Hi everyone!
I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, sorry about that. A lot has been happening, and with only 3 months left I look forward to what’s next.
Here’s a quick update of what we’ve been doing in South East Asia and what I’ve been learning.
In Thailand all the guys had a month together called ‘Manistry’ where we did really ‘manly’ things like clear out an entire forest and learn more about who God made us to be. I learned a lot about what it means to be a man from my teammates this month. It’s not all about this constant competition that most guys struggle with, but sometimes the biggest thing a man can do is to prefer the person next to him. Friendships should never be about trying to one up someone and it should never be about competition. If men could truly grasp this lesson, myself included, we could be a people who truly listens to whomever we’re talking to. We would be more focused on being ourselves and not worried about coming out on top of every conversation.
In Cambodia we focused on teaching students English in a small village outside of Phnom Penh. We built lasting relationships with the students and left a huge impact in their lives and in the lives of the villagers. We helped construct a rooftop while we were there too. On top of our ministry and all of the experiences I had there, God really humbled me that month. We lived next door to some children who were dirty, neglected, and possibly abused. Most of them had head lice. We played with them pretty much every day and had the chance to see into and pour into their lives.
In Vietnam my team had the unique experience to ‘Ask The Lord’. Basically, that’s World Race lingo for a month of a considerable amount of freedom and asking for direction from God. This can be super confusing, but it ended up looking a lot like normal life. We built relationships with the hotel owners we lived with, with Hoa, the man who owned the local restaurant we ate at, and with a lot of tourists and locals. My team is very laid back and we learned how just doing life with people is a ministry. We left a great group of people who were definitely impacted by us. I also had a lot of free time this month and learned that it’s important to fight for your alone time. On the race, we have people around us constantly and it’s easy to always jump on board with what people are doing, but if you don’t fight for that time with just you and God you’ll really miss out on a lot of what He has for you.
Something else that’s crazy is the amount of need I’ve seen here…how just 5 USD can supply some of these people with so much. It’s almost frustrating to see how much we can do but choose not to.
Just 1 dollar in America is 21,000 dong here in Vietnam.
1$ = 21,000.
Just 20 dollars has provided me with a place to stay, a few days worth of food, and transportation. I’m sure 20 dollars isn’t much to a lot of us, but that amount is what I need to live off of for 5 days.
I still need $4,817 to finish the race. I only have 3 months left of this journey, and want to finish strong and keep bringing love to these people as best I can. Can you help me finish the rest of my fundraising and partner with me in this goal? I can’t do this without you, and will have to leave the race in a few weeks if I do not raise my funds.
You can click the link at the top of this post, or the “support me” button under my photo.
Thank you so much for partnering with me as I travel the world for this cause.
Current Funding Status:
