Hello everyone! Sorry for my lack of blogging! I’m going to attempt to catch y’all up on what’s been happening in my life for the last three months.
Thailand
In Thailand our team partnered with YWAM Khon Kaen. Throughout the month we did skits/performances at night markets, evangelism at universities, worked at an orphanage for the last week, spoke at church on Sundays, spent the day a rehabilitation center for women with drug addictions, spoke at a prison and had women accept Christ as their Savior, ate crickets, did campus ministry, and sweated a WHOLE lot. We just happened to be in Thailand for their hottest summer in 60 years.
If I’m being honest, I struggled this month with the Lord. Thailand was so spiritually heavy and I felt like I was so distant from the Lord. I felt like I was talking to Him all the time and I was just getting the silent treatment in return. But I wasn’t. Jesus was reaffirming something I learned a long time time ago at a youth ski trip but had forgotten. He was reaffirming that He does not change based on my emotions. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and just because I don’t “feel” like He’s with me does not mean that He isn’t.
Cambodia
Cambodia was by far the craziest month so far on the race. It was also my least favorite, most challenging, and the biggest blessing all wrapped up into a whirlwind of 30 days. On day one of the month one of my teammates was hit by a truck while on a motorbike which landed her in the hospital for the majority of the month, along with surgery and a few crazy scars. About a week later, another squad mate ended up in the hospital and she ended up being transferred to another hospital with our teammate. That left only half of our team doing ministry (digging tree stumps out to prepare a field for planting) in a remote part of Cambodia. So… all of this led to our entire team being transferred to a ministry 4 hours away so that we could be in the city where the hospital was.
However, our new ministry was amazing, welcoming, and so accommodating. It was also their first time ever hosting a World Race team. This ministry was called Lighthouse Battambang. They provided a place for about 30 kids to live in the city where they could go to school, learn english, have opportunities to learn about music, computers, or sewing, and also learn about Jesus while they were there. We built a fence, moved a shed, and dug a sewage ditch for this ministry.
Through all of the craziness, the Lord showed me what His sovereignty looks like. It’s one thing to learn about it and know the definition of it, but it’s completely different to see it at work. The accident, sickness, and everything that came along with that wasn’t the hand of God, but I could see His hand through it all. Through the spiritual and physical warfare that Satan had sent to destroy us, the Lord was working through the events, and us, to bring Him glory and draw us closer to His heart. This is just one example: Jillian (our teammate who was in the accident) had a backpack on and she had a bag of flour in it when they were hit. Her backpack and the bag of flour were both ripped through when she landed. Imagine if she hadn’t have been wearing that backpack when she landed; that would have been her back and not just a bag of flour. I can’t believe in coincidence when I believe in God.
Colombia
Sorry if I never come back to America. I LOVED Colombia! We partnered with a ministry called Oasis which was basically a before and after school program for school aged children. They provided lunch for the kids everyday, helped with their homework, taught English classes, did devotionals with them, and just loved on them. It’s also awesome to be able to somewhat speak the language.
Our hosts last month, Lucy, Laura, and Ricardo were absolutely incredible people who have so much faith and wisdom in the Lord. Their story of how the Lord worked through them and others to start Oasis is amazing. We hung out with them almost every weekend at their home, watched Netflix with them, shared meals together, and everything else you would do with people that you would call family.
This was by far my favorite month and the hardest month for me to leave. It was the first month that I fell in love with the ministry, the people, the culture, and felt at home all at the same time.
So yea, that’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing the last three months! We’re in Quito, Ecuador now and our team starts ministry tomorrow where we will be working at a special needs rehabilitation center. Thank you for all of your prayers and words of encouragement throughout these last eight months! They mean the world to me 🙂
