It’s happening; I’m about to board my final flight to America. It’s been 11 months since I’ve set foot on American soil and all I can say is that it’s been the most amazingly crazy, challenging, beautiful, and freeing experience of my life.
Why Crazy? Why Challenging?
Well, I chose what is called the Expedition Route. It’s known for traveling to the most unreached countries in the world, mainly by land travel rather than plane. My route is also known for having less hosts and more ATL (Ask The Lord) months. In other words, we didn’t always have a ‘ministry’ that was setup each month. Instead, we would simpIy arrive in a city and be led by the Lord. With all that being said, I experienced…
- more bus and train rides than I can count, the longest bus ride being 70 hours.
- drinking coffee that was made from monkey poop in Indonesia.
- throwing up in a squatty potty.
- introducing Jesus to a village in Indonesia who had never even heard His name!
- eating Durian, a very popular fruit in Indonesia that literally tastes like raw, rotten chicken. It was terrible.
- a safari ride in Sri Lanka.
- visiting the Taj Mahal.
- getting flee bites all over my body and face in my sleep for a week in India.
- driving on the back of a motorcycle through Hyderabad, India. I may have almost fell off a few times with the reckless driving.
- being kissed in a mall by a stranger. Yes, on the lips. No, it was not on purpose.
- taking a boat along the Ganges River and seeing dead bodies being dunked into the water (to cleanse their sins) then being burned. Meanwhile there would be children swimming and drinking the water a few feet away.
- screaming “Thank You Lord!” while paragliding over mountains in Nepal. I was lucky enough to get the acrobat man who did some sweet tricks.
- being in an altitude of over 17,000 feet and needing an oxygen tank while driving through Tibet. To put that into perspective, we were higher than base camp on Mt. Everest.
- walking up and along the Great Wall of China.
- being followed by undercover cops for 3 weeks in China.
- drinking horse milk along the side of the road in Kyrgyzstan. Guys it was probabley the worst thing I’ve ever put in my mouth (along with Durian), but the locals seemed to love it.
- physically watching my teammate Taylor fall into a drain hole in the ground with her backpack on. She managed to survive with only a few bruises and bumps.
- horseback riding through the mountains in Kyrgyzstan.
- crossing the Caspian Sea on a freighter for three days.
- my first sulfur bath in Georgia which, by the way, was more funny than it was relaxing. I had a lady scrub dead skin off of my body from head to toe as I layed on a slab of marble. Then, to let me know she was done, she smacked my butt. Oh and it smelled like rotten eggs! Would I do it again? Absolutely!
- walking roughly 180 miles along the Camino in Spain. That’s basically just under a third of Spain.
- riding camels in Morocco.
These are only a few of the many many experiences I had this year that made it unforgettable. Perhaps a few of my experiences I would not choose to relive, but nonetheless made me into the woman who is returning to America.
Now, let’s get into the heart of this journey. It wasn’t the places nor the wild adventures that made this year the best year of my life (although I’d say many of those were certainly bonuses/blessings). It was meeting and building relationships with people of different ethnicity’s from different backgrounds from different counties and even continents. However, they all had two things in common.
This planet is full of beautifully broken people who are in need of a Savior. And honestly, it’s the best news we could ever hear because living a life with Jesus is the most fulfilling, redeeming, and freeing gift we could ever have. In our brokenness we are extending His grace and mercy. Being imperfect is what makes it possible for us to experience the only perfect Love there is and His name is Jesus Christ.
So…
Why beautiful? Why freeing?
This year I learned how to surrender even more to the Lord and with that came so much freedom. I could always trust Him to provide for my needs whether that be food, expenses, a place to lay my head at night, and even people to encourage me. Whether somebody believes in Jesus or not, I believe He is engrained in each of us because we all have the same Creator. We’re each a stitch in His work and together we make up His most prized possession. There’s no denying that Jesus is in all the details of our daily lives, always extending grace and fighting for us, but sometimes we refer to these little blessings as coincidences or luck. Listening to many different stories and testimonies from around the world have Jesus written all over them. If you look back to my blogs, I shared of few of these people’s stories and in every single one, the Lord’s love never fails.
