So my mom has been hounding me about writing a new blog. Its been a little over 4 months since my last one… so I guess shes right. I won’t bore you with tons of details, but I do want to throw in a few updates on the months I haven’t blogged about!
Swaziland – December – Month: Six
Swaziland was my favorite month on the race so far (and being that I’m currently in month 10 in Malaysia, it might be for the whole race!) Meeting Yogi (my like minded amigo from South Africa), Rachael (a former racer and squad-leader), and Katie (a Peace Corps worker placed in Swaziland for a year) was amazing. Getting to talk and hang out with them was huge for me, especially around Christmas time. We worked with an orphanage on top of a mountain doing manual labor and hanging out with the kids. I really hope that God allows me to go back soon and continue to work with them! It was one of the few months so far that I’ve felt that us being there really did make a difference. If you ever want to go to Swaziland and need a travel buddy- I’m your man. But really, if I had the money, I would head back there for a month or two a few weeks after touching base in the states. God spoke so much that month. (Or maybe I just listened more than month haha)
Lesotho – January – Month: Seven
Now Swaziland might have been my favorite month, but Lesotho was a very close second. The month I spent here was incredible. I had more peace during this month than maybe any other month in my life. The landscape was something out of a western. Huge clear open skies and amazing mountains that stretched as far as you can imagine. Everything we used ran on solar panels. Every morning waking up at 7 to go for a run (ok, more of a walk for me) and then afterward going down to the creek to set up the solar panel for the water pump was awesome. This month was what I signed up for the race for. We were the first team to ever go to Lesotho and it was an honor. Our contact Pieter was such a humble man that taught the people in the surrounding villages how to make their own clay and make pots out of that clay. His family was such a joy to be a part of for the month. 4 hour worship services and horse riding is what I’ll remember most about Lesotho, but the peace I felt there won’t be forgotten. Pieter said that we could come back anytime, even if it was just to get away from the states and work on a book. I might take him up on that one day 🙂
Thailand – February – Month: Eight
Our first month in Asia. Now, I haven’t been too excited about going to Asia. But then again, I wasn’t excited about going to Africa either. Thailand was amazing. I had the honor of leading a team alongside my friend Christian for our Manistry month. Manistry month is where all the guys form one big team and get a month to ourselves. We worked with a ministry called “Remember Nhu” that housed children that were in risk of being sold into sex slavery. We helped build a big house that would be home for over 30 kids in the coming months. We had a house all to ourselves that month and it was really cool just to explore around Thailand and get to hang out with the guys that month. AND I got to see my parents for a week that month. Seeing Momma K and Poppa Tim for the first time in 8 months was more than words can describe. I love those two a lot. My mom is amazing and beautiful and can never be replaced by world travel. (Was that enough shameless doting for you, mother?)
Cambodia – March – Month: Nine
Cambodia was the first month that I was a part of my current team “The Sister-less Seven.” (Actually I just made that name up. None of us have sisters, there are seven of us, and I don’t actually know what our official name is right now) The team gets along so well, and it really is fun to be around them. It was my first month on the race teaching English and that was tough. “Y’all” is discouraged when teaching proper English. That was a stumbling block for this guy right here. The kids were so attentive and ready to learn and provided so many laughs and good times. We went to the beach, lake, and the capital a few times- those were all so much fun and a good break away from ministry! Cambodia was also reached higher temperatures than the typical household oven can reach. I was one tired, sweaty, honey-baked Ham at the end of that month. I turned 23 in Cambodia, getting older every day. I also drank a gallon of sweet tea every other day with all of the tea my mom brought me from back home- life saver.
Malaysia – April – Month: Ten
This month we are in Gua Musang, Malaysia! Its overwhelmingly Muslim and openly talking about God is not really approved of. We are once again teaching English to some kids here. We have a lot of down time and its been great for our team to have time to ourselves. We have an amazing place to stay with wifi across the street, our own kitchen, western style toilets, a 7-11 down the road, huge caves to explore in, and a massive supermarket down the road. Living here for the first week has seemed more like being home than ever before on the race to me. Its like having roommates instead of having teammates. We have a lot of time to think and talk about the future. Plans being made and tickets being bought for our flights back home! (I’ll be touching down in ATL May 30th at 4pm and you don’t know how happy that makes me!) We will be celebrating Easter on a mountain with a tea factory and strawberry fields, that should be fun. We are also hoping to buy tickets to Singapore in the next few days and I really hope that it works out! All in all this month seems to be looking pretty good so far!
Thanks to everyone who has been keeping up with me and I’m sorry that I don’t blog often! Currently in an internet cafe trying to upload a new video. I’ve had a lot of people ask me about grocery stores… so I made a video about our grocery store! Hopefully it will upload in the next 3 hours! A prayer request would be for God to really show me which path to go down when I get back to the states as I have some pretty cool opportunities ahead of me. (For all of you who want to know what I’ll be doing when I get back- I have no idea.) I hope that I get to see a lot of you face to face when I get home over the first few weeks! I’ll be getting home and running all around just to say hey! (And yes I do mean “running”, my dad sold my car in my absence… roll tide.)
