Hey Guys!!
Guess what!? I’m in Africa and The World Race has officially begun! YAY!! I want to start by sending you all a huge hug and big ginormous thank you for getting me here! I can’t wait to share stories of all the life changing miracles I get to witness this year as well as all the laughing, crying, and whatever else. I wanted to write this blog to fill everyone in on where I am at, what I have been doing, and tell you about the things God has been doing since we arrived! I apologize in advance for the length and the lack of organization.
We arrived in Maputo, Mozambique really early Saturday morning after spending about 56 hours traveling and chillin in airports. Some of you may not know that I am one of the two logistics coordinators for my squad. My partner Tyler and I got to dive head first into our positions. We got everyone here safely and we only lost one bag so I would say we did pretty good! This job can be overwhelming at times but God gave me incredible peace through the whole process. Our job as logistic coordinators is to oversee all travel days, set up ground transportation between countries, set up lodging for debrief, and a few other things here and there. I am thankful to be able to serve my team through this job and I look forward to all of the lessons I will get out of it!
When we arrived in the middle of the night Angie, our ministry host, and everyone that works here on the compound were up and ready to welcome us. They stayed up until about 3:30 AM feeding us and making sure we had everything we needed. The whole squad was here at that point and they had enough food for all of us to have full bellies and they had chocolate cake to top it all off. We had 47 people sleeping in tents and cuddling under mosquito nets filling up both buildings. The next morning everyone left for their ministry sites and we stayed here.
The ministry that my team and I are serving this month is called Beacon of Hope. Angie, created this ministry to teach young boys basic life skills and how to be successful and strong men of God. She has eleven awesome boys here this year that we get to teach and build relationships with. We are so blessed at this ministry. We have a roof over our head, running water (most of the time), and the most amazing people taking care of us. Angie has a lot of people on staff. We have ladies here every day that cook our amazing meals as well as people to drive us wherever we need to go such as the atm, clinic, or into the city for our off days. The boys also do a lot of the chores around the compound except cleaning the bathroom and meal prepping, that’s on us.
During the week we get about an hour out of each day after the boys get home from school to teach various classes. We have an English class, a Gods world class, a bible class, a first aid class, and I get to teach an art class!! Angie has given us the freedom to put together the classes and the curriculum. I love teaching art, it has been a dream of mine to be able to bless someone else with the knowledge I have in this area. I am having so much fun getting know these boys and getting to see the different personalities. I officially have all of their names memorized! In our downtime we have had a couple of random dance parties and soccer games with the boys. They are extremely talented in both!
We have two separate houses here on the compound. The guys on my team are sleeping in tents over where the boys live and the ladies and I are sleeping in tents in the main house. We have to sleep in tents because it is the rainy season here and there are a few leaks in the roof and we also need protection from all of the mosquitos. Angie has provided us with bug spray because our American bug spray does not work with African mosquitos apparently. So far I have not been bit very much but some people on my team have so many bites! We already have one person with malaria! Luckily he noticed the signs and went to the clinic so he will be fine. Anyway back to our living situation, we have a bathroom with a shower that works most of the time and a toilet that rarely does but at least it’s not a squatty! We are able to shower at least once a day and we all take turns with cleaning so the bathroom doesn’t get destroyed from 15 of us using it constantly. The compound we are staying on has a new security fence as well as guards. We also have very complex locks on the doors of the house. So we can sleep well knowing that we are safe! The area we are in is pretty safe outside the compound just as long as we have locals with us, but with us clearly not being from around here Angie takes extra precautions for not only our safety but for hers and her family’s as well.
Thanks for following my adventure!!
I am still not fully funded so if you feel led to partner with me on this journey donate at the top of this page!
This is team Firebrand. Greg, Katie, Me, Gabby, Amy, CJ, and Todd.