Here’s two of my most impactful experiences with people…
- Going back to Indonesia, this was one of my first blogs I wrote about sharing the name of Jesus: “My team and I went rafting a few days ago for our adventure day. Afterwards while we were eating we noticed a lady who was working was pregnant. We asked if we could pray for her health and for her baby. Another lady noticed us praying and wanted to know more about this “God” we were praying to. She had never heard of Jesus. So we explained the love and forgiveness that comes with this beautiful relationship and she asked us to pray for her back pain. After we prayed we exchanged our contact info and said our goodbyes. Little did we know we would see her again. We then had some coffee and one of my teammates prayed for the man who was serving us coffee. We said our goodbyes and got his contact information. Again, little did we know that we would see him again either. The next day, both people we prayed for contacted us and wanted to see us again. The woman said her back pain no longer hurt and wanted us to come to her home and pray for her family. The man who had served us coffee also contacted us and said he had felt so much peace and joy that he wanted to know more. So, we went back to this village. We met up with the lady who had back pain and we followed her up this mountain to her home where nobody had ever even heard of the name Jesus. We were able to pray for so many people that day…. overall there were about 10 different people who were introduced to Jesus that day. The responses were amazing… tears…..joy and big smiles…..tingling sensations….an overwhelming peace….. all of it! We literally brought the name of Jesus into this remote village that was primarily Hindu and the best part was that nothing was forced, we were actually ASKED to come to share our faith… that Jesus doesn’t want another religion, but wants a relationship with us. Afterwards, we returned to the coffee place to meet up with the man who had felt peace and wanted to know more. Not only did he hear more, but actually translated the story of Jesus for us to about 10 of his friends who were also there!Everybody then wanted to be prayed for so we prayed then explained that they can pray anytime, in any place, and for anyone in the name of Jesus. I am blown away that there are still people who have never even heard of Jesus and I am honored to be able to tell people about him and how He’s changed my life. Best part of it all is that we don’t even know what our present day ever looks like… God is leading us to these people. It’s not about spreading a religion, it’s about spreading this loving relationship.”
- Going back to Sri Lanka, I wrote this blog about the Lord’s provision and heart: “When our team got to Batticaloa, the first day we prayed for two things: to get in touch with an English speaker and get involved with a church. As we were walking downtown, we asked the Lord to guide us. One of my teammates Taylor saw an open gate to what looked like a church so she turned and walked in. We were greeted by an English speaker who was traveling with a group of people and the church had been hosting them. We then met a man who worked with the youth at the church and he spoke English pretty well. He told us about all of the opportunities there are to serve the community and offered to take a day off from work to hire a driver to take all of us around showing us the different ministries…. seriously? How flippin cool is the Lord. Come on. We visited a deaf children’s school, a preschool, and a woman’s home. SO our team did some listening prayer and asked the Lord….What should we do? What steps do we need to take to make the biggest impact in this place while we’re here? As a team we all got the desire to go back to the woman’s home. By ourselves, no translator. Now, when we first visited the woman’s home, the girls would barely look at us. They were extremely shy, but one of the women managed to tell us about some of their current situations and why they were in the home. As our translator was telling us what was being said, their eyes began watering. As we left that day, our hearts felt pretty heavy. SO when we returned, it was incredible. Although we came without a translator, we brought them ice cream (always a good start). At first, we were all sitting around the table, not knowing how or where to start. As we began to try to communicate, the topic of singing was brought up. When we asked if any of them could sing, they all seemed to become shy again. However, one of the girls then began to sing at the table…. then another…. then a couple… then our team sang. We were taking turns singing worship songs and it was powerful. We then asked if they could dance and ended up watching one of the girls do a traditional Sri Lankan dance. We then proceeded to try to dance with her and it was pretty hilarious. My team then performed some NSYNC… and you could probably imagine the rest. We then brought out our art supplies and started to paint together. Again, it was so powerful. Just having so much fun even though we were not able to verbally communicate well at all. Some of the girls were trying to teach us Tamil (the native language) and BOY was I STRUGGLING! We were laughing so hard. And to think back to the first time we met them, they barley would look at us and when they spoke you could hardly hear them. Needless to say, we made plans to return and do some crafts. When we came back a few days later, the girls were showing us how to make these flowers out of wire, string, and nylon. This was how some of them made an income. So we each made a couple of them. A few of the girls then wanted to take pictures of us holding our flowers and putting them in our hair. It literally felt like a little girl photoshoot, it was so cute. They were bringing out all of the bouquets of flowers that they had made and just clicking away at the camera, smiling and laughing. I loved it. I could sense that these girls don’t get these opportunities to just have visitors come and to have girl time. They needed it. We needed it. There was one girl in particular that was helping me make my flowers and she was so patient with me. She kept pointing at the flower and saying, “You good!” Even though she basically did the work for me. When she wanted to take photos of me I wanted her to be in them, but she was so hesitant. When she actually let me, she wouldn’t smile. She was so beautiful and full of life so why wouldn’t she smile and have it captured? I had some opportunities to snap a few of her while she was laughing so I’ll always remember her joy.” The next time we returned would be our last, but one of the most impactful days of my race. We ended up hearing a few of their stories and it was heart aching to hear what some of the women had been through… from being pregnant at 14 to hiding from men who were threatening their lives. A few of us shared our stories and they brought all of the women to tears. We may have different stories, but we can all relate and that’s a beautiful thing. We ended our time by praying with them. As we left that day, I looked back and saw all of the women standing in the doorway waving, blowing kisses to us, and crying.
I have SO many more stories I could tell you all about, so please contact me if you want to hear more!
Overall, this year has molded me more into the woman I was made to be. And the molding will only continue because I will never be perfect, but I will continue to get closer to the One who is. I will continue to press into feeling His love and letting it overflow into others, so that they would also experience His love.
If you remember my first blog, I wrote about wanting to know how to better love others unconditionally. The answer I’ve found is by allowing Him to love me more, surrendering all of me and trusting His faithfulness.
In John 15:9-12, Jesus says…
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
