Wow, I have been on the Race for 111 Days! God has taught me so much and I know that I have grown in Him, even more than I can comprehend yet. He is so good! So, in celebration of what has already happened thus far, I want to give you 111 things that have happened… the good, the bad, the ugly and some of what God has shown me. I hope you enjoy!
India:
- I only have 10 fingers but I can hold well over that many children’s hands.
- One of the first things I did in ministry was help set off fireworks for the children in Domakonda, India on the Fourth of July.
- #WeirdTeamForLyfe … #WeAreADramaTeam.
- Sweating like a pig can give you a flesh eating skin disease that lasts three weeks.
- The sunsets in India over rice patties are the most beautiful I have ever seen.
- Preaching in a half built church is powerful and beautiful because they are too excited to hold services to wait until the building is finished.
- Sleeping on the roof at night and watching the stars.
- Pooping my pants because my stomach doesn’t agree with all the spicy food is embarrassing but my team was so gracious and loving.
- Reciting the story of David and Goliath from memory to a group of children. Then the children laughing so hard when I got so into it that I acted out Goliath laughing at the Israelites and the translator acted it out too.
- Doing laundry in a washing machine (The little things).
- Having a birthday party thrown for me at 6 in the morning with a cake and candles and my team loving on me.
- Spending almost all said birthday day on a sleeper train, and watching the scenery pass me by while I spend time with God.
- Worship nights on rooftops with my team were some of my favorite times in India.
- Swimming in the ocean in pants and a Punjabi because of how conservative the Indian culture is.
- Learning how to play Cocoa and Kabaddi with the kids. Did you know that Kabaddi is a professional sport from ancient India and they even have tournaments and a World Cup for it? Did I also mention that I am a beast at the game?
- Cakes and sweets in India DO NOT taste the same as American sweets.
- Indian generosity is so big that sometimes you are to the point of wanting to throw up because you cannot eat anymore.
- Cheerleading camps help with children’s ministry.
- French braiding an Indian woman’s hair while the other women showered my team and me with bangles.
- Henna on our hands and feet. It’s absolutely beautiful!
- Learning how to make chapatti and being called Super Chapatti Sister the rest of the day.
- Coffee, curry and chapattis always every day, all day.
- We loved our team’s ministry host, Sean and Paige Whiting… they were amazing and such a blessing!
- The time we changed the card game BS into Bae to be culturally sensitive, only to find out later that playing cards is not something done by Christians.
- Party on the roof in Ongole, India with other squad mates, and then when it starts pouring, dancing in the rain!
- Language barrier doesn’t mean love or laughter barrier.
- Getting showered with flowers while visiting a children’s home… then getting fed fresh veggies!
- Squatty Potties… enough said lol.
- Praying over 40+ children and God moving all of us to tears. How He loves us!!
- Garden Café… smoothies and pesto chicken sandwiches are heaven after a week or two of spicy curry and rice.
- My team and I were able to make popcorn for the boys in the last children’s home that we went to. They had never eaten popcorn before. Some of the boys stuffed their pockets to save some for later. It was a small thing for us, but a pretty big thing for them!
- “Good day” cookies and sprite after church services.
- The many gods in Indian culture will never amount to what and who my God is… and He loves us all the same. He has called them and set them apart just like He has for me. We are no different!
Nepal:
- Reuniting with my entire squad for debrief… they really are family!
- My haircut was a tangible sign of God cutting things out of my life that I had held onto for a long time. Yes, haircuts can mean spiritual things.
- Phat Kath (Fat Cat) was one of my favorite restaurants… they had amazing breakfasts and crepes.
- Tattoos can cost as little as $20 and they look amazing! I love mine!
- Walking out what God is showing you is harder than it looks and doing what He asks is humbling.
- You can mess up, make mistakes, sin and fight God… but He will always meet you where you are, meeting you in your mess and always forgive you!
- Being vulnerable helped me grow more than being strong ever did.
- Banana bread… breakfast, lunch and dinner… ALWAYS!!
- You can feel totally alone in a room full of people, but there’s grace in that when you finally confide in your team.
- Blessings can look as simple as making it to the toilet in time to throw up, instead of all over the floor during squad quiet time.
- Wifi can be a blessing but also a curse! Moderation is hard when your heart isn’t in line with the Father’s.
- Earthquake aftershocks…
- I like dogs, except the ones that held nightly gang wars right outside our windows at night and kept us up all night.
