Anthony Bourdain once said “Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you.”
I’ve found this to be true as I move from country to country – exploring, learning, observing and doing the absolute best I can to “leave my mark” by loving and serving others in front of me. With every new person you meet and new country you visit, it seems you leave a little piece of your heart everywhere you go. You get filled up with all the beauty that surrounds you. God’s whole, beautiful creation – the sun, the moon, stars, clouds, oceans, lakes, flowers, animals, people. Everywhere you go, they all look different. No two places are ever the same. Nor the people. The only thing that ties them all together is the love of God. You can see God’s heart in everything. But no matter how much you fall in love with a place or the people you meet, one thing always remains – your heart is going to break. I knew God would wreck my world on this trip, but I didn’t know it would happen quite so often.
By far, the hardest place I’ve had to leave so far was Botswana. There was something particularly special there and I honestly can’t wait to go back one day. Botswana was pure joy. It was light and love. Hospitality, revival, peace, comfort, healing, happiness and amazing community. Botswana just felt like home and all the beautiful people we met made it feel even more so. They immediately included us into their families and poured into us so much. It was a refreshing experience, especially after being in such heavy countries before and all the things my team and I experienced to that point. God knew exactly what we needed, when we needed it.
From Bots we moved on to South Africa. ZA was such a special country. It was fun, hard and bittersweet. We did so much cool ministry working with a ministry host which I posted in a previous blog. There was structure and routine. There was freedom and heartache. But overall there was glory – God’s glory. We had such a wonderful time as a squad even in the midst of losses. One of my teammates dad passed away, a friend from back home also lost her brother, a lot of our squad’s parents were hospitalized and there was just a lot going on in all our hearts but God definitely showed up and continued to pour out His love over all of us. I also lost my World Race bestie, Chelsita to the good ol’ U.S of A! Although my heart is sad for her not to continue this journey with us, my heart rejoices for her tough decision and obedience to the Lord to go home. It’s definitely not been the same without her but I’m happy she’s home and jealous she’s enjoying all the chips and queso she wants! Haha
Now we are in new teams and we made our way to Europe for this next half of the WR. Europe is such a treat! We spent a week in Sofia, Bulgaria and just kinda took the time to rest and figure out where God was calling us to next. We’ve since moved on to Macedonia, a place where Paul, the Apostle came to preach the gospel. It is such a beautiful place, rich with history and y’all we are walking and living in the exact same place as Paul did, also bringing the good news! How cool is that? We are excited to see what kind of ministry opportunities God prepares for us in this place! Stay tuned.
Love y’all, ANA
