I know its been a while since I’ve written a blog. A lot has happened since I last wrote about Japan. I have three months to catch you up on. God is doing incredible things and I have this new drive in me to do more of the things I did when I first started the race. I wanted to share with you three things. The Good: which are the things I loved about that country. The Bad: the hard moments, discomforts, and the challenges. and My God: the moments where God spoke to me or showed up in major way. So let’s dive back into these last three countries: Nepal, India, and Malaysia. (I missed writing to you guys!)
NEPAL
The Good:
This month was Manistry month meaning all 10 guys on the squad got to be together on a team for the month. We finally got our hands dirty doing some construction work to build a YWAM base, hiked up and down the Himalayan mountains to do Nepali Christmas carols and share the word of God in various villages, and did some slum ministry at the end with our our whole squad.
Some really cool highlights were:
-Riding on top of buses to travel
-Thamel: a part of the city where you can buy any hiking gear for trekking
-Being chased around and loving on tons of slum kids
-Watching the new Star Wars movie with our Hosts
-Seeing the beauty of the Himalayas
-Being on the border of China
-Faith Day (a day where you go into town with no food, money, or electronics and rely completely on the Lord to provide)
-Soaking Prayer nights
-Partnering with YWAMers
The Bad:
Nepal was definitely the most challenging month out of all of the countries I’ve been too so far. We transitioned from 1st world Japan to 3rd world Nepal which was difficult in and of itself. There was fuel crisis going on and an electricity shortage because of it causing everywhere you go to always be cold. There was still a lot of dust everywhere from all the aftermath of the earthquakes and soot from all the things having to be burned to keep warm and cook. It made it constantly hard to breathe and a lot of people ended up sick because of it. Showering was the absolute worst. Freezing bucket showers where steam would come off your body because of how cold the water was hitting your slightly warm body. It was better to just not shower for a couple days. Sleeping in tents on the mountains and waking up to frost on your tent. May or may not have got robbed once or twice. And who could forget 3rd world country dogs that howl in the night and charge at you in the day.
My God:
Even though there were a lot of things that made it rough for us I was stretched so much during those moments. I caused me to push even when I didn’t have much fight in me. I fought for my breakthrough and allowed myself to be vulnerable to other men in the season I struggled the most. God helped me to do things that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle. With no prior hiking or camping experience I hiked up and down a different mountain each day with a lot of gear. Our squad experienced spiritual warfare like no other causing us to fight back in prayerful way like never before. Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual limits were pushed, I broke, and God put me back together. I even experienced God using complete strangers to speak truth and vision over me that overwhelmed me completely because I knew God was doing anything he could to love me and let me hear His voice.
India
The Good:
We had our team change and this was my first month with this new team. We worked with a special needs foster home called Sarah’s Covenant Home. I got to teach pre-school to some energetic toddlers in the mornings and have one-on-one sessions with teenage girls in the evenings. We also were in India during the month where it had its best whether. It was our first hot country and it was beautifully comfortable. Being a Florida I was so happy to be back in warm weather. Here are some of the highlights from India:
-Our Awesome Tuk Tuk Driver Ramu
-The Western Life of Hyderabad such as Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Chilis
-The Kids were all adorable
-Bonding as team by watching The Bachelor
-Having our squad leaders visit us and do listening prayers together
-Buying a Volleyball
-Mehendi art by the Aya caretakers
-“20 pieces of chicken” and Chicken 65 (Awesome Food)
-Dining in the Dark experience
The Bad:
There isn’t much I can say about India. It was truly a great month. I wish I could share the beautiful faces of the kids I was with but we had to protect their identity because of the government. I wish I had the opportunity to have seen more of India. Oh wait, the food was great but extremely spicy and I can not do the spicy. I
My God:
I was amazed what God was teaching me through the children I spent daily. For instance I carried a baby every morning to pre-school and she was born without eyes and was deaf. God taught me through her to trust in God the way she does. Her life was completely reliant on God providing her love, comfort, food, clothes, and everything. She amazed me and I hope I could learn to trust the way she did.
Malaysia
The Good:
This was the month where I finally got to step into my role as UH Coordinator because our team got assigned UH for the month. UH stands for Unsung Heroes. We define Unsung Heroes on the race as men and women who are dedicated to serving some of the most impoverished populations in the world but are most likely unrecognized and unknown. That meant our team initially started out without a place to stay because we didn’t have a host. We truly had to rely on the Lord to guide us to a place to stay, guide us to Unsung Heroes, and guide us to finding more of Him amidst all the busyness. God definitely started off with a bang providing us with an awesome condo for us to rent for the month which was completely in budget. We had over 20 contacts and potential leads for the World Race to partner with in the future after left Malaysia. Here are some highlights from this month:
-Our renter providing: clean water, washer machine (because hand washing is a pain), basic living necessities, and all our own comfy bed.
-I lucked out with my own room (big deal on the race)
– befriending our Malay downstair convenience store owners
-Surprise Uber Ministry
-Visiting various churches and ministries
-Going to a youth service that felt like home
-saving up off days to take trip to Singapore
-All the malls and city feel of Kuala Lumpur
-Batu Caves
-Takumi my friend from Japan paying a surprise visit for a couple days
-Our friendly guards
-Finally Papa Johns
-Pineapple Fried Rice from our favorite street corner
-Night Markets and night life in general
-Treating our girls to an awesome Valentine’s Day
-Swimming in waterfall pools
-And did I forget to mention our Condo place had an infinity pool (I promise I’m still on race)
The Bad:
The month started off rough because it was Chinese New Year and all the churches and organizations we were reaching out too weren’t responding so it felt like we weren’t doing anything. I had moments as the leader for this month feeling like things were my fault and I wasn’t working to the best of my ability. And seeing prostitution for the first time on the race really broke my heart.
My God:
Even though a lot of the month was administrative work we had to be intentional about seeking God. Our team always started the day off with daily prayer and devotions together which helped us to see more of what God was doing. It wonderful seeing my teammates hear from God in the moment and choosing to do things that brought a lot of fruit. One day we cancelled all made plans to just spent time worshiping God in our home. Other people on another day felt God wanted them to stand in the city center with “Free Hug” signs to meet people. From that my team leader met a buddhist girl who later came over to our place decided she actually wanted a life with Christ instead from the love she saw in us that was ultimately Jesus. We watched God move in youth services and baptism service seeing that God was moving in Malaysia.
Currently I’m in Thailand working with Share The Love Foundation teaching english camps and doing some landscaping. There is a lot of free time some days which isn’t a bad thing. It being now month seven I have a lot to process. I’m more than halfway done with the race. I’ve hit a hard place where I really need God. I’ve already done this the race for a while and I still have much more to go. Changing places month to month, living in constant community, thinking about after the race, is a lot to contemplate on and it can get exhausting. There are moments where you fight to not just coast by. This month has really been month where I’m fighting daily and feel like I’m finally making some headway.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 20:28-31
Reading this passage has revived me to press on and regain the strength i had coming into this. I’m grateful for all that God has done so far and what He hasn’t even done yet but will do in the future. My praise is louder and the good is great. And I’m grateful for the bad. And My God has done great things these past 7 months and will do even greater the next 4 months. He’s not done with me yet. So stay tuned for more testimony and possible plans for the future after the race. Please keep me in prayer for strength daily, my plans to align with what God wants from me, and for my squad to effectively be used to share the Gospel as we cross through Asia month to month.
God Bless!
