All of my blogs have consisted of what the Lord is teaching me and how I am personally growing. I have heard that people also want to know what my days look like and consist of. So I took a minute to break up each of the countries I have been too and gave a short synopsis of what a day looked like.
Albania (Kids Camp Ministry/July): Wake up at 7, have all squad devotions, live in camp cabin bunk set-ups, work shifts at a kids camp, (sweat a whole lot), love on the kids, get to know my team, look forward to banana and croissant breaks, have all squad teachings and worship at night, learn that living in community is a huge growing experience, go to a beach on off days.
Bulgaria (Unsung Month/August): Look for Christian ministries that would be great partners for the WR in the future, do a lot of waiting for email responses, have a lot of quiet time and blogging time with God, preach at some local churches, sleep wherever the Lord leads (A church, hostels, trains), eat whatever we can find (ramen, mystery meat sandwiches), go to a gypsy camp, eat whatever we’ve been given (warm, chunky, buttermilk, grapes, crepes), learn what the meaning of having a home in Christ really means due to the nomadic lifestyle of moving every couple of days, stay with a sweet family of a pastor from the states, go to the deaf Olympics after meeting a participant’s family member we prayed for at a church, go to a mall or beach on our off days.
Romania (Street/ Church Ministry/September): Pray for hours for the local church, worship with fellow teams, live in a house with four other teams from ouR Squad, cook for 5 teams once a week and eat like kings and queens due to the amazing cooks, do local kids ministry with precious neighborhood children, clean the streets, work on a fence, watch adorable British kids, love the cold weather, hang out on the local hill, walk a mile a week carrying mass amounts of clean water and food, go to Greece for our off day weekend!!
India (Squad Leading Training/October): Lose my team to be raised up as a Squad Leader, live in tents in a large Indian house with two teams of girls, wear things that cover shoulders and ankles, listen to many AIM teachings and have mock situations to learn how to handle squad related issues, get to know my three new teammates, do a week visit in a village with a team, pray for many people and attend many church services, witness an arranged marriage wedding, wake up with mice on me, take tuk-tuks everywhere, experience humidity and heat that is unexplainable and causes non-stop sweating, wait out electricity strikes that create a shortage in water for our bucket showers, trudge through sewage water to get back to our home, dodge a hurricane, experience horrendous smells and noises, learn what having unconditional joy truly means, eat a TON of rice, noodles and chapatti resulting in having an awesome “chapatti body”, gain a new best friend from my new teammate, have India’s experience to make you thankful for every day you are not there, go on a 20 minute boat ride on an off day.
Nepal (Labor Intensive Ministry/November): Do our first debrief for all the teams, carry plates of stones up flights of stairs to make bricks for a school, hike with our packs on through 15 rivers to the location we will be staying for two weeks, tent on top of a mountain in Nepal, have a campfire every night, shower when you have the energy to climb up and down the mountain to a waist high river where local Nepalese people float/walk on by during this process, carry sacks of sand and rocks up a mountain side to a school location to make bricks, accidentally eat cubes of fat that were prepared for us when we thought they were potatoes, wake up at 6 with the sun and go to sleep at 8 shortly after the sun sets, savor my quiet times in perfect weather surrounded by mountains, find a bush and become friendly with it as it becomes my new toilet, hike up and down a mountain side with our packs for 3 hours to get back to civilization resulting in the hardest physical thing I have ever done, have our first leadership development weekend, go to Kathmandu for our off time and have the BEST Thanksgiving spread at an American owned restaurant.
Thailand (Bar Ministry/December): Live in two person bamboo huts, decorate our hut in spirit of Christmas, watch a Christmas movie every night to remind ourselves that it is not summer but in fact Christmas time despite the heat, cut a lot of fabric for bags made by women who used to work at bars, learn how to weed whack and mow to help maintain the property we lived on, work on team changes, intercede for the girls that were doing bar ministry the nights I wasn’t, cook for ourselves, be challenged in listening prayer and the spiritual gifts God has blessed all of the girls with, go out and meet people at the bars and show them the love of Christ, plan a mass Christmas dinner for the ministry, plan a white elephant for the teams we were with, cry with happiness from a surprise package with amazing gifts and letters from loved ones, plan and have a mini-debrief, go to the gorgeous beaches and holiday decorated malls for off days.
