Sorry for the late blog on last months ministry!
May, month 8 took place in our first European country, Ukraine.
We had an American host, my first time having an American host on the race. The ministry was called Jeremiahs hope. It was an orphan and refugee camp. On the camp, they had a shelter for kids who had been taken awtay from their parents and put into the system. The month consisted of preparation for their summer camps.
My team and and another team were paired up for the month. It worked out well considering there was a lot to get done and they needed all hands on deck.
The first night we get there, I’m asked, along with a few others, to help with what they call “girls weekend”. It’s a weekend of the girls from the shelter and the villages that get together and share the love of God and do other fun things such as ropes courses, games and crafts. It’s basically like a mini retreat. I was honored to be asked, and of course just laughed because it was the second confirmation from God that he has shown me that I’ll be working with teen girls in the future. We got to share testimonies and make quick connections with the girls.
As the month went on, there was help needed to do a ropes course out of town for kids at a church conference. A few of us volunteered and from that point on that is where I stayed all month. I learned how to build ropes courses and found so much joy that weekend with kids putting on their harnesses and running the ropes. After that weekend, I spent all my time outside building a zip line tower! Gosh it was so awesome!!! Things like hanging off the side of this huge tower and drilling it together are things I never thought I would do. I’m not sure what it was about the construction I was doing, or learning how to build rope courses for kids, but it’s probably the most joy I’ve had the whole race when it’s come to ministry.
By the end of the month, I didn’t want to leave. I told the guy I had been working with all month I’d love to come back and help him build more and run more courses, so we shall see what the Lord has in store for the future!
I had also made really good connections with the girls at the shelter and leaving them was really hard. But I’m hoping to go back some day and visit the shelter and who knows maybe being a house mom who builds rope courses is my calling haha.
Overall, it has been my favorite month so far. It was a hard adjustment in the beginning going from Africa and the middle of the bush to Europe , American hosts, washers and dryers, homemade cheesecake and all of the above. I didn’t think it would affect me that much having to readjust to western culture. But it has. Most of us are used to it now being our second month in Europe. But it for sure makes me appreciate these “finer” things a lot more.
One of my favorite things about last month was that there was so much going on, each of us could pick where we wanted to plug in and see each other grow from what brought us joy in the different ministries. I love when God reveals our passions unexpectedly.
Thank you month 8 for being so good to me, I’ll be back some day.