- World Race Prom… always a must!
- Becoming a tree for said prom is fun, but the things you find in your hair afterwards are not lol.
- Hiking a mountain to pray over the people of Nepal is breathtakingly beautiful! And then being able to worship on top of that mountain with 48 other similar minded people is so powerful that you feel the earth move, and you know it isn’t from an earthquake.
- Blessing: a church that speaks English in everything, even the worship.
- Dropping water balloons on the unsuspecting men of our squad just because it was fun. It was our squad leader, Kent’s idea.
- When in doubt, Taylor Swift is always a good idea!
- Making a cave out of your bed on a bunk bed can give you much needed privacy but it can also cut your team out of the things that you’re struggling with.
- Playing laser tag in the mall… best ever!!
- All squad month can blow out a wifi router faster than you can say Kathmandu.
- My team and I made dinner for the men on our squad one night just to bless them and we had time to sit down and chat and play games with them afterwards.
- Shabbat Shalom nights were some of my favorite memories from Nepal.
- Handwashing my laundry never does as well of a job as a washing machine does… FACT!
- That time a goat tried to eat my rain jacket on top of a mountain.
- Faith Day with Bipin: Following God’s lead and getting a free meal, free transportation, and being able to pray over a man that God led us to by a series of small visions like “ice cream”, a white castle looking building, white flowers, a plane, a woman wearing yellow with flowers, and mo-mos.
- Cramming onto a bus every day for ministry… and I do mean CRAM! But in that, we were able to talk to a lot of local people and sometimes share about God.
- Movie nights with some of the members of my squad on the nights I just needed to chill and hang out.
- Having fun team times. Having hard team times. Having vulnerable team times. Having encouraging team times. All the team times!
- Snickers every day. It was the only chocolate that I found that still tasted like it does in America.
- Finding an X to my O! Jordan Adams, you’re awesome.
Cambodia:
- Weed is not illegal and is almost everywhere you look, even in the hostel that you’re staying at.
- Mike’s Burgers are the best I’ve ever tasted! The prices are a little steep but the food is more than worth it!
- TukTuks have become my favorite way of getting around. I think I’ll start a company when I get back to the States.
- Team workouts were some of my favorite night activities, even if I was sore for days afterwards.
- The deep breath you take right before the first pour from a cold bucket shower, but then the sigh of relief because it felt so good.
- Cambodian Ice Cream is NOT real ice cream… it often involves a duck egg yolk, taro, coconut cream and peas. Yea, it’s as fabulous as it sounds.
- I was able to work with an awesome ministry that involved a big green bus. We went villages and “homeless” streets so that the children could come and get showers, play games, get medical attention, get some food, and learn English and about Jesus. I was able to teach them sign language to “Jesus Loves Me.”
- I loved being able to cook this month! Also, team meals were awesome!
- Slip sliding down the hallway because our kitchen flooded.
- A trip to go swimming with 20+ kids turns into an hour long ride, only to end up back where you started because the road was closed. Then eating lunch and going out to try a different place to go swimming but when you get there, the water isn’t clean enough to swim but the children are so happy to be out and about that they don’t even care! #ChoosingJoyInAllThings
- Your team loving you so much that when you get sick with a high fever, they turn on the expensive air condition for you and serve you when you’re too weak to get your own food.
- There are times that you say to God, “I’ve got this… I don’t really need you” but you really do!
- A team time questionnaire changed everything with 4 questions…
1) Where am I at in my journey with God?
2) Where do I wish I was?
3) How do I see God and how do I see myself?
4) If I could ask God one question, what would it be?
I had to answer these questions but write the answers to God. Try doing that honestly when you are trying to stay away from God and it not change your heart! - Inviting our ministry host over for dinner and having the best night ever!
- Worship and intercession nights for the ministry.
- The sweet breeze that flowed through our team house… better than any air conditioner!
- Playing Dutch Blitz.
- My team watching a documentary on “One Direction” and me pretending that I didn’t care one whit about them… but then sneaking glances at it and now am left wondering what I missed when I wasn’t paying attention.
- Dance night for team time, not being able to dance well, but not caring… then voting via influence of the reality show, Survivor.
- Spending hours with my Father and Bridegroom… having Him forgive me and romance me back into His embrace. Redemption as always!
- Seeing a child helping his mom wash dishes, but become so preoccupied by us because we are white that he accidently throws a plate in the river.
- “The Voice” … “His Child International” style, and we are the guest judges!
