You asked…I answered!

The weirdest thing I have eaten so far is starfish. It was gross. Cambodia was the month of eating gross things. It was month one and I was all about trying whatever was put in front of me. So that month I ate chicken intestines, snail, starfish, cow intestine, craw dads, and chicken liver/heart.  I don’t recommend any of them. 

 

God has taught me a lot during this race but I think one main way he has changed me is in my confidence in myself and who I am in Christ. Coming on this race I always struggled with comparison and confidence issues.  Thailand is when it became very evident that I struggled with confidence because it was all-squad month so all 42 of us were living together.  I didn’t really feel like I had much to offer anybody and I always felt like I was a nuisance if I asked to come along with a group to go somewhere. 

But God taught me a lot about all of that. One night I broke down in our room and Carli, Katie, and Megan basically tried to force me to speak truth over myself and I couldn’t do it. I just sat there and felt worthless. They ended up speaking truth over me but it still didn’t quite sink in. The following evening Clint Bokelman came and spoke to us. He had spoken to us at training camp and he just happened to be in Thailand the same time we were and a few of my squad mates ran into him on the street and invited him to our worship night. So basically Clint is a very prophetic guy and you can tell God speaks to him. So Clint talked a lot about identity that night and he basically nailed it right on the head of how I was feeling. It was crazy and definitely from God. After that night I sat back down with Katie and Megan and I spoke truth over myself about who I am in Christ. It was the beginning of figuring out who I was in Christ and building up my confidence. So from that day on I have continued to speak truth over myself and have made other people do it as well. It’s a great thing and it’s not easy but the more you speak it the more you begin to believe it. So with that being said, it hasn’t always been easy and I do have moments when I still struggle with it but in the end I am brought back to speaking truth and remembering who I am as a daughter of a King. 

 

This is a hard question. I think I might have to go with the isolated poorer countries. Looking back on the race I have found that it has been easier to share the Gospel with the people who have little because Jesus gives them a hope and gives them something to hold on to. I have also discovered that people who live with so little are so much happier than those with all kinds of worldly things. Seeing that has made me want to live a simpler life and I’m not sure how that looks yet but I hope to figure it out when I get home.  But back to the question, it is much easier to connect spiritually with those who don’t have as much. I have noticed they have a greater appreciation for their lives and they are so grateful for the little that they do have. 

 

Fortunately there have not been huge disagreements between squad mates. L squad is a solid squad and we all have so much respect for each other. I can’t really recall many disagreements that were big. If anything there may have been a time or two where something I said upset someone but it was addressed within 24 hours (a rule on the race is that if there is an issue between you and someone else then it needs to be addressed within 24 hours of the incident.) So fortunately we haven’t had any big blow-ups. 

 

The best point of connection is that we are all in the same boat. We are all away from home and have moments of homesickness but we are able to comfort each other in those moments and encourage each other. Another point of connection has been through our testimonies. Month 7 was when we finally got all our “ish” on the table as we like to say. It was crazy seeing how people struggled with similar things and it was encouraging to know we aren’t alone in our struggles. 

Hands down I will miss living in a community of people my age 24/7. I discovered that I really do love community and the community the race builds is great. There is a constant building up of each other and if we have a disagreement we are forced to make it work since we live together and are together ALL THE TIME. It’s great. I have seen so much growth in people from the beginning of the race and it has been awesome getting to see the progress throughout these last 8 months. 

So yes, community will be missed for sure. 

 

I kind of have a favorite country from each continent. It’s hard to choose just one. So from Asia, my favorite country was Vietnam. We did Unsung Heroes that month and God showed up in so many ways and we met so many great people even though it was a closed country.  It was just even more confirmation that God is present all around the world. 

My favorite country in Africa was Ethiopia. It was a month of physical labor which I was looking forward to doing on the race and we were staying in the middle of no where with no wifi which was great. Overall it was a refreshing month and a month where I got to know my squad mates even more since most of us lived altogether. 

In Eastern Europe my favorite country has been Albania. We got to live with 10 teenagers who quickly became like my brothers and sisters and it was a great month of exploring and hanging out at orphanages, cleaning, planting flowers, cooking, doing door to door, and visiting Albanian homes. Overall it has been a great month even with team changes. It will be hard to leave. 

My least favorite country so far has been Uganda. It wasn’t a horrible month through and through. There were just many moments that I found to be very challenging and not very enjoyable. It started off with getting malaria and being homesick. Also the type of ministry we did was very challenging and was a hard transition from Asia and the ministries we had there. There were definitely good moments but out of all the countries so far it hasn’t been my favorite. 

