It was our second girl’s night at El Shaddai on our mountain in Swaziland. It was freezing cold, so all 25+ of us (lady Racers and girls from the orphanage) donned our warm clothes and wrapped up in blankets, sipping hot chocolate to keep warm as we started to watch Tangled. We were about halfway through, almost to my favorite part (the entire day/night of Rapunzel’s birthday) when out of nowhere one of the 8-9 year old girls tottled over to me. I scooted over to make a space for her to sit but then realize she’s trying to sit ON me. Laughing, I scooped her up onto my lap, and wrapped my arms around her as she rested her head beneath my neck. She seemed so toasty cozy, all nestled up, so I began to rock her back and forth. Within 10 minutes (around the time Flynn Rider took Rapunzel out on the boat to see the floating lanterns) she began snoring—talk about precious!
As Flynn and Rapunzel sang and the beautiful lanterns came and went coupled with the soft snoring of my new snuggle buddy, I almost started to cry out of sheer amazement as to how in the world I came to be cuddling a little girl, watching Tangled on a cold winter’s night on top of a mountain in Swaziland, finishing up month TEN of this crazy journey called the World Race.
We’ll soon be off to South Africa for our final month as Racers and then it’s back to America July 29th and back home to Orlando come the 30th! We’re going to be living in Jeffrey’s Bay doing construction and soccer ministry, but after that you might be wondering what the Lord has in store for me…
While in El Salvador, month 2, God began to change my heart about going back to college (up until that point I had it set in my heart that the last thing I’d do was ever go back) specifically to community college. In month 5, Thailand, we worked with an organization that had sustainable farming and I helped out a lot with their sustainable aqua-farming project that was in need of repair (which is actually an old family trade). This is where my life totally shifted. God put a very unique, totally catered to me, vision of what He wants me to do after the Race and I am so excited to share it with you!
Come the end of August I’ll be going back to community college, and finishing my AA up and will I then transfer into UF in the coming semesters to obtain a degree in agriculture operations management with a focus in sustainable agriculture!! At the same time, I'll be starting up and beginning to piece together a local sustainable agricultural ministry, with the fixed intention to expand out into the international community. The Lord has blown my mind with how He’s given me so much joy in Him about this new journey and path He’s got laid out for me!
If you have any specific questions, or comments to the plan/vision—just holler!
I’d love to share more in depth!
Last month of the Race—it’s go time! Thanks so much yall, my dear fam (blood and non-blood), for all the love support and prayers that’s gotten me through, really, to the end of this deal—the adventure has just begun!
How great is our Lord!? There’s no God like Him, and no God but Him!
Farmer Hardy—out.
