The race is a pretty cool experience overall… You see and experience so much that sometimes you forget even big things that happened 2 or 3 months ago. I figured as part of a way to avoid forgetting stories that I want to be sure and tell people when I get home, I would make a list of at least 5 things from each country that I will not want to forget when I get home. There is just no possible way to journal everything! I tried doing that for the first 3 months and started running out of journal pages, so I gave that up and started blogging more and writing down the major things I want to remember.
I think to date one of the coolest days on the World Race so far, came the last day we were in Swaziland. The day started off as any normal day except we finished all of our “hard labor” projects such as fencing, painting, and a few other things here and there. The only thing left to do that we were assigned to ministry wise was to work with the toddler house during the day and then after school was out we were to help with the older kids homework and stuff like that….
It was one of those days it almost felt like the last day of school when you were a kid… Everybody is cleaning up the classrooms and packing up for the summer break. Its a pretty chill day and there is just a lot of time to relax and reflect on the year… or in our case, the month at El Shaddai Children’s Home. So that’s what we did. While some of our group packed up their backpacks and cleaned up our rooms and stuff, the other half hung out with the kids. Then after a while we flip-flopped and took turns doing the same as the others. It was great! For most of my shift at the toddler house, I just set on the play ground and talked with the kids and held them. We took a walk into the farm yard where the animals were, spent some time on the swings, and for me it was a good time to just hold the kids and pray over them and over their future. Being at an orphanage is never easy. Leaving those kids always is one of the hardest things you have to do out here on the field. It was still great though and I am blessed to have had the time to spend with the kids. Also, we were blessed to get to spend a few days with Crystal Gore. She is a former World Racer who did the race back in July 2010. She was on the first team to spend a month at El Shaddai, and she has just recently moved back to serve there long term. I know that she would greatly appreciate our prayers as she starts this new chapter of her life. It was so cool to get to hang out with her and hear and see her heart for the Lord!
After our shift was over at 5pm that evening, we finished cleaning up our rooms and packing our belongings for the trip ahead, ate supper, and then built a nice bon-fire out in front our our cottages. We laid some blankets out and it could not have been at a better time. Right as we finished praying and Matt started to lead worship, the sun began to set over the mountain range. It was incredible! I put in a special request to sing “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” As we sang, I laid down on my back and stared up at the stars as the began to one by one fill up the night sky. The words to that song just pierced my heart. It was also getting ready to be a full moon, and there were a few clouds rolling in… It made for an amazing final night on the mountain side in Swaziland. What better way to close a great month at El Shaddai than to worship our Papa God and sing praises to Him and pray for a continued blessing over the ministry we came to love this past month.
I will miss El Shaddai greatly, but I know that the Lord has huge things in store for the ministry there and the workers.
Thanks for your prayers and support from back home. As always, we could not do it without you.
Love y’all.
