needed.
- …to be a little more clear about the race…I didn’t actually race. Haha! Each team only needed four people to compete, so Shawna and I ran around with our team until we needed to split to get into cabs and then we hung out with Brienna from Team A and nonchalantly made our way around Lima to meet the racers at their next destinations. It was a great day!
This is us at the Saint Francis Catacombs. Teams had to get a picture with these skulls so we thought we’d get a pic of our own. creepy…
The final destination was the San Cristobal cross overlooking the city of Lima—what a view eh?
After everything was all said and done we got a few hours to chill out down by the Lacomer Beach, which is also where Starbucks is located…picture happy people. Haha…It’s been too many months now with instant Nescafe…eek! We watched the sunset over the ocean from a balcony overlook—beautiful! I love these girls and I love my life!!
These sunsets around the world just can´t be beat! Thank you Jesus!
