The memories we have are endless, but here are our favorites!
Chile- Our first month on this crazy journey and the most memorable part for us will always be the bond and unity that was forming in our team throughout this month and making friendships that will definitely last a lifetime! We also spent the month communicating with our hosts and locals ONLY in Spanish because no one in our town spoke any English. The girls on our team also had to perform a full Spanish song and dance in church!
Argentina- My favorite weekend on the entire World Race was when our team spent a few days camping deep in the desert, far, faaaarrrrr away from civilization. We helped slaughter a sheep that we made a delicious feast out of, played with new born baby goats, drank maté, road in the bed of a pickup truck through miles and miles of deep sand, our best friend Amy got to share a tent with Jon and I, we pooped outside, and we had an empanada making party at midnight!
Bolivia- My favorite part of Bolivia was our ministry which was spending each day ministering and pouring into a group of young teenage boys who were living in a rehabilitation home due to drugs or gangs. We grew so close with these boys, it was hard to leave them. We also got to spend Christmas with our team and another team who was with us all month and I was blessed to be able to cook a Christmas brunch for everyone! It was one of my most memorable Christmas’s ever.
*Team Unwavering & Team Ablaze on Christmas morning!
*Christmas Brunch
Peru- Bonus country! After our time in Bolivia, our squad was flying out of Lima, Peru to head to Cambodia so we got to spend 3 days before our flight to rest and relax in Peru before the 7-day travel to Asia!
Cambodia- Top 3 favorite countries! I fell in love with our village-living-lifestyle this month and with evangelizing to the beautiful people there each day! A favorite moment in Cambodia was when our entire squad worshipped together on Pub Street (an extremely busy night-life tourist street in Siem Reap). We also made friends with a man who is a monk and got to take him out to lunch for his very first restaurant experience.
*Squad worshipping on Pub Street
*House visits and praying over the people in our village.
*Our new friend, Alex!
Thailand- I got to spend my birthday here, swim and play with elephants, drift down a jungle river on a bamboo raft, play in multiple waterfalls, drive all over the country in the bed of a truck, and my favorite ministry moment was when we drove 4 hours on dirt roads to an unknown village in the jungle of about 15 homes where we preached to the people here and camped out! (For those that know me, if there’s camping involved, it’s always my favorite).
Funny moment: we were told to bring our own dinner to the village so when we got there, our team ate the dinner we brought right before we were informed that a villager invited us to his home for dinner. So with full bellies, we arrived at his house to keep eating rice, meat, veggies, and soups he prepared for us. We were then told by our host that another villager invited us to their home for dinner! So, we left the first house, went to the second, ate MORE rice and meat and other dishes they made just for us. And then….you guessed it. Another house. We sluggishly walked to the third home, where a feast of rice and fresh fish and was made specially for us. Trying to fight the feeling of nausea, we slowly took as many bites as we could…we ate 4 HUGE dinners that night right before we had to go preach in a night service.
*My surprise party from my amazing team!
*Dinner #3 out of 4!
*One of many waterfalls we visited
*My new pregnant friend!
Serbia- Top 3 favorite countries! Our favorite thing about Serbia was easily our ministry hosts who quickly became our close lifelong friends! Zoli, Tanja, and their two daughters are so special to us and we got to spend a lot of time making memories with them! We missed them so much after we left that Jon and I even got to go back for a visit when our team was in Romania the following month. We’re looking forward to the day we get to go back to Serbia!
Hungary- Bonus country! While in Serbia, we were only a 4 hour drive from Budapest so for our adventure day, our team spent an afternoon touring Budapest, Hungary! I’m not the kind of person to be impressed by big buildings or houses so my favorite part was trying the Hungarian food! A popular dish of theirs is called Chicken paprikash and it is soooo good!
Romania- Our favorite part about Romania was ministering to the kids of multiple gypsy communities AND having my mom and dad there with us! Parent Vision Trip (PVT) is a time where Racers’ parents can come out onto the mission field with them to do missions work alongside their Racers for a week so my parents were able to come to Romania for PVT and it was the biggest blessing to us!
Bulgaria- We loved our hosts in Bulgaria! A couple of our favorite moments were preparing and eating lunch with the homeless in that area. This was so fun for me and I loved talking with the people there! We were also blessed by our hosts when they let us climb their cherry tree and eat lots of fresh cherries!
*Teaching classes in schools about sex trafficking.
Greece- Bonus country! Jon and I were blessed with 10 days on the romantic island of Santorini for our anniversary! Words can’t describe how gorgeous the sunsets were and our favorite memories are 4-wheeling around the island everyday, wine tasting while watching the sunsets, days spent at the beach, and eating delicious gyros and yogurt. The water was the most blue and clear I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to many places in this world but Santorini was definitely the most breathtaking place I’ve been!
*Wine tasting over the sunset.
*Black Sand Beach.
Ethiopia- Ethiopia was a tough month for our team but there were sweet, memorable moments too. A favorite of mine was a “team time” activity of ‘wine and paint night’ that my teammate Grace led us through together in the dark (the power went out everyday so we did this team time with just some candles as our lighting). Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee so we absolutely LOVED their traditional coffee ceremonies where they roasted the beans fresh over a charcoal fire. Their clay coffee “pots” they brew the coffee in is called a Jebena & I couldn’t leave Ethiopia without buying one for myself!
*Grace & Jonny: the sweetest brother/sister bond I’ve ever witnessed! They love to prank, fight, & tease each other too.
Rwanda- Top 3 favorite countries! I am definitely not a kid person. But the kids in Rwanda were the bessssttt!! They stole my heart. I loved the kids I got to teach everyday at the local kindergarten school. We got to attend a wedding and wear traditional Rwandan dresses. We also became really close with our host, Moses and his family and look forward to seeing him again soon when he comes to the USA! Rwanda is a gorgeous, peaceful, and very clean country.
*Playing with the school kids!
*My Kindergarten class!
*Trying to take a nice photo at the wedding.
Uganda- I’ve really enjoyed the house visits we’ve done in Uganda but my favorite and most memorable moment, maybe even on the whole Race, was the day I met Jane. Jane is an older woman who lives in a very tiny house with 5 grandchildren. Jane is BURSTING with the joy of the Lord. We walked into her front yard and this lady came booking out of her house with shrieks and shrills of laughter and excitement and threw herself into giving me the biggest hug ever. She then went around hugging each one us, still laughing and gabbing, and fell to her knees with outstretched arms in praise to God! She was SO excited that we came to meet her! She made her grandson climb her avocado tree to pick us dozens and dozens and dozens of fresh avocados to take home. We took photos with her and danced with her, joining in her excitement and joy! Even though we spoke different languages, Jane is a person who brought tears to my eyes in witnessing her contagious joy and has left my life deeply impacted.
*Some of our team at Jane’s house (Jane is the small older woman in the middle).
*Meeting orphans & other children during our house visits.
*This sweet woman was so excited that we came to visit her home.
It has been a wild, life-changing, unforgettable year & we cannot wait to get back out in the nations again soon!
