May 29, 2013
Hello Everyone,
It is the end of month 5 of the World Race. That means I have just 6 short months left on this journey around the world. That is mind boggling to me, I don’t usually feel like I have been away from Oregon for 5 months, time really has flown by, and I know it will continue to do so.
This last month has looked very different for my team, like I told you in my last letter we had team changes at the end of month four, our team changed from 5 girls and 2 guys to 4 girls and 3 guys. While it may seem like a small change to some, to us it took a lot of getting used to. For me I struggled quite a bit the first few weeks trying to stay connected with the other three girls on my team. I can honestly say I am not very similar to the other girls on the team, I think about hiking, and reading, while they think about sunbathing and fitness. Okay that was an exaggeration but its how it felt for a while. I spent a majority of the first two weeks feeling like the odd ball out, I didn’t find enjoyment in what the girls were doing, so I spent time with the guys who I get along with really well, but didn’t exactly fit in there because obviously I am not a guy. However things are much better now and the four of us girls have been able to find more common ground.
Ministry was also different. This month was the longest time we have spent in any given location so far on the Race, and in reality it is most likely the longest we will spend in any country. We spent a full four weeks in Odessa, before traveling to Kiev for a mini-debrief with the rest of our Squad. We usually loose quite a bit of time at the beginning and end of each month traveling between ministry sites, and with Squad meetings, we spent just about 2 ½ weeks at our ministry site in Romania. I didn’t realize how short a “month” really was on the World Race before we started. I fell under the assumption that a month is a long time, when in reality it is far from it, especially when you are building relationships and learning the ropes of a new city and country.
Anyway, we spent our time working with a college ministry called CCX, which is very similar to Campus Crusade. Odessa is a beautiful city and has a lot of college age students. Our main focus was to spend time with the international students that participate in CCX. The students we spent most of our time with included, three Muslims from Iraqi, and a handful of Hindu students from India. We basically just got to show God’s love through our actions and through conversations with the students. I hope and pray that our time in Odessa had a positive influence on these students.
While in Odessa, we also worked with three churches, and a few random missionaries in the area. We helped paint an Arabic Christian Center (Church), and participated in their Russian Club and a seminar on intercultural relationships. We also worked with a local Baptist church to clean, move rock, and pass out flyers for upcoming events for the church, including a youth event we would be taking part in. We also got to serve the community by cleaning up trash in a local campground on Saturday afternoon. We all loved our ministry this month and the relationships we were able to build. It was one of the harder ministries to leave thus far.
This Friday, May 31st our Squad will start the next leg of our trip; we fly out of Kiev, have a short layover in Istanbul, Turkey and then fly south to South Africa.
My team (Team Sozo), will be partnered with two other teams (Team Arise & Go, and Team Favoured (who we worked with in Romania) in a suburb south of Capetown, South Africa called Muizenburg for the month of June. We are working with a ministry organization called New Chapter Foundation (http://www.newchapter.co.za). From what we have been told, which isn’t a lot, we will be working with New Chapter to do after school programs in two local villages. It sounds like our ministry will be very similar to what I did when I worked at the Youth Club in Scio, homework help, tutoring, with the additional of skills training for older unemployed youth. I look forward to learning more about what we will be doing this month.
Overall, I am really excited to be moving into the African leg of our trip, and am really excited to spend the month in Capetown. Even though I have to admit I really was hoping to be out in the middle of the bush, and not the city. But I know God has some great plans for me and my team this month….. (Hopefully a little cage diving with some Great White Sharks)
Thank you for your continued prayers, and support. I love seeing your comments on Facebook and your e-mails…. Oh and hopefully I will be posting a blog soon, and you can comment on that too!
Katrina
