Month 6 is finished & winter has officially hit! We spent our month in Georgia, a former Soviet republic. It has been one of my favorite countries so far, & one of the most beautiful I have ever been to. A lot of this month was spent in the snow which was a really fun surprise for me! January was a month where most of our teams didn’t have traditional hosts. Since our Expedition route to the 10/40 window is pioneering, when we don’t have a specific ministry for the month one of our main goals is to find connections for World Race to send future teams to. We spend time searching for and connecting with missionaries, and build relationships with them so that even after we leave a country World Race will have a connection there to continue helping a ministry. This gives us a lot of freedom to brainstorm our gifts & skills & create our own vision for how we want to impact.
This month in Georgia we had two teams in the capitol Tbilisi & one team on the coast of the Black sea in Batumi. Matt, Emily & I spent about one week with each team! Each team made some really incredible connections & had some amazing opportunities. Ministry for the squad looked different almost everyday. Somedays it was teaching english to young students, talking with young women from Thailand in their shops, baby sitting for a host, or inviting people we met in cafes or shawarma restaurants over for dinner. We got to be a part of two health conferences lead by three of the girls on the squad. They got to teach on the stages of pregnancy, nutrition & precautions during pregnancy, health risks for women, basic first aid, diabetes, oral care, hypertension, choking & CPR. One team was connected with a new church plant where they were able to lead bible studies with locals, as well as preach & teach Sunday school. They were also included in several nights of connecting with young high school students with a ministry similar to Young Life. All that being said, this month went by incredibly fast, & I get the feeling these next four months will be over like that!
Here are a few photos from this month!
Andrew playing cards with some of the kids during an English class in Batumi.
We have two nurses & a nutritionist on our squad! They were able to hold two separate womens health conferences this month in Marneuli.
Helping a new friend pick olives off a tree in a park in Tbilisi.
I also have some of my favorite photos from the cities we were staying in & our adventure days uploaded here! http://vsco.co/emilyyjcook/journal/g-e-o-r-g-i-a
We are officially in Armenia & will spend just over three weeks here. Thank you all so much for following along & supporting me so well!
Much love, Emily
