First off, if you haven’t seen my World Race Video, watch that first! It’ll give you a good back drop for my year.
So I had a whole blog typed up that wasn’t this. It had lots of wisdom and cool words and stuff, but I scratched that last minute and traded it with lots of stories. The thing is, I wish I could sit down with everyone and tell them about all of the people I’ve met, all the places I’ve seen, and all the crazy experiences that came with this year. But since I can’t possibly do that with everyone, here’s a blog with it all!!
IT’S STORY TIME!!!!
There was this one time in a small village in Botswana where I prayed for the Lord to give this woman a good night’s sleep–she hadn’t had sleep without anxiety and nightmares in years. The next morning, on our way out to do evangelism in the village, we found out she had been telling everyone she had the best sleep of her life the night before, and all that credit got to go to the Prince of Peace.
There was this one time in India, during our first night of ministry, when I was praying over an older woman who was sobbing, and she grabbed my hands and put them on her boobs. NO LIE. I pushed the freakout button pretty hard as she held my hands there and I called over our translator and he told me she had breast cancer and wanted me to pray for it. Phew! And, you know what? The Lord healed her that very night. Funny story, good ending.
There was this other time in Bangkok where we showed up to a building hoping to find a church service and some potential ministry connections, only to find no church service, therefore no ministry connections. So we went across the highway to the strip of like a million malls, had dinner in the food court, and spent the night making up each other’s crazy love stories. One of the funniest nights of my Race.
We went to Burma for a day and saw orphanages and met really great people who are working to love kids and get them out of the corruptness that the country is teeming with! That was really, really cool.
I Skyped into my best friend’s wedding from an Indian Hotel at 4am, with about 3 drunk Indian men passed out on the couches next to me and a couple more sketchy men wondering around. That was good.
In Swaziland our team got caught in town later than we were supposed to be (we were supposed to be gone by 5pm). So we ended up in the bus rink surrounded by a flood of Africans getting off work and heading home. It was getting rowdy, people were telling us to switch to this line and that and we were getting eyed by EVERYONE and, understandably, getting a little concerned for our safety. Then a man who worked the rink came to us yelling “My white friends! My white friends come with me!! Hello White friends!!” Ugh, sooooo embarrassing. So we waddled up to him with our tails between our legs, tried our best not to make eye contact with the people in line who we were being forced to cut, and listened to him convince the people in line that they shouldn’t hurt us for getting on the vans first. I’d like to thank Pego for our safety that day, and for being a good friend to us the rest of the month.
There was Nepal where we ate carbs for 3 weeks straight. Curried Potatoes, Plain Noodles, Plain Rice, sometimes yummy ramen for breakfast. Lots of Buri– a fried dough, kind of like a tortilla. All. the. carbs.
Our second weekend in Guatemala 5 of us took a trip to the beautiful lake Atitlan. We signed up for a sketchy 4am hike to see the sunrise over the lake and volcanoes surrounding it. Then Katelyn woke up at 3:58. I’ve never gotten ready to fast in my life. And when we got downstairs out of our hostel the SKETCHIEST van was waiting for us. I also hiked in Birkenstocks because thats all I had, which was a JOKE. But hey, totally worth it to see that sunrise.
We made a pact to go to the beach everyday in the Philippines. And if you’ve seen the pictures, you know why. I also scuba dived for the first time there, and now I’m itching to get my scuba certification. I guess swimming with a sea turtle in crystal clear water will do that do a person.
We backpacked out of the mountains in Ilam, Nepal and had 14 river crossings with water up to our waists, on the most gorgeous day EVER. We all felt pretty legit that day.
Our first day in Preah Net Preah, Cambodia, Megan, Paola, and I were going for a run, and in broken English and Khmer, our host family decided they wanted to come with us. So we ran down our little red dirt road, Cambodian sunset behind us, and one Cambodian woman and 3 Cambodian kids, all in flip flops, running and laughing alongside us. It’s one of my favorite memories of the Race.
In Nepal one of our teammates got sick and so we took her to the “hospital” (quotes to remind you that your imagination is serving you wrong if you’re imagining an american hospital right now. this more along the lines of an “open-air clinic”.). To cheer her up, we went to find popcorn, and also found spiderman and minnie mouse masks. So we bought those and wore them as we handed her her popcorn, which cracked a laugh from her! All the Nepalese people were staring at us like we were nuts (which wasn’t that different from the normal staring, so).
In Nicaragua we didn’t have a can opener, so Paola and I used a massive knife and another can to hammer the cans open. Innovation, people.
In Nicaragua we were surrounding a tiny MacBook screen watching a movie when a small earthquake hit. We all subsequently flipped our crap and ran to the doorway. It was over in like one minute and we all raced to our phones to find our if our other squadmates had felt it. Reminder for more dire situations: a doorway in an earthquake does no good for SIX girls.
I rode an ostrich in Chiang Rai, Thailand. HAHAHAHA. Ostriches are mean and they put a funny bag over its head while you mount it, so it makes the bird look like its a criminal of war waiting to be interrogated. And then you like, climb on its back and put your legs under it’s wings and lean back to make it go faster and it’s SO weird and SO funny.
