It’s the 29th of December, that kinda in between place from Christmas to new year where your not really sure what day it is and where you reflect on the year that has just gone by. I thought it would be a good idea to finish the year by showing you all what it looked like in pictures.
JANUARY
my year started off in the throws of squad leading GAP S. This photo was all of us mid point debrief in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. When I think back to this photo, at time and I remember how we were all like ‘I can’t believe we’re half way in this thing’. one of the highlights from that night was our ‘stand up for your sister’; the girls had a night were we talked and shared and worshipped and prayed for one another, it was a powerful night. The other highlight from debrief was our at the movies/awards night…..hilarious
One of the other highlights of January, sitting with God and processing my word for the year. There was a week where me and the other squad leaders and mentor took time off and recharged. I wrote a blog about this year and if you click here you can read all about it 🙂
FEBRUARY
this month we were finishing up our second country and 3 month in Ethiopia, this photo is valentines day, sending encouraging notes to one another was fun. Other highlights from this month were, our beauty for ashes night, were we blessed and pampered the ladies who work and volunteer at HOPEthiopia. Another one was water fights – so much water, a lot of fun to watch…not get wet
Yep this also happened we had a lot of people get the dreaded lice. There were several days over this month where lice picking became a new skill for me, I think this note explains it all, I think I got the skill down 😉 thanks Sav for your cute note.
Best birthday cake!, celebrated my 29th year with donuts and potatoes for breakfast, dance parties and people just all round showering me with love! that was a great day 🙂
MARCH
Group photo on the morn leaving Ethiopia, was a very sad day, lots of hugs and tears. I miss these guys a lot!, the video below is of the kids we spent our 3 months with, some of the best and beautiful people around.
These next few photos are of the 3rd country we went to…Nicaragua! this was my second time here but my first time with our ministry host REAP Granada.
Me and Davis trying to dig out a root of a tree, this was break time 🙂
This wonderful group of gals harvested turmeric along with singing songs and drinking coconuts.
This was also the month that the racers parents came to visit, this is one of the many photos taken, these two are incredible humans
APRIL
We travelled to our final country and spent 8 weeks at the AIM base in Costa Rica! here is an awesome group photo with the base leaders Anna and Kevin :).
Costa Rica is beautiful, the base overlooked stunning views of the blue skies and mountains
Most Monday mornings were spend teaching and discipleship. This was one of the many talks lead by our base hosts Anna and Kevin.
MAY
celebrating Easter in Costa Rica was fun, went spent most of the day the beach, we had worship, testimonies, baptisms and egg hunts. The day did however finish with lots of rain and everyone getting very soaked.
Adventures in the national park, plenty of sloths, monkeys and lemurs 🙂
making new friends who take you to vegan fair and all round yummy places – very thankful for the friends we made this month!
beach days with Taylor and Luis, i think this photo was taken right before a guy proposed to his girlfriend on the beach 😀
One of the really cool ministries we were a part of was called La Montana christian camp, way up in the Costa Rican mountains was this really cool camp that did all sorts of fun and games. We had several team travel up there to help the camp staff with camps back to back. This pic was of me manning part of the high ropes course.
Final Debrief…
This was the last debrief of Gap S, our mentor and coaches came, we had fun, laughed and cried.
JUNE
I spent this month in the United States, catching up with some of my favourite friends, both from my race and further afield.
These gals picked me up from the airport with signs included. It had been 10 months since saw them last, their cute 😉
One of my best friends Louise, her husband and her daughter I met for the very first time, one of the sweetest gifts getting to spend time with them.
These guys are second family, when I first came to California they were my host family. Now everytime I visit we met up and keep one of my favourite traditions alive…souplantation!!! love you Thompsons
This was a first…Luis who I squad lead with, along with his family, took me to my first ever baseball game, with no other than the angels who also won that night and the fireworks were spectacular!!!!!!!
these girls let me stay with them in Missouri, we were on teams together throughout the 11 months of the race, some of my favourite people. We ate a lot the few days I was there. LOVE YOU GUYS!
Here is where #jonnyandave made its first appearance. Its a really long story but this is one amazing human. We were on a team together for the middle part of my race, super creative. This photo was taken whilst she was doing World Race America and in California. We had Mexican food and explored, also went to an arts and crafts night.
Melissa is currently fundraising for an internship in Guatemala – check out her blog here and also donate 🙂 www.melissajordan.theworldrace.org
Here’s my favourite Lyndie-Bop, or Lynden to everyone else. She was my team leader the first couple of months of my race. She then went on to squad lead my race and did an incredible job. when I flew to Georgia for project searchlight I was able to catch up with her in one of our favs….chick-fil-a
Lastly, though I didn’t think this would happen, imagine my surprise when I come round the corner and see our host from Swaziland (Eswatini)!? in Georgia. Honestly Brittine was one of the many reasons I loved this month, apart from celebrating her birthday with a goldfish cake, we had many a dance party and late night chats! Love you BB.
Part Two Coming Soon
