This is the train we took from Bangkok to the boarder before crossing into Malaysia. Definitely not first class, but we had beds and it was actually really cool.
This is our living space for the month. It’s the church we are partnering with and for the first week we lived with another team from Gap Year (18-21 year-olds for 9 months) and they were amazing people.
This is just a really cool painting in the church done by a World Race Team from 2015, and I wanted you all to see it. And my friend Brynna looking cool in the corner.
This is called “Naan” it’s bread with cheese and chili sauce. Honestly, Malaysia has been the hardest country for our team when it comes to food. Thankfully, this month, we have our own kitchen to cook! (I LOVE cooking)
UPDATE: It’s Christmas this month! It’s also the first month I am fully disconnected from my loved ones(please be praying for me)…but our team will be busy this month organizing Christmas events with the local church! I am most excited to plan a whole Christmas program for the kids in town and we’re going caroling at the children’s hospital and around the neighborhood behind our home! However, Christianity is not “popular” here in Malaysia, so this month is heavily focused on prayer and intersession for the country (feel free to join!). Our team listens to worship music while praying and when the Lord speaks specific things we pray out loud together. He has highlighted a few areas of town and we are actively praying everywhere we walk, we faithfully believe The Lord is claiming territory in every step.
Financial Update: WOW. I can still remember when I was at $500 dollars just hoping and praying God would provide. Now I’m at $14,349!!!! THAT IS AMAZING! God is so good. So now I only have $3,851 to raise until I am fully funded…I seriously cannot even believe I am saying that hah! Thank you to everyone who has given! My deadlines for all funds is due January 31st and like always, if you feel lead to give please do, every penny counts (literally). If not please share my blog with friends/family/Facebook. I totally give full permission! Click this link to donate!
(Also, by sharing, you will help me out so much because of being disconnected from social media this month!)
Anyways, before I continue to update you and blog throughout this month, I wanted to be vulnerable with you about something. So here I go…
I can’t tell you how many times I have opened up my laptop to write a blog and I’ve found myself with nothing to say, paralyzed with my hands hovering over the keyboard.
Before the race I loved to write. I’d write about my struggles, my joys, my dreams and passions. I wouldn’t always post it, but when I did I hoped to inspire with every word I wrote.
So as I sit here, I’m trying to think about what has changed? What’s the difference between now and then? Yes… I’m on the World Race, but what does that matter or have to do with my abilities and desire to write?
Then I figured it out.
It’s you.
Yes you (the person reading this right now).
Whoever you may be, Mom, Dad, friend, co-worker, a church member or stranger…
You matter.
You make every word I type important. Every description and detail valuable. Every story a prized possession.
And man, am I feelin’ the pressure.
Because like it or not, we live in a world where it’s ridiculously easy to make things look like they are perfect. We contaminate everything to make it look better and then we call it “natural” or “organic”. It’s the fake-est fad ever and it’s been around way too long.
That’s kinda how I’ve felt with writing about my missions trip…that my stories and experiences have to be/sound/look perfect.
And sometimes I feel like if my blog doesn’t look perfect to everyone else it’s not worth writing. I get trapped in the lie that my words aren’t good enough, if they don’t measure up to someone else’s standard of “mission work.”
Recently, I have let that become a fear that has held my words captive.
Whether it’s all in my head or it’s really an expectation of me…I’m sure you have felt this before too and it just not fun. Or how God wants us to live for that matter.
He doesn’t want us to be so wrapped up in what others think, expect, or want that it takes us away from engaging in the life He has planned for us. If we let other peoples “needs” dictate how we present our experience, then it isn’t ours at all. And the stories we have to tell are no longer through the lens of our own eyes…and isn’t that where the beauty of every story stems from? I desire to be nothing less than fully who God created me to be and live in a way that reflects His love to others… including when I share what is happening out here in the world. (I pray the same thing for you.)
So from now on I hope to write with freedom, authority, and with the purity of my own words.
Because from the outside the World Race looks so amazing. The places we go, the things we see, the food we eat…. you name it. And it is amazing, just not in the way me or you’d assume or expect.
And to be completely honest, this race is breaking me. Through my eyes I am seeing things I could have never imagined. I am encountering love I never knew I could feel. I am serving people I didn’t even know existed.
And these are the stories I want to share with you.
So I won’t wrap my blogs up in a pretty bow ties and fancy glitter. But I promise to be raw, I promise to write what I see, feel, and do. I just can’t promise it’s what you expect to hear or what you want my experience to look like. But I do promise its beautiful and it’s very very real. And I am SO open to questions if you want to know specific things!
Thank you for letting me be vulnerable. Thank you for hearing my heart. I love and want to honor every person who supports my trip and reads my blogs. I hope this helps you understand my heart a little and I hope you are lead to seek more of who you are through the eyes of our Heavenly Father. Let me give you a hint…you are:
Worthy. Loved. Adored. Uniquely and Wonderfully made.
I’ll leave you with a challenge. As you continue to follow my blog… take God out of the box you have put Him into. Whether that’s the “I don’t even believe in God” Box. OR the “Wait, I don’t put God into a box, do I?” Box (Lol…I was there too). I just challenge you, wherever you are at, to expect mighty things, impossible things, kind things… from a Powerful, and Miraculous, and the most loving God. And don’t just expect to hear about them in my blogs, I am praying you experience Him right where you are. And He will reveal Himself to you, if you’re paying attention…
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8