One thing I thought I would miss is um…well I have kind of missed everything at some point in time. It’s hard to pinpoint one thing exactly. I guess I thought I might miss my hairdryer and hair straightener as materialistic as that sounds but I realized that I put a lot of time into looking my best and it became a part of me and I didn’t feel like I could go out without doing my hair but on the race I have learned to embrace the natural look and it has been great to be able to get ready in 10 minutes if I have to.  So I may continue embracing that look when I get home. It saves so much time and my hair is so much healthier because of it! 

One thing I miss more than I thought I would is being able to speak English anywhere I go and have people understand me. It has made for some interesting conversations with people and we have become very good at charades but I definitely took for granted the ease of being able to have a deep conversation with someone without having to have a translator. Every time we find someone American we get so excited because we can finally talk to them without any misinterpretations. I think the biggest thing I didn’t realize I missed was the other day when an American couple who was in Albania for a missions trip brought their five kids to the Hope center and these kids spoke English!  I could actually communicate with them without having to use hand motions. It was great. 

Oh and one minor thing I miss is free water at restaurants. That isn’t really a thing around the world. 

 

I’m not really sure what I expected. Having not ever been outside of the United States I was kind of ignorant about what the world had to offer. I only had the expectations that every other country was so behind and underdeveloped and I was going to be living in rough conditions everywhere I went. But that hasn’t really been true at all. I have had some pretty great living conditions on the race and have experienced some pretty developed countries so it has been a nice surprise. Another thing that has surprised me is how welcoming everyone is! I don’t think there is one country where we haven’t had a warm welcome. People are so generous and friendly and just about everyone loves Americans. We stick out like sore thumbs everywhere we go and people do stare a lot but you will always find someone who is willing to help you and direct you where you need to go. It’s definitely a kind of hospitality that I want to bring back to the U.S.  I think we can get so focused on going, going, going and we don’t allow ourselves to be interrupted. But I have learned that the interruptions that have happened on the race have been the most memorable and God ordained. So allow yourself to be interrupted and show some hospitality to the random people you see on the street. 

 

Ahh, the infamous question that keeps arising as the end of this race draws near. It’s a great question, just one that is hard to answer. Honestly I’m still not sure exactly what I am supposed to do. As of now I will be taking the month of August to just rest and maybe do a few odd jobs around like babysitting or cleaning and also getting ready for my friend’s wedding. After August it is kind of up in the air. I have a few options in mind but I haven’t figured out all the details yet so it’s still a work in progress. But once I figure it out I will be sure to let people know. 

 

Yes. It is so easy to be in ministry mode because that’s what my life consists of right now. I’m living in a community of people who love Jesus and who challenge me to be a better person and challenge me to grow in my walk with the Lord. We have this bond of traveling all around the world together and we just understand each other. It’s going to be very hard to go back to my community where I don’t have consistent community living. It is going to be easy to fall back into the routine that I had before the race. But I don’t want that so I am going to do my best to avoid that. How that looks, I don’t know. I would love to start up a Bible study with whoever wanted to join and just build a little community that way. 

One thing I don’t want to be afraid of is being “foolish.”  I just finished reading “In a pit with a Lion on a snowy day” by Mark Batterson. The book talks a lot about taking risks and being willing to look foolish for God. One line in the book states, “if you aren’t willing to look foolish for God, you’re foolish.  In fact, faith is the willingness to look foolish.”  So I want to take risks when I go home and I don’t want to be afraid to fail because even if I fail at least I tried. 

So getting back to the original question, yes, it is going to be hard but God has it all under control and it may be hard at some points but that’s life and it’s expected so right now I’m just a going to take one day at a time and see what happens. 

 

Sweatpants. No doubt about that. Even though I probably wouldn’t have used them until about month 5 or 6 they still would have been handy to have. I recommend anyone who is going to Eastern Europe between January and April/May bring sweatpants. It will be worth it. Also maybe a hoodie too. Those are nice for travel days. 

 

That concludes my question and answer blog! Thank you to all who submitted questions. They were challenging for sure. 

So tomorrow we head out to Lezhe, Albania for a couple of days for a Leadership Development Weekend and then on Saturday morning we will make our way to Honduras! Let month 9 begin! Prayer for safety for us and the parents who are traveling for Parent Vision Trip would be great! 

Speaking of which…I get to see my beautiful parents in 6 short days!!! What?!?