Time has just flown by. I never thought I would see month 7 but yet here I am. I honestly don’t want this year to end. The past month has been crazy. With cities opening back up we have been able to get back to ministry. The word that best describes this month though is
ABNORMAL
The first week of this month was like the beginning of the race. An around the clock ministry schedule helping the community in any way we can. We helped out in Marysville, Ohio at the Hope Center which caters to the needs of the community. We mainly helped them reorganize rooms that had become very cluttered. We did help make food boxes that we gave out to the community on the first day. While this week is what a normal week on the World Race looks like, it was our first week back in the full swing of things. We had spent the past 2 months not getting a lot of ministry opportunities since everything was shut down. It was honestly rough 2 weeks because I had gotten used to a more of a relaxed schedule. Where while we were in Marysville we had multiple ministry opportunities.
Our second week we had our Month 6 debrief in West Virginia. While debriefs are normal it was the first time being in the same room as our coaches and mentor after 5 months of not seeing them. Typically our coaches and mentor come out every 2 months to our debriefs but due to the corona virus they were not able to be at our month 4 debrief. It was nice being able to see them again and getting to talk to them face to face.
Our third week we spent in teachings in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky. We had no wifi and barely any service. This is pretty typical for overseas but not for America. It was actually really nice because we had to get off our phones and hang out together. It was also pretty abnormal because we lived with our teacher. Our teacher works for adventures in missions and is very well known for his teachings. It was nice being able to talk with him and get to know him more.
Our last week we headed to a beach town in Michigan that was right on Lake Michigan. This week was abnormal due to the fact that our hosts were actually not there. We initially cancelled on this host but because of the Coronavirus we had to call them back to see if we could come anyways. Unfortunately they had already planned a trip to Florida. Luckily their roommate was more than willing to allow us to stay at the house and our ministry contact still had work for us to do.
This Month has been far from normal but I saw God’s hand through it all. In Marysville I saw it in the people who worked at the hope center that did whatever they could to keep the doors open during the Coronavirus. I saw it in our leadership team who came out and loved on us during debrief. I saw Him in the nature that surrounded us in Kentucky during our teaching. I saw it in Michigan with our hosts who still welcomed us into their home even though they weren’t there. God is so amazing and I wouldn’t trade this trip for anything in the world.
