Here are all your questions answered!
Q: Who did you miss most?
A: Obviously impossible to say but I definitely missed TCU and all of my people up in Fort Worth a ton! I missed my family also but I got to see my parents in March!
Q: Favorite new food that you tried?
A: I really like Martabak which is an Indonesian dish that is sort of like pie. I also really liked Thai Basil pork. I love trying new foods and I love spicy food so I enjoyed Asia. Ukrainian dumplings are also AMAZING. And, last one, we had a traditional Moldovan meal that was incredible- no idea what it was but sort of like corn bread that you mixed with meat, cheese, and other stuff and it was good.
Q: What is your best memory from Christmas 2017?
A: Funniest memory was definitely playing Heads Up at our Airbnb in Manila. I think the best one though was doing our team Secret Santa and just getting to share the holiday with my team. Honorable mention was eating at our favorite restaurant in Manila called 8 Cuts. Not favorite memory was breaking my toe.
Q: What is one thing you didn’t take with you that you wished you had?
A: I really can’t think of anything…
Q: If you could go back to one moment, what would it be?
A: I would love to go back to the day Lyndsee preached at church in Cambodia and then we got to pray over a ton of the church members. That led to being invited into a family’s home that next week to pray for their sick grandmother who has an amazing heart for the Lord. You can read all about that experience here. My second choice would be to go back to the night that most of our squad and some of X Squad all went to TukTuk Tacos during the Awakening in Cambodia. It was such a fun group and there were so many conversations up and down the huge table that all seemed to be focused on Jesus. It was an awesome night- and who doesn’t love tacos!
Q: Which place would you like to return to as a tourist?
A: Either Cusco, Peru or Vietnam. I would love to get to explore more of Vietnam.
Q: What was your favorite ministry that you participated in?
A: Working with the church in Kremenets, Ukraine and the surrounding area. We got to teach at local schools, had an awesome English Club, and we got to work with some of the other ministries that different members of the church are involved with. They are doing some incredible work for the Lord and I would love to go back! They truly know how to love like Jesus!
Q: What was the best tourist thing you did on the race?
A: Elephants in Thailand was really awesome! I loved paragliding week one of the race in Colombia. Hiking around Lake Quilotoa in Ecuador was beautiful and super fun with Leah, David, and Kirsten. It was also cool to get to see both Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu within a few months!
Q: What was the most unexpected that happened?
A: Running into my German homestay brother (from my trip to Europe in 2010) walking down the streets of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
Q: What was the scariest thing you did?
A: Going to Aguapanela in Medellin, Colombia. We were handing out bread and sugar water (called Aguapanela) to the homeless. I have never seen so many drugs or so many people under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I really had never seen anything like it and I was never fearful that anything was going to happen to me specifically but it just isn’t a place where it is easy to feel comfortable.
Q: What was your favorite country?
A: My top two are Ukraine and Indonesia. I explained Ukraine earlier under my favorite ministry but Indonesia was amazing just because I made incredible friends. We taught conversational English, worked with a safe house, and a prison ministry. We got to ride mottos, play sports, and go on adventures with our new friends, most of whom were Muslim, and I absolutely fell in love with the country and the culture.
Q: What do you think was your biggest contribution on the race, your “wow, I did it” moment?
A: This may sound cheesy but we planted onions in month 10 in Moldova and I was worried that we had done it wrong or that we messed something up but getting to see all the onion sprouts a few weeks later was awesome! I was probably way more excited than I needed to be about onion sprouts but to me, it represented all of the seed-planting we had done on the Race up to that point and the growth that God can see from all of those seeds.
Q: What did you learn about who you are and who God is?
A: I learned a lot about my identity as a child of God. I had heard that term before but I never really thought about what it means to be called a cherished daughter of the Most High King. It’s pretty awesome. I learned that God is truly my Savior, my Father, my friend, and my protector all in one.
Q: What was a lesson you learned about living in community?
A: I lived in a community before the race so this was pretty normal for me. I loved it and loved being around people all the time which was sort of difficult because others do NOT enjoy being around people all the time. I just learned how to better recognize when people want to be left alone versus when they want to spend time together.
Q: How do you share Jesus differently now than you did before?
A: I have the same approach but I have new experiences that I can incorporate into conversations and I just have a lot more biblical knowledge in my wheelhouse.
Q: How did your perspective of God shift throughout the Race?
A: I always knew that God could “do all things” and that God “could do the impossible” but I’m not sure that I truly believed that those sorts of things (miracles especially) still happened or would ever happen right in front me. Throughout the Race, I realized that God truly CAN do the impossible and watched it happen. I definitely view God as more powerful, more loving, and even more present than I ever imagined was possible before the Race.
Q: What’s a way you’re different that surprises you?
A: I actually kind of enjoy/have a strange desire to run and workout now… Definitely was NOT the case before the Race.
Q: What were your best memories that you had in my country (Indonesia)?
A: Sports day, Bible study, Zumba on Wednesday mornings, all the parties and late nights at the Guest House, going to Punclut and seeing the city at night, eating Martabak, soooo many fun memories!
Q: What month was the most challenging and why?
A: Month 8 in Thailand. There wasn’t really much for us to do at our ministry and I didn’t feel like we accomplished anything. We also had PVT that month and a debrief so it just felt like everything was sectioned off into really short periods of time and I never felt settled or sure of what I was supposed to be doing.
Thanks for following my journey and as always, please feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or prayer requests! Y’all are great!
