It’s actually here. Five months, fifteen days, and twelve hours into the World Race. We are officially at the halfway mark.
Part of me is in denial. Are we really halfway done with the Race? Didn’t we just leave Washington D.C. to begin our long trek to Africa? Is it really possible that we finished three months in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, that we spent two months in the Philippines and Thailand, and that we are already halfway through five months in Asia? I don’t quite believe it. But since the pictures are proof and my external hard drive is already half full, I guess I have to believe that all of these adventures really have happened.
Favorite month? It’s really hard to pinpoint one, especially because each month’s ministry is so different. Instead, here are a few of my favorite memories thus far:
· Meeting President Obama’s paternal grandmother while we were in Siaya, Kenya.
· Cramming 20 people into a tiny boat and cruising around Lake Victoria to see the hippos in Kisumu, Uganda.
· White Water Rafting down the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda.
· Preaching for the first time (and certainly not the last time) at the North Kigezi Diocese All Saints Church in Uganda.
· Dancing and singing with high school girls at chapel each morning in Rukungiri, Uganda.
· Witnessing God heal an elderly woman’s leg in Rwanda on our first day of ministry
· Leading a carpenter named Shadrach to the Lord while doing door-to-door evangelism in Nyagatare, Rwanda.
· Making and eating the best Thanksgiving meal away from home. What a treat!
· Climbing seven and a half hours up near vertical slopes on Mount Kitanglad, in the Philippines, and then watching a lightning storm from above the clouds that evening.
· Seeing God’s joy and hope in the eyes of the children I met throughout the Philippines, whether in squatter villages, at the orphanage we worked at, or just passing them on the streets.
· Learning how to drive a manual transmission truck up a steep hill in Thailand, on the opposite side of the road than what I’m used to driving.
· Singing God’s praises in a red-light district bar in Phuket, Thailand.
· Walking through rice fields back to our stilted hut at night in Kampot, Cambodia, under a black velvet sky alive with dancing stars.
As I look forward to our remaining months on the World Race, I have to ask with anticipation, “What do You still have for me, God? What do the next months hold for us? What do You still want to teach me? And, perhaps one of the biggest questions, what do You have for me after the Race?”
This last question is the one I wrestle with almost daily. I trust that God’s plans are always good, and I have no doubt that the next steps are going to be exciting. But part of me wishes I knew right now. Still, I will be patient and keep on running the race that God has called me to.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Hebrews 12:1
