Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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It was the eleventh month of the eleven months, I can hardly believe it. I am standing on the other side of journey, I have finally reached the top of the mountain and I am looking over it all with such satisfaction. It is a beautiful view from up here!

Our last leg of the trip was spent in Odessa, Ukraine. While praying in Germany, in the month of July, God had given me the word Odessa. I wrote it in my journal with a big question mark next to it, not knowing what it meant. Maybe it was a name of a person, someone I would meet perhaps. Toward the end of July we spent some time in Moldova. Our contact was talking with us about transportation and mentioned the word Odessa, which caught my ear immediately.

“Did you just say Odessa?” I asked. He told us how it was a city in Ukraine. My mouth dropped. I shared with my team how God had given me that name, but I had no idea that it was a city (I am learning to listen better when God talks to me – next time I will do some research). Our team called our squad leader to find out if Odessa happened to be a ministry location out of our choices. Sure enough, it was – and the matter was settled. Odessa was where we were going!

 
 
It has been the best possible ministry we could have gone out with. We spent a week at the Black Sea helping out with a children’s summer camp. We taught English, shared our testimonies, told bible stories, life guarded (entirely outnumbered), and played games from morning until late evening. Sometimes we would have 12 hour days, but it was incredible! The camp consisted of half Ukranian
children, and the other half gypsy children. This was the first camp mixing the two, and it couldn’t have gone better. We fell in love with the kids. It was an absolute blast!
 
*This is a picture of Raj, a gypsy boy during Wacky Hair Day at camp.     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*These are the boys I was the leader of when it came to swimming in the Black Sea.
 
We went out hard and strong! Our squad is now meeting in Kiev and we will be flying to Dublin, Ireland on the 26th for our final debrief. Our remaining days of the trip are now in the single digits, I will be returning home to my family on September 3rd.

We will spend the last week debriefing with our squad and then joining all the squads on the field right now for a annual conference called the Awakening. I am beyond excited for the journey ahead. Thanks for traveling with me on it!