If you had told me when I was younger that I would be celebrating my 25th birthday in Zimbabwe, I would have definitely questioned you. Why was I there? Who was I with? What was I doing? But now I finally have the answer to all of those questions!
I am in Zimbabwe, Africa on the World Race with my new team Fearless serving alongside our host Edie!
But before we get to my actual birthday (August 31st), I had started celebrating my birthday about a week before that.
My old team (Team Warriors) kindly and graciously celebrated my birthday early with me at debrief in Sofia, Bulgaria. We did this because we knew team changes were coming and we would no longer be a team on my actual birthday. Debrief is when the whole squad comes together to talk about how the last two months have gone, give us a chance to catch up with our squad and our leaders, and change teams. We had debrief for about a week which gave me plenty of time to catch up with my friends who I hadn’t seen in two months!
Team Warriors took me out for a wonderful meal and even found cheesecake for me! (I usually request to eat at the Cheesecake Factory at home for my birthday). They gave me gifts of coffee and oreos (they know me well).
The next day I went hiking with my friends Nick and Jonathan. Nick always makes fun of my “basic” pictures that I post on Instagram. So for my birthday present on the hike, he said he would take some basic pictures with me! That included Jonathan taking pictures of us in front of a beautiful waterfall.
After that I was able to celebrate my birthday with some old teammates from my first team and fellow originals of the first co-ed teams. We got Indian food (my favorite!) and they took me out for cake. I made them all go around the table and share their favorite memory with me and it was actually super fun to reflect on all the good times we had all spent together!
Then our 50 hour travel day happened and I had to say goodbye to everyone. My birthday ended up falling on our first full day in Zimbabwe. We didn’t have ministry because our host was gracious enough to allow us to rest and recover from all of our crazy travels.
I spent the day with my new team Fearless going grocery shopping for the week, playing Oregon Trail, eating cake, and watching Fear Factor! It was truly a nice chill day.
The next day was our first day of ministry. We were working with an organization called Champions that held programs for children with HIV. We played some games, sang some songs, and helped hand out food to the 50 children that came. They also had a cake made for everyone in the crowd who had a birthday that week. Of course my host made me go up there as well! Everyone sang happy birthday and I got to cut the cake with my fellow birthday buddies. Then we proceeded to have a dance party.
On Sunday (two days later) we were able to attend our host’s church. When the pastor was about to introduce our team to the congregation, he first asked which one of us is Emily. I was confused but raised my hand. He then proceeded to tell the whole church that my birthday was just a few days ago and I had just turned 25! I had never even talked to the pastor before so I had no idea how he knew all that. Then the 5 members of the band and the whole church sang happy birthday to me! It was pretty special.
I feel like I have been celebrating my birthday for a month. But in reality, I love it. I love celebrating my birthday with my friends. I was able to celebrate on two different continents as well! I even got to open all of the birthday cards from my family and friends back home that they sent with me. I have felt very loved by everyone and am so grateful that God allowed me to have such a special birthday this year. Can’t wait to see where I’ll be at next year!