- Becoming a “Lice Hunter”.
- Listening to a podcast with my teammate Karleigh, and have it speak such truth about my relationship with God and how He continually says “I Do” to us.
- I never knew what podcasts were until that moment… now I am getting fed so much through them! I mean, WOW!
- “2 minute mysteries” readings by Liz Shaffer.
- Casey Roberts speaking about Freedom, but also asking all of the squad women to “Stand up for your sisters” … showing us that we are not alone in our struggles and how God is calling us out of bondage into true freedom in Him!
- Seeing all sorts of crazy things happening on the back of a motorcycle… a mother holding an IV bag in the air while her child has the IV in him and the dad is driving. A man and his dog. A guy going to work with pallets tied to the back and someone sitting on top of said pallets… high on top lol.
- “Sometimes God is calling us out of good things so that we may step in to greater things!”
Thailand:
- Forgetting my wallet at a hostel became a race against time, but I got it back and nothing was missing!
- Mae Sot and all of its beauty!
- I have a picture of a mural on my iPad that says “Make Your Mark”. I have had it saved for quite some time, but I found the actual mural painted on a wall right outside our team house!
- We get to ride bikes all month instead of walking everywhere! It’s a true blessing lol.
- Thai food. Burmese food. Western food. All the food… all the time… so good! In fact, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.
- Helping Famous Ray’s and The Outpour Movement ministry prepare for the move into their bigger buildings by moving heavy boulders, sweeping out and cleaning the buildings, chopping down trees, carrying metal and other heavy things out of the way so they can be thrown away, pulling weeds, and helping the odd centipede find a new home. Can I hear an “Amen” for manual labor?!?
- Going to the border of “No-Man’s-Land” to pray over the people who live there. They are without a country and often are forced to beg to make a living.
- #12n11 … My team and I had the chance to cross over to Burma and walk the streets of Myanmar and pray for the people to soon experience freedom and justice for the injustice that happened to them. Some teammates were able to pray healing over people as well. It was a very tiring and exhausting day but oh, so worth it all! I pray healing on the land of Burma and freedom in both body and heart… that the Burmese people will soon experience God in such a new way that revival and the fire of God descend!
- Worship nights with Outpour Movement people (most are World Race alumina). I love those nights and I’m sad that I went to my last one last week.
- The night my teammate, Hope, paid for air condition and asked us to dress up in our best fall attire so we could feel what it might be like at home… and then having a bon fire with tea lights so we could make s’mores.
- PSALMS 111… the whole thing is a gem!
- Getting to Thailand and having orientation on a Saturday, and then being told that you’re preaching on Sunday… yea, that happened and my Father helped me through it.
- ”Swimming” by a waterfall and becoming overwhelmed by the beauty of the nature around us and how God knew that we would be sitting there, in that exact moment, marveling at it. Also, my sunglasses falling into the water and me finding them again!
- #TheMomentYou hear “Open the Eyes of My Heart” by Paul Baloche being sung in a church for the people of Burma.
- I found out Saturday morning that Myo, the man who was our guide for the day in Burma, suffered a stroke and passed away. After he found God he lived his life in love. Everything he did was done out of love. It’s sad that he passed away so suddenly and our hearts go out to all the “Outpour Movement” staff and volunteers who knew him so well, but it’s also beautiful to know that he is in heaven right now and how he must be so overjoyed at being in the presence of his Lord and Savior!
- I was able to sit down with the girls at the refuge where I had been helping teach English and helped them make stuffed elephants, which help support the refuge. It was so much fun!
- Saying goodbye to people never gets any easier, but I’d rather know them and say goodbye than I would never knowing them at all.
And because the Race is far from over, here is number 112…
112. The Best Is Yet To Come! I believe that God has so much more in store for me and I want to be open to whatever that is. With team changes coming up and the unknown is looming above us, I know that my steadfastness is resting solely on the Lord. So whatever lies before me, I know that He is for me. Hard things must come for there to be growth… The gardener must pull up my weeds, roots and all, for Him to be able to plant good things. There must be a freshly tilled ground for the seed to take root and to grow a bountiful harvest. That’s where I’m at right now and He will take me the rest of the way!
Thank you to everyone who has been praying, who has helped sow the seeds with me by supporting me!! The next deadline is coming up faster than I’d ever imagined it would. I still need a little less than $4000 by December and any help towards being fully funded is much much appreciated! I thank you for everything and I love you all!!!!!!
