Funniest Memory– For this I would say there is a tie, and both took place while in the House of Timothy in Bukit, Malaysia. The first involves Taylor, the youngest member of our squad. We were eating dinner and Janet, our contact, was asking us what talents we have. Upon asking Taylor, he says that he has none. She then mentions something about him having a breakthrough and no more than a few seconds later, Taylor proceeds to sneeze/cough. Well, with this “snough,” have you, he then starts to tip backwards, the front two legs of the chair he is sitting in break, and he falls to the floor. AND, as he is falling, he hits his coffee cup which flies into the air and smashes onto the ground, spilling everywhere. There is a broken chair, broken coffee mug, and a mess. It was seriously the most hilarious thing I have ever seen and basically happened in slow motion. It would be great as an animation. Janet shouts out, “he’s had a breakthrough!!” and hysterical laughter follows. Taylor cannot stop giggling and neither can our bus driver nor anyone else in the room. Janet says, “he has the Holy Spirit laughter!!” Even during the next day, Taylor would suddenly break out into the craziest laughter at the most random of times. Oh, what a memory!
The second involves me, yep the other klutz of the group. So, it is late at night and right before going to bed, it is suggested we play ninja as a team. Well, we had just started, and it is my turn. I proceed to leap across the circle to slap Taylor’s hand. However, I miss and my momentum carries me in a spinning frenzy across the room and ends with me smashing my head into the corner of the cement staircase. As I do so, I practically run over our bus driver who is asleep under the staircase, and he sits up more startled than almost anyone I’ve seen. Let’s just say, that was the end of THAT game. We laughed a ton after that, and even as us girls went to sleep upstairs, I could hear Taylor and our bus driver, Francis, randomly breaking out into hysterical laughter for quite sometime.
Scariest Memory– For this, there is also a tie. The first involves the spiritual warfare that took place while in Malaysia. I wrote a blog on it before, but basically four of our teammates woke up in the middle of the night to an otherwordly growling that seemed to emanate from the middle of each floor of the house. It lasted for like a half hour, I was told, and with the combination of that and some awful dreams, Taylor said it was the most scared he’s been in his life.
Another scary memory, at least for me, involves Christina during our month of women’s ministry. It was pouring down rain, and we had to drive to the bars. Amy wasn’t feeling well, and at the last second, Samantha felt she should stay back to pray. There were torrents of water rushing down the street, and Christina, Julian (a German friend we made), and I kept contemplating if we should even go. After getting gas, we decided to try it. Well, to get to the bars, you have to go up a huge hill with many switchbacks and a steep grade. In the back of my mind, I was already having visions of us losing control and swerving off the edge of the road. Well, as we ascend, we hit the steepest part of the climb and see a truck in front of us rolling backwards. As we pass it, our truck slows to a crawl, then to a complete stop, and then we too start going backwards. Now, if anyone knows me, this is the point where I am freaking out of my mind. I get scared to death in cars when I don’t have control and out of control things are happening. (If anyone went to Red Lake and was in the van when Tyd was offroading, they would know what I am talking about!) I know I need to be calm, but I can’t. Cars and motorbikes were zooming by and all we can do is turn on the flashers and backup down the hill in the darkness and chaos of the rainstorm. I keep saying, “help us Jesus, help us Jesus” and “let’s just turn around!!!!!” Christina decides to try it again and this time we make it. The rest of the journey was still a tad scary, but that was the worst of it. I am so glad Samantha stayed back to pray!
Most random/cool fact we found out on the trip about a PLJer– Taylor Mckellar went to high school with, was in the same grade as, has had conversations with, and lived on the same road as . . . . Taylor Swift!!! How weird is that??? He also lives in the same town as Kenny Rodgers and even starred in a commerical as a young boy.
Best Memory/Most Unified Moment– While in Penang, Malaysia, we went up to the roof to worship one night as a team. Well, partway through, I climbed up to the highest part of the roof. I lay there, staring up at the stars, singing. As I sing, I see Taylor making his way around to different people, and I can tell he is encouraging each in some quiet way. He then comes up by me, gives me a hug and says he loves me. He leads us all together and we stand in a circle, arms wrapped around each other. We sing and hum to “With Everthing” and “Take My Life,” and as we do so, we sway and smile and stare up at the stars. There was so much love flowing between us in that moment, and at that moment, I know we all felt the most incredible peace of probably the whole trip. Peace, Love, and Jesus were ALL present that night, and I will never forget it.
