Whooooa, We’re Halfway There!!

It’s March 15th, 2011 and that means it’s been exactly 5 and a half months since I left my life in Colorado and began my journey on the World Race. We are officially half-way through our journey, and it’s crazy to think we’ve been traveling for as long as we have…it seems like just yesterday I was packing in Greeley to go to Guatemala! I thought I would write a special blog, commemorating my time on the World Race thus far, complete with favorite photos and memories of the last 5 and a half months.

So far on the Race I’ve:

–Slept in 29 different places (on floors, in beds, in people’s homes, in churches, on a ferry, on a bus, on a plane, in a car, in a ministry house with 100 other missionaries, in hostels for launch and debriefs, and once on a trampoline)

–Flown on 9 different airplanes

–Riden on 9 different buses

–Used taxis, jeepneys, tuk-tuks, vespas, trucks and vans for transportation

–Worked with four other teams from our squad: Team Pneuma, Team Prisma, Team W.O.W. and Team Crash of Love

–Been on three different teams, myself: Team Sozo (from training camp to launch in Guatemala), Team Lovebound (from Guatemala to Costa Rica), and Team REfresh (from the Philippines to now)

–Gone from my pack weighing 51 pounds to 39 pounds (lost a lot of things along the way)

–Been in 11 different countries including airports, bus rides, etc…

GUATEMALA:

Favorite Moments: worshipping Jesus in a witch’s cave, visiting indigenous villages, bringing indigenous kindergarteners presents at school, scuba diving with our contact pastor and his pastor friend, teaching English to the Mi Reto church members, building Carlos and Miriam their house and having fellowship with them every day, walking Isai down to the corner tienda shop for a Coca Cola in a plastic bag and to pet the kitties, playing soccer with the youth from Mi Reto at night, cooking with Mercy and Ana at our missions center, praying over the sick at the hospital and coming back the weeks after and seeing empty beds of people we’d prayed over, watching the Lord heal our contacts shoulder, having Bible studies on demonology and spiritual warfare, nights on “Mega Bed”, learning what feedback looks like, getting vulnerable as a team and crying together, having a team slumberparty when all of our beds were taken away by the man who’d previously donated them, learning what it means to have brothers, learning that community means dying to your rights and dying to privacy

NICARAGUA:

Favorite Moments: taking the kids of CICRIN swimming in Lake Ometepe, laying out in the hammacks and having quiet time with the Lord, worship in the rauncho at night with our two teams and all the kids, praying over the teenagers and anointing them with oil, caring for Dunia and Julietta (the youngest children at CICRIN) and watching movies on my bed with them, bonding with Team Pneuma as well as my team, Mac’s 29th Birthday party, having 70 people come to CICRIN for Thanksgiving and having it be so many people’s first Thanksgivings with us, taking a bath with the kids in the lake, bribing the ferry guards and sleeping on the “Che” ferry when we couldn’t get across the lake, having my bug hut as a security blanket to protect me from all the bugs, reading “Jesus Calling” and having it be extremely prophetic for my life that month, getting close with Amalia and the two little girls, dancing to Hannah Montana with the teens and children, doing Bible studies for the kids at night, praying over CICRIN and casting out demons that were present there, having worship on our balcony after a night of intercession and spiritual warfare, ziplining with some squad mates at debrief in Granada, debrief overall

COSTA RICA:

Favorite Moments: working in the barrios with the children and the elderly, passing out Operation Christmas Child presents to the kids, teaching English to Ana and Jairo, sleeping in the church, making paper snowflakes with Aimee for Christmas, cooking with Cody and Christina for Christmas and making “cuffins”, bonding as Team Lovebound and Words of Affirmation time together, the 6:8 Ministry Christmas Program, doing construction including sanding and painting at Four Square Church, praying over Claudia (the 95 year old lady) and having God heal her of arthreitis, the night Amber and I slept out on the trampoline, bonding with Team Prisma, whenever we’d do feeding ministry in our favorite barrio by the river, ministering to the local drug dealer’s wife named Roxanne, face painting at the Children’s Christmas party, spending Christmas with my team, Team Prisma and our squad leaders

PHILIPPINES:

Favorite Moments: all my time spent with Lander and his family at the refugee camp, spending every day at the nursery at the children’s home, working at Samartiana and seeing God transform and restore the lives of prostituted women, preaching in the prison and forming relationships with those women, preaching two services in a row at 200 member church, spending the night at the nursery at the children’s home and taking a 12 hour shift, getting close with the workers at New Faith Children’s Home, going to karaoke and eating balute (look it up if you don’t know what balute is), seeing God heal Lander and a lot of the children through medical missions, sleeping out on the balcony with 15 other girls in my bug hut, feeding countless people a day in the squatter communities (slums) and in the refugee camp, bonding as a new team (REfresh) and with Team W.O.W.

THAILAND:

Favorite Moments: spending time playing Jenga in the bars with the women, worshipping Jesus in a bar on Bangla Road with our awesome “World Race band” including: Natasha, Alana, Becca and Jobie, bonding with Team Crash of Love, praying for the women during intercessory prayer out on our balcony, doing children’s ministry and having the children help me find my “genie pants” when I lost them even though there was a language barrier between us, taking two of the bar girls out for the afternoon and spending time with them outside the bar, giving the women flyers to our ministry and telling them they are worth more than how they’re living, sending off lanterns on the beach our last night of ministry on Bangla Road, spending time with Natasha Hurt and how God allowed us to see each other even though we are on seperate World Race squads, elephant riding during debrief, going to Phi Phi island, debrief all in all in Huahin

MALAYSIA (the first two weeks):

Favorite Moments: driving around in the beat-up 1980 Mazda van we called “The Sweat Box” in Kuala Krai as a team with Pastor Jesudason, going to the 19-year-old’s birthday party and witnessing God healing so many people, living out the Luke 10/Mark 6 calling, constantly not knowing what we’re going to do and loving it, preaching everywhere we go, spreading Jesus’ love and the Gospel to countless Hindu families, singing worship songs, taking a tiny boat across the river for milk distribution, doing a children’s program in a jungle village with monkeys everywhere, the night we went out and prayed over the land Pastor Jesudason’s church just bought and shared stories and jokes with him and my team, laughing until my stomache hurt and there were tears in my eyes because of Pastor Jesudason, getting through “culture shock” and rising above it, eating with my right hand and having Indian spices go up my nose