Wow, hello! I hope you’re doing amazing and enjoying the cooler weather, I hear its been snowing or about to snow there. It’s weird not having any snow here in Nepal especially with Thanksgiving coming up this week. Also still haven’t wrapped my head around the fact that it’s even November much less that Thanksgiving is practically here and I’m not there. This is my first year to be away for the holidays and that’s getting harder the closer they get. So please be praying for me, my team, my squad and all the other squads who are still on their journeys during this holiday season, it’s definitely not easy for us to be gone and we could use an extra dose of peace and cheer during the next month or so to get us through!
Recently my squad went through our first round of team changes. We arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal for a week of debriefs and rest before continuing our journey into our 5th month. Wednesday of that week was to be our last day with our teams as we would learn who our new teams would be the next afternoon. My team, Team Ardency, spent the day together shopping, hanging out in coffee shops and finally our last team dinner. The past 4 months with these beautiful women have been amazing and I’ve been blessed and honored to have them in my life, to have them in my family. We’ve had good times and bad times but we pushed through and came out better for each moment. I can’t describe what it was like to be a part of this team, we were one of a kind. We were loud and crazy, we probably laughed too much and too loudly (possibly a few times during prayer), we messed around and had a good time and joked constantly. We loved fiercely, each other and those we worked with and we helped each other to grow more into the women that God made us to be. Being on Team Ardency taught me how to love more and how to receive love, how its ok to be vulnerable with others, to cry in front of others. It’s given me stepping stones to work on getting even closer to God and learning more of who he is and who I am in him. For all of that, I am so thankful to have had these wonderful women by my side helping me through each moment and lesson.
Now it is time for a new season in my life and with new seasons comes change. I don’t much like change, but I know that this is a good one. Even from the moment we heard team changes were a for sure thing I felt this peace in my heart like never before and I had this excitement; I was actually looking forward to the changes coming my way! Now that in and of itself was a strange feeling for me considering how much I hate change. When the time came for us to learn our new teams we were each handed an envelope with our name on it. Inside this envelope we would find a piece of paper with our team leaders name on it. Once I opened my envelope I found that my new team leader would be Mallory Rabon, a woman I connected with at training camp and truly love being around. As I looked around to find her my eyes caught on several others who were calling out her name as well, these were the women who would also be on my team, Lexi Johnson, Sarah Hawkins, Elizabeth Dews and Mary Dunne. I finally found and made eye contact with Mal and felt such a peace about everything all over again. As we got our new team together to go out to lunch and get to know each other I started to get a little nervous but followed along reminding myself of the peace I had only a moment before. When we got to the restaurant and started talking about what we were hoping for in this team the peace returned along with a strong dose of excitement over what was being said because it aligned perfectly with what I had been praying and hoping for in the coming months. We are Team August.
A few days later we met up with our ministry contact and found out that we were staying nearby, about 15-20 minutes drive from Thamel where we had been staying for debrief. We would be doing several different kinds of ministry ranging from friendship evangelism, to visiting children’s and women’s homes, helping to move bricks for a school that is rebuilding after the earthquake in April, preaching in churches and trekking up mountains to reach out to the untouchables of Nepal. Our team has been blessed with living in an actual home with a family, which is a first for me during the race. It’s given us a chance to get to know our host better as well as have a warm, comforting place to go home to after a day of work. Our host, Deepak and his family, say that having us live with them is a blessing but in reality its our team that has been blessed by it. We’ve dubbed Deepak as our Nepali dad, he is adorable. He has taken such good care of us this month from making sure we’re all together when we go out so that no one is left behind to learning our drink orders, 4 coffees, 1 with milk and 2 teas. He has been so amazing, we’re all going to miss him so much, miss the way he lights up at the mention of his little pug dog, Gringo (which means “friend”). I’m also going to miss his family, they have 2 sweet girls living with them as well as their niece and I was able to get to know them some and goof around with them. It was mostly me goofing off of course, but I did finally get them to join in a few nights ago and we had a “dance” party in the kitchen and walked around pretending to be grandmas who had lost our teeth! We put on a great show for Deepak, his wife and Targen, who also helped us whenever we went to ministry, they were cracking up long after we went back into the kitchen.
All in all we have had a great month working with the different ministries and our wonderful hosts. We have done so many different types of ministry, some I never imagined I would be doing, like trekking in the Himalayan Mountains on Mount Annapurna. It was a good experience and I’m glad I was able to be a part of these ministries! I have met so many people with so many different backgrounds and stories and have been privileged to get to know them and spend time with them. Now we are preparing to leave for our next country, Vietnam. I’m not sure what we will be doing just yet, but I can’t wait to find out exactly what it is and dive in. Please pray for us as we travel over the next week and as we meet our hosts and start in our ministry!
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support! I pray you have a very Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the time you get to spend with your family and friends! (And if you’re Black Friday shoppers, I wish you tons of luck and energy to get through the day! 
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Love,
Amber Slone
