Month 1: El Salvador
With any huge change, like leaving everything you know to go to a brand new country and live with almost strangers, comes anxiety and worry and all the other emotions. Sharing my struggles with complete (well practically) strangers was not something that came naturally to me. So, for awhile, I didn’t. Let’s just say suffering in silence is pretty obvious to people you’re around 24/7 and it does no one any favors. I finally chose to start being vulnerable with my teammates after a little call-you-higher feedback and realizing these are the people I would be spending the next 11 months of my life with. Yes I have family and friends back home and they’re awesome, but these at-the-time strangers were my actual, real-life, in-person family. Choosing to share allowed them to walk alongside me in my struggle and it gave me some power over what I was dealing with.
Month 2: Guatemala
Ministry is not always exciting and thrilling. Sometimes ministry is doing mundane tasks like making sheep masks and posters and coloring giant pictures of the The Jetsons. And, sometimes ministry is hard. Sometimes ministry is teaching at a school where the kids don’t respect you or want to listen to you. And, sometimes, in those moments, it’s hard to remember to love instead of discipline.
Month 3: Honduras
Your community often sees the best in you, even when you don’t. I had prayed for years that God would change me, that He would make me more outgoing and talkative. I struggled to recognize any gifts that I had; in fact, I couldn’t even tell you anything I thought I was good at. But, every person on my team could tell me more than one gift that they had seen in me just that one month. Through that, God showed me that He didn’t make a mistake when He created me. He revealed that He had created me exactly the way He wanted me to be and that He has a purpose for that gentle, often quiet person. I began the process of loving myself and being comfortable in my own skin for the first time ever.
Month 4: Nicaragua
Before coming on the Race, I didn’t really understand what true rest was. I understood what physical rest was, but I didn’t know much about spiritual rest. Every week we were given a rest day, and we got to choose what to do with it. I truly realized its importance in month 4, because this was a VERY busy month, packed with several different ministries (many that required manual labor) and Bible study, along with our normal team time every night. It quickly became exhausting, physically, mentally, and spiritually. I had to learn how to fill myself up spiritually, through prayer and reading my Bible and worship and community, so that I was able to serve out of overflow instead of running on empty.
Month 5: Cote d’Ivoire
At the end of Nicaragua, I read 1000 Gifts by Anne Voskamp (I highly recommend it by the way!). This book changed the trajectory of my first month in Africa, because it taught me that we always have something to be thankful for, and when we are living each day in gratitude then we will experience joy. Many people would find it hard to believe that a person could be filled with joy in an African village with no electricity or running water. But there was SO much to be grateful for that month, even though I often had to dig a little deeper than usual to find it. The people were generous, the clothes were colorful, and the worship was loud and beautiful. And on those days that I couldn’t find anything (or really struggled to), all I had to do was remind myself that I have Jesus and He is more than I need. ***On another note, I learned that I really enjoyed preaching!!!***
Month 6: Ghana
Yes, I experienced so much joy in Cote d’Ivoire, and I learned the “secret” to finding joy despite whatever circumstances I faced. But, in Ghana, I realized that even when you find joy, you have to keep fighting for it or you will lose it. It is like a muscle that has to be worked every day so that it gets stronger.
Month 7: Nepal
I struggled a lot in the beginning of the month with a return of shame for some parts of my testimony. I felt inadequate to work with women in dance bars knowing the mistakes I had made as a Christian. God, being the good, good Father that He is, gave me a deeper understanding of His love and grace. He showed me that He sent His son to die for me knowing the sins that I was going to commit, all because He loves me that much.
Month 8: India
We played a LOT of Little Sally Walker this month, a game that I had never enjoyed before because it requires dancing. This month, I chose to (literally) dance without abandon, to let my freak flag fly, to be goofy and childlike. And it was so much fun and so freeing!
Month 9: Thailand
While working in an orphanage for children with special needs, I began to recognize that small successes are just as important as large ones, and that a success needs to be celebrated no matter the size. I also learned that people see me as a leader, even though that is not something I had ever wanted to be or had seen in myself. I realized you do not have to be loud or outgoing to have influence on others or to lead others well.
Month 10: Malaysia
We didn’t have set ministry this month, so we had to go find it. This mainly involved talking with people, sometimes about the gospel and sometimes just about life. Not having set ministry meant we didn’t have a list of tasks or anything specific we needed to do each day. That led to the question of “what is enough?”. I finally realized that all God wants us to do every day is to love Him and to love others…that’s it! It’s not about how much time you’re spending with God or who you’re choosing to show love to. He simply commands us to love Him and love other people.
Month 11: Indonesia
I did a devotion at final debrief about setting up road markers for ourselves. I, along with 23 others, did a crazy, life-changing thing. We went on the World Race. It seemed long at times, but mostly it just flew by. Even though it was a year, that’s nothing in light of the span of life, and it’s so easy to forget. But, I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to forget the people or the places or my personal growth. So, I have to set up road markers, things to help me remember the journey I went on (things such as this blog).
This is officially my last blog on my World Race page. 
But I’m not going to stop blogging!!! Please check out my new blog, and keep up with what the Lord is doing in my life! 
chelseabouknight.wordpress.com
