Dear friends, family & faithful supporters,
So here’s what happened…
While I was ministering in China, I suffered a concussion which apparently weakened my immune system. We then moved to Thailand, a beautiful country where we helped to build a home for boys who have been saved from sex trafficking. Unfortunately while there, I picked up E.histolytica, the invasive type, which began attacking my intestines and eventually ruptured my appendix.
By the time we started working at an orphanage in Cambodia, I was taken to the hospital and two days later had an emergency appendectomy. Recovery didn’t go so well and I ended up back in the hospital still dehydrated and with another type of parasite, or so they thought. It was then decided that I wasn’t recovering and needed to go back to the States to fully recover.
After 30 hours of travel I arrived in St. Louis, dehydrated and extremely fatigued. Needless to say, I spent the next 4 days back in the hospital where the doctors discovered the quality of surgery for the appendix was excellent but the E.histolytica was not treated properly and had reappeared. Since this particular parasite, which had already attacked my appendix, can attack the liver, lungs or brain, I feel very fortunate to now have the medical care I need to make a complete recovery.
Although leaving the race early and having to face all my broken expectations has been extremely hard for me, I’m simply thankful to be alive today and grateful to be exactly where I am right now.
However, my World Race didn’t end when I came back to America, it just looks a little different now.
You see my World Race was never about going and changing the world but allowing myself to be in a place where I was available to let God change me.
Well it happened. God wrecked my life for the ordinary and showed me just what living is all about and what it’s not. It’s not about big houses, fancy cars, the perfect title at work, or personal fame. Rather it’s about being obedient to God no matter how hard something may be, loving without judging, having compassion for people even if it gets you head lice, locked up in jail, or makes you plain uncomfortable.
I learned to put my trust in God daily, and as I did, I watched my faith become real. God isn’t dead nor is He up in some cloud. He’s alive and moving in lives everywhere every day and it’s up to us whether or not we allow Him to move in ours.
When I began my journey on the World Race, I didn’t just commit to live by faith for 11 months, I committed to live by faith for the rest of my life. To do more with my life, to be more, all for the Kingdom of God. This change in plans of having to come back early isn’t going to stop that commitment. I don’t understand why all this happened the way it did but God does and He’s had the plan all along. I’m choosing to trust God and continue to allow Him to use me exactly where He’s placed me. There are opportunities every day for me to either sit back and settle into my old life or to keep moving forward on the path God has for me. I WILL be intentional with my life and it’s because of your support in the first place that I now have the courage to be bold in my faith and love the people that I cross paths with no matter what country I reside in.
Being back in the good ole USofA has been a big adjustment for me and I still have a long road of recovery ahead so I just ask that you would continue to keep me in your prayers as I know you have.
I’m so thankful for your willingness to be a part of what God is doing all around the world!
-Hannah Stambaugh
P.S. If you’re a future racer reading this, DON’T FREAK OUT! Take the risk, travel the world, and allow God to use you and change you in ways you never would’ve dreamed possible. Give up your expectations and just let God be God. Know that everything will work out just how it’s supposed to and that you will have tons of people praying for you the whole way! Can’t wait to follow your journey!
