Hey Everyone!!
Sorry some of you haven’t heard from me in a while…
So I made a Lesotho update video that is posted on my Facebook so please check that out! Here is the Link!
https://www.facebook.com/jack.phillips.129?fref=nf&pnref=story
This past month has been unbelievably busy. Let me give you a run-down of my travel and event from the past 30 days.
On January 23rd, me and my team of men left the rural mountains of Lesotho to travel to the capital, Maseru, to meet the ladies from our squad. From there we travelled 12 hours by bus (a very small bus) to Swaziland. In Swaziland I got the amazing gift of being able to see my mom! I so thankful that she was able to travel around the world to see me for a week.
PVT (Parent Vision Trip) was a week long program that brought the parents of the World Racer’s to visit for a week. This was an amazing opportunity for parents to see what their children have been up to since leaving home in August. During this time, we attended and worked at “care points” (feeding/after school programs for children) where we got to play with the kids as well as teach them about Jesus and feed them their only meal of the day. Every evening, we as the racers got the opportunity to lead the parents in worship. It was truly amazing to see the parents get more involved in worship every night. I believe that the Lord had all of them there for different reasons that all involved bringing his kingdom to earth. The first day that we were at the care points with our parents it hit me–just how desensitized we (the racers) are. While all of the parent were holding back tears and wondering how it was possible that these children have no homes and eat one meal per day, I stood there un-phased. As if it were normal–and it is normal–in Africa. This made me realize how potentially difficult coming home may really be. I’m so glad that my mom was able to come out and visit. I love her so much and can’t wait to see her in May!
We left Swaziland on February 1st and drove 5 hours to Pretoria, South Africa for a conference that Adventures in Missions put on for missionaries and ministry hosts. Here we got to see the other Gap Year Squad that we hadn’t seen since August and I got to see Sarah Beaver!! For those of you who don’t know Sarah, we graduated from Cedarburg High School together last year and she told me about the race originally and we got to prepare for the race together and she is so amazing. It was an amazing weekend full of great sessions, worship, and fellowship.
On February 4th we left the conference and began the longest travel day of my life. We flew from Johannesburg to Singapore (9-hour flight) where we then had an 11-hour layover. From Singapore we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia which is where we are right now. We have been here for about three weeks with our entire squad and we have had the opportunity to evangelize in the community as well as helping serve our hosts. Tomorrow on February 25th, my team and I leave for Kampong Cham, a small city on the east side of Cambodia. We will be teaching English here for the next two months.
I cannot believe that I only have two months left of the Race. It had been a truly amazing journey. We have just received word that we will be flying into L.A. on May 2nd. I’m so excited to see everyone! I can’t thank you all enough for all of the love and support.
As always, if you have any questions for me feel free to Facebook message me, email me, or comment on this blog!
Thank You and God Bless!
Jack Phillips