Cambodia (Home school/Cooking Ministry/ January): Ring in the New Year by being exhausted from traveling and falling asleep at midnight, homeschool an adorable autistic first grade girl who is the daughter of the ministry contact we live with, watch Frozen at least 15 times due to it being the choice reward for a good day at school, cook for the ministry contact’s family and for the teacher of the ministry who was expecting a baby soon, learn how to play Monopoly Deal, work on more team changes, watch Nashville and Bachelor with the girls on the team I was with, do Insanity on the roof, cook for ourselves, learn that I can't be distracted with other peoples' issues to where I miss what God has for me, go to American churches, worship multiple times at the best prayer room, plan and have a mini debrief, go get your nails done for cheap and eat “Mexican” for off days.
Cambodia (Teaching Ministry/February): Teach English to college students every day from morning to night, get addicted to Friday Night Lights and Flappy Bird because the team I am with introduces me to both, eat an unhealthy amount of delicious and cheap sushi, eat Indian food everyday cooked by our ministry contacts, learn what God wants me to do after the race, have fellowship with the college students every Tuesday/Thursday, celebrate my birthday by getting to talk to my family/friends back home and a cake and gift from my sweet ministry contact and the team, plan and have a full debrief, go to the beach for off days.
The Philippines (PVT/Kids Home/Girls’ Home/March): Spend a week with my incredible parents doing bar ministry, love the experience of having my parents doing mission work by my side and rescuing girls from bars, work at a kids home with the cutest kids for the remainder of the month, work with teen girls who were in abusive situations and love on them, go to one of the toughest living areas I have ever visited for a feeding, feed the hungry, find out the kids from Haiti are coming home next month, learn what it means to walk in Faith on a deeper level, eat amazing American meals cooked by the ministry contact, plan and have a leadership development day, go to a Bruno Mars concert on an off day and the Passion Conference on another off day and climb a volcano on another.
Swaziland (Sports Ministry/April): Live in a hut with two girls teams, walk a lot, take public transportation that takes hours to go short distances, live in one of the prettiest countries I have ever seen, attend a sports conference for village sports ministries, love the perfect weather, take bucket showers under the stars, cook for ourselves, love the culture of joy and the friendly people, have an Easter service in our hut with worship, a podcast and communion, learn to value those who value the body of Christ, cook for ourselves, hold my breath every time I have to go to the outhouses, go to get wifi to connect back home for off days and see Johanne and Emmanuel finally come home!
South Africa (Kingdom Sports Ministry/May): Wake up to catch the public bus by 8, work PE classes at a public school, live in a high crime neighborhood, live with an awesome host family with Sarah Anne, do street ministry Friday nights, attend a Fire Conference with a fake “apostle” who makes all of our spirits quiver, experience the most spiritual warfare I ever have at the conference and see God’s mighty hand at work when we don’t cower rather remain unified and strong in our faith, attend neighborhood BBQs(Brais), be a “coach” to high school boys who have never played the game of basketball before, eat, play games and have Tyler Perry movie marathons with our host family, run with the most beautiful scenery of mountains on one side of me and the beach on the other, experience racial tensions more than ever before, learn what finishing strong looks like, love our contact who works daily in the spirit, go shark diving, hiking and see penguins for off days.
So there it is. I know the descriptions may have terminology you don’t follow, or simply my writing is hard to follow haha But I wanted to at least provide a blog with a list of things I have done involving ministry within the countries and my squad. Hopefully this gives you a little more of an understanding of all that I have done these past 11 months!