We had a pet monkey in the Philippines. Her name was Masaki and she lived in an area next to the house. She would sit on your shoulder and pick stuff our of your hair, or try to steal your necklace/watch/earrings/nose ring, etc.
We were on a bus back to Kathmandu, Nepal from the the eastern mountain region we had spent the month in. Late that night we stopped for a potty break. At this point, we were used to squatty potties and foul smells, but nothing could prepare us for the slanted cement slab that awaited our urine. Thats right, we turned the corner and were greeted by 4 walls, one with an opening as an entrance, and 3 women squatting on the cement, pee running down into the drain. I didn’t ask what happens when people have to poop. Yikes.
We went to a Filipino wedding, and a man paid to dance with me (middle school style), which is apparently customary….and he was like 40 and then asked me to wave to his wife. It was as awkward as it looks. Megan got in on the customary action, too, as you can see in the background.
In Cambodia we slept in tents in our host family’s church. One night the neighbors got a lot drunk and a lot rowdy, and we were woken up at midnight by a man screaming and yelling and women crying and the-throwing-of-things a couple houses away. It was pretty terrifying, and the police were called to handle it.
Also in Cambodia, we would go on walks every morning with our host family. We saw many different things on these walks- a desert patch that looked like an elephant graveyard,a man lying dead in the middle of the road from a motorcycle accident, military bases where the Commander took selfies with each one of us. It was always an adventure, to say the least.
I ate more McDonalds on the Race than I think I’ve eaten in my whole life.
And how can we leave out the time I was almost eaten by a lioness?! In Johannesburg, South Africa we spent the evening at a Lion Park. It was here that I got to pet a cheetah, and snuggle with some lion cubs. These seemingly harmless interactions might have given me more confidence than warranted, because when we drove through the Lion Camps, ole Hannah here had her windows down, taking picture of the REAL, LIVE, HUGE lions like 15 feet away, NOT in a cage. (I may have even mentioned getting out of the car at one point, but that’s neither here nor there). Anyways, it’s a good thing my reflexes are lightning fast cause a mama lion charged at me and I got that window up just in time. Scariest moment of my life. But also one of the coolest. Then you find out that a 22 year old woman was killed 2 weeks later for doing the same thing, BY THE SAME LIONESS. Wide eyes, thankful heart, y’all. Dodged that one.
One day in Bosnia some friends took us hiking in the mountains and we discovered a cave!! We went in and it had a ton of clay, but some cool formations and beautiful crystal clear water. My inner Cave Tour Guide came out (shoutout to you, Natural Bridge Caverns and 18 year old Hannah) and it was glorious.
These and so many, many more– I could fill up books, but we’ll leave it at that.
Okay, so the second section here is full of some of the bigger moments of my Race– bookmarks, highlights, God-Doin-Big-Things kind of moments.
It was while I was having a breakdown on a mountain in Nepal that He finally got through to me about my true identity lying in Him, not in leadership or anything else.
It was receiving constructive feedback from teammates (throughout the year) that made me want to defend myself in the moment, and taking it to the Lord to find that it was SO true. Cue blushing and a you-were-right smirk.
It was surrounded by inmates at a prison, who have spent so much of their lives being labeled by what they’ve done instead of who they are, in MolePolole, Botswana that He opened my blind eyes (for the millionth time) to His people and how precious they are to Him.
It was staring out the 12th floor window of my friend Yadranka’s apartment in Sarajevo, Bosnia, listening to her and her daughter struggle through years of mistrust and hurt, that He taught me to put down my shortsightedness, and choose to see things with the Spirit, not just with knowledge and logic.
It was an overwhelming night in the Philippines where my heart was hit with prostitution, orphanhood, and ladyboys all in the same moment. But it was those tears and questions about how God sees all of it that took me closer into His Heart for them and me.
It was in India, being asked to pray in villages every night for miraculous healings, where He taught me to question the Holy Spirit, because He’s not ever gonna get stumped by even one.
It was a month spent in Cambodia, learning what Unconditional Love looked like through the constant servanthood of our host mom, Navy.
It was at lunch in Uzhgorod, Ukraine with a (then estranged) friend and past teammate where He taught me about Grace, Humility, Forgiveness, and Redemption.
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“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
1 Cor 9: 24-27
A question I get a lot is why the World Race is called a “race”. Before, I never really had a good answer.
But now I do.
The World Race is a couple miles of our lifelong race towards our Glorious Eternal Prize, and man is it a challenging leg! It’s got lots of mountains and valleys; it has river crossings and deserts. It’s built to challenge you more than previous legs have—to show you just how far you can go, and just how big He is.
And sitting in my bed in San Antonio, Texas, 2 months after finishing the Race and 13 months after starting it, I’ll tell you there AINT NOOOO WAAAAAY I’m about to be disqualified from that prize.
The World Race
The most beautiful, painful, difficult, incredible, race of my life.
And may there be many more that exceed this year in joy and even in suffering, because the Lord has sooooooo much more to do.
