Hi friends! It has been way too long since I have updated you on my whereabouts! My team is currently is Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and we will be heading to Almaty, Kazakhstan in just a few days. Things are going great and God has been showing me some AMAZING things over the past few months! One of those being my future. Let me take you back to Month 5 in Nepal…
The first five months of the Race, we have Alumni Squad Leaders and Team Leaders who have done the World Race before and have come back out to support our squad. This month, they raised up and trained new squad leaders and team leaders. We were also given new teams and I was asked to be the leader for my team. This was a little daunting and I felt very unqualified, but everyone was extremely supportive and encouraging for me to step into this role. Most of all, it confirmed what God had spoken to me back in Indonesia about being a leader. It was really great to know that it was actually God speaking to me and not just something I made up!
Nepal was different for us because we had to give our passports over to a travel agency and apply for our Chinese visas. While they had our passports our leadership didn’t want us to travel too far outside of Kathmandu. During our week there my team served the community by leading a devotion at Beauty for Ashes, interceding in prayer at The Resting Place, and feeding the homeless at Iris Ministries.
When we were finally granted Chinese visas, my team travelled to Pokhara where we served alongside a team of volunteers from South Korea. Their church supports a school there and sends teams for five months at a time. This team had been there three months and were beginning to feel worn down and tired. We were able to give them a break by teaching their classes for a week. It was so good to see my team discover gifts they didn’t know they had by stepping into a classroom of english learners! We taught art, math, english, PE, health, and science and enjoyed playing with the kids during breaks. This week was a much needed refreshment for our team! We stayed in a REAL house, got to cook REAL meals, and have a regular schedule for a full week. These things just DO NOT happen on the Race y’all!
Something else I was dealing with this week at the school was my decision not to go back to teaching. I was feeling anxious but I couldn’t figure out why. After a few days, I discovered it was because I was afraid that I would regret the decision I had made. However, by the end of the week, God confirmed that my teaching days are over and He has something different for me when I return home. As of right now, I’m not quite sure what that will be, and it crosses my mind often. It’s real easy to let fear creep into my mind about not having a job after the Race. Matthew 6:25-34 tells us not to be anxious about the time to come. So for now I am resting in knowing that my Heavenly Father has always and will continue to take care of all my needs.
Fun Fact: I promise I know a lot about technology, but I’ve been blogging for over a year now and still can’t figure out how to center all of my pictures.
