Time Defines Who We Are - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Ohh friends where is the time going? I feel like I just blogged about my beautiful time in Kyrgyzstan. Since leaving there, it feels like I’ve literally been traveling up until a few days ago…

We only spent about 9 days in Kazakhstan where my team was able to help our host with yard work. We then took a 3 day bus ride to catch the freight across the Caspian Sea where we spent another 3 days seeing nothing but beautiful waves and incredible sunsets. Now, I’m in Azerbaijan for our third debrief.

I have to say, our 3 day excursion across the Caspian Sea REFUELED me. I noticed a feeling of tiredness (not just physically, but mentally and spiritually) a few weeks ago start to hit me and I wasn’t spending the proper time I needed with the Lord to recharge. And let me tell ya, if you don’t take the time necessary to recharge with the Lord then this year would burn you out quickly, perhaps even send you home early. I’m realizing more each day that prioritizing my time spent with the Lord cannot be compromised. There are days where we may not get much rest from whatever the circumstances may be so relying and asking the Lord to give us our portion every day is crucial. I had stopped making this a priority and it took the Lord bringing me to the Caspian Sea where there was no where to go, no communication to the rest of the world, and no distractions…. only time. Time. Something I was taking for granted and not making for Him. So, over the course of these three days I spent a lot of time looking out into the Sea, praying and talking out loud to the Lord (something I used to do often back home considering I’m a verbal processor), as well as have some deep quality conversations with people on the ship. It was awesome!

Since being here in Azerbaijan, it has also been such a sweet time seeing how the Lord moves. There was one day in particular where my leader encouraged us to go about our normal days but without any money or phones and to see what happens… to pray and see where the Lord would guide us, to see how he would provide for us without the comforts of our own wallets or communication (our phones help us to translate when talking to locals)…. This ended up being one of my favorite days on the race so far! I’d said top 7 haha.

Here’s how the day went: Before we left, our team prayed and asked the Lord for any insight into our days. Sometimes people may receive words, visions, etc. I felt like I saw music being played by the beach and my friend Ashley wanted to paint at a park. So, Ashley and I decided to pair up left our hostel at 11:03am. We first visited our friend named Fara who we had met a few days prior. She owns a little coffee joint in a narrow alley. We chatted with her a bit and the headed towards the water to find a park we could paint and read at. We were sitting there for a few hours. I was reading the psalms and Ashley was painting the world when a woman walked by and looked at what she was painting and said, “Why are you painting ‘the world’ when you could be painting what’s right in front of you? This is your ‘head world’ and what you perceive it to be, but this (she pointed out to the beach/city) this is the world.” Then she walked away. Ashley and I looked at each other, discussing what the lady had said. Ashley mentioned that she felt as though it was the Lord’s way of telling her not to focus on the big picture aka the future, but realize that the world is happening now and focus on the present day. A cute old gentlemen wearing a sailor hat then walked up to us and stopped, looked at both of us with an odd facial expression then reached into his pocket and gave us each a candy, Ashley got lemon and I got orange. They say don’t take candy from a stranger, but I felt this was from the Lord. At this point it was 1:30 and Ashley and I were both getting hungry. We left the park and headed out on the mall to use the bathroom. We then found ourselves circling the food court, hoping for somebody to offer us food. At one point we both stopped, looked at each other, and saw the conviction in each other’s faces. We started to pray out loud and ask the Lord what he wanted us to do. We decided to sit down at a nearby green table and read scripture out loud that talked about the Lord’s provision and how HE IS the bread of life. At that point, we noticed a giant stack of pizza crusts sitting on the table next to us…. I know what you’re thinking and your right. As the couple was getting up to leave, Ashley asked if we could have their crusts and they said of course so… yes we ate them ALL. A man at a nearby table had seen what happened and walked over to us and offered his tea to us (at this point, I’m assuming people think we’re homeless.) So there Ashley and I both sat, eating our bread and enjoying a hot cup of tea. Ashley decides to paint the man a thank you card when we see him and his friend start to get up to leave. “Wait wait sir! I wanted to make you something!” Ashley said. The man walks over to us and then hands us his extra purchased wrap that wasn’t even touched! For the next two hours, Ashley and I talked with these two awesome Muslim men from Iraq about our lives and the Lord over coffee…. what!? You guys, talk about divine encounters! It was such a good talk and at the end of it we snapped some selfies with them. We left the mall around 5pm and decided to spend our last bit of our day walking by the beach where we saw people playing music! Just like what I saw when I prayed for the day.

I have seen the Lord provide countless times during my life, but many of those times I won’t even notice because I don’t necessarily pray for those things, the Lord just loves giving to his children because he loves us.

So my encouragement to myself and all of you is to be intentional with the Lord. Spend time with him. Rely on him for everything! Because he WANTS to provide for you, but it takes faith and walking in obedience which I am learning more and more every day.

Well, that’s all for now! This year I have been able to live out my dream and it wouldn’t have been possible without you guys: your prayers, your support, and your abilities to love me so well. So thank you all so so much.

I’m still short about $2,700 until I’m fully funded so please consider and ask the Lord if donating would be something of His will.

Love you guys! Until next time.

The Caspian Sea