What changed you the most?
The people. The relationships. Getting to know people and put names and faces to the people struggling with the things I’ve heard about or seen on tv all my life. These are no longer issues on the other side of the world or just poverty in Africa. But these are my friends and people with names, faces, and stories to me now that are struggling to find clean water, food, or clothes for their family.
What do you look forward to most about returning home?
Food, and getting to see my family and spend time with the people that have loved and supported me through this past year.
How has the past years experience affected the way you will live the remainder of your life?
I want to continue to see people and to continue to build intentional relationships with the people that the Lord puts into my life. I have learned just how important it is to have community and how you can do ministry literally anywhere you are. So I want to continue to live intentionally with people and to live missionally wherever I am.
Will you do another trip?
I will not be do the World Race again. That was a one and done thing for me, however, I do see short-term missions being a long-term part of my life. Right now long-term missions is not a call that I am feeling but I do feel that I will continue to be a part of short term missions.
How many elephants did you see?
Asian elephants: 4
African elephants: 1
How were you able to share the gospel of Christ in so many different cultures in such a short amount of time?
The big part of being able to share the gospel cross culturally was that we partnered with local churches and with already established ministries. We didn’t come in and set up our own thing and try to get it going within a month. The pastors that we worked with were good to tell us about culture and how to share within their communities. That doesn’t mean we always went in and did the best job sharing the gospel. At the end of the day we’re human, the important thing is that we took the Holy Spirit with us and let Him work through us even when we fell short.
Did you ever feel anxious about sharing and did that change as your location changed?
Yes!!!!!! I was raised learning to share the gospel, so none of this was new to me, but I still get really nervous and anxious about all of it, every time. Its normal, it’s also because we’re human and we have doubts, we doubt our ability to share the gospel and if we’re being honest it can also be because we doubt the Holy Spirit to show up sometimes.
How will this experience help you share the gospel back home and what tips can you give American Christians to help us witness more passionately?
I learned to just be Jesus to people. You don’t have to go door to door and visit or preach in the streets. You don’t have to tell everyone you meet the whole 3 hour gospel. Sometimes it’s just showing the person behind you in line that they are a beautiful creation of God by asking them how they are and having a small chat.
So my advice to help witness more passionately is to just love people well and love people where they are at.
What is the most memorable place you visited?
That question is difficult to answer. Each is memorable for its own reason. Some good some bad. Guatemala is memorable for the culture, colors and people and it’s a good memorable and on the other hand Cambodia is memorable for causing me to break out in hives all over my body so that’s a bad memorable.
For me, the good memorable would have to feel like Antigua, Guatemala. This place felt like home and I honestly can’t wait to go back one day even if it’s just for vacation. It reminded me of living in Knoxville, and by the time I left I couldn’t walk down the street without seeing someone I knew. I got to know the vendors and the people in our church. It was a great community and just a great city to live in.
Did you ever feel unsafe in any of the countries you visited?
There were several moments on the race when I could say that I felt unsafe but I could also say about every place that I’ve lived, whether it be in small town in America, a city, or abroad.
Overall, we were safe, our hosts kept us safe and we learned how to be aware of our surroundings and watch out for ourselves. There were several places that I lived where I could walk down the street by myself and get a coffee and facetime my family, but most of the places over the past year I’ve had to have someone else with me.
Which country was the most fruitful as far as your ministry?
It depends on how you measured it. I could probably find something that was fruitful about every month. However, in Uganda we hosted a day for some of the teen moms that we worked with and at the end of it we had several of them accept Jesus. And that was a place where I know that those women are going to continue to be discipled and learn about this savior that they started a relationship with.
Were there countries where you had to keep a low profile because of opposition to Christianity?
The only place I had to do anything close to this was in Malaysia. Malaysia is an Islamic state and it is illegal to evangelize to the Malay Muslims. We worked in a preschool in a small town that was mostly Muslim children so we really didn’t preach the word that much and we had to be careful about who knew what organization we were with. It honestly wasn’t as bad as if we were in a closed country though.
If you had to opportunity to go back in a couple of years and visit, where would you go?
Uganda
Guatemala
If someone wants to buy me plane tickets to either place I’m free to go whenever!!!
What was your biggest challenge in this project, and how did you deal with it?
Getting over myself and letting go of what I thought was important. I had to let myself be brought out of my comfort zone. I would love to say that I mastered this by the end of the race but I got so tired of being outside of my comfort zone that I just ate every chocolate bar and drank every coke I could get a hold of because they made me feel comfortable.
When I look back at the months that I allowed to live more among the people I was with and really be a part of them were the best months that I had on the race.
If you could permanently live in one of those countries, which would it be?
Um, If I permanently moved to the mission field that would take some pretty clear communication from God. This past year was one of the toughest things I have ever been through.
Where do you believe you made the biggest impact?
Uganda, This is where I got the chance to do farmer education and that’s also the group of people that has a special place in my heart.
Did you almost adopt at least one kid?
I wish. I did figure out what country I do want to adopt from someday though (I’m still keeping that hidden in my pocket for the future though).
Can you now carry on a conversation in another language you didn’t know before?
No, Languages are just not my thing.
How is it you look amazing in every outfit you posted?
Umm… I think I’m just gonna say thanks and I don’t know and leave that answer there.
Oh and Africa tailors all their clothes to you. Literally you buy the fabric and then they measure you and make the clothes for you. You missed all the months in Asia where the women in the markets told me that they didn’t have my size because I would have to wear a big big size and they didn’t carry the big big size.
Would you do it all over again?
If you’re asking if I would do the race a second time the answer is no. If your asking if I could rewind and have the option to talk myself out of that I wouldn’t do that either. This was a one and done experience for me. I’m glad I did it, but I would not do it a second time.
