It all started out as a typical day. I woke up at 7am and worked out with some of my teammates – Insanity kicked my butt as usual but it always feels good at the end. About halfway through the workout, we got the call that work was going to look different today… We are on the World Race, where nothing is ever predictable – I love that it is always an adventure.
We were told that today we were going to go to a building to help clean so that “Wongen Kafe” could be moved to the red light district. This would help the ministry be closer to the women we are ministering to. We grabbed a red truck/cab and headed over to find the building. When we arrived at the address, we quickly found out that it was not actually where the building was…..so we start walking. Surely it couldn’t be too far away…..right?!?!
Wrong. There we were, walking, the hot sun beating down on us as droplets of sweat dripped down our faces, giving them a nice glow. We searched for the building for three hours, walking around in circles in the hot blazing sun. We did not have minutes on our team phone so the only way to connect with anyone was to stop and get internet. Over the past nine months, us World Racers have become wifi-finding professionals! So we popped into a random ladies shop and called our contact. She tried to explain to us where to go but decided to have us go to the Starbucks (another favorite hang-out of World Racers) where she would send someone to come and meet us. So off we go to the Starbucks. On the way we passed a guy named Philip – we asked him if he knew where the building was but he did not so we continued on.
At this point it had been over an hour of walking around in the hot sun, so while waiting at Starbucks we decided to get some lunch. While sitting at lunch we saw a homeless man that was bent over permantetly so we went and prayed with him. He
was the sweetest old man; even though we could not understand each other, he knew that someone cared. After lunch, we decided to try to find the building again ourselves. So off we went….and as we were walking who did we run into again but Philip! We found out that he was from Canada and was waiting for his bus later that evening. We talked a little bit but told him that we had to continue to try and find this phantom building. A short time later, we ran into Philip for a third time….he decided to help us in our journey to find the building. So our journey continued – we walked around the vicinity of about three blocks for three hours….yes, three hours!
We were finally ready to give up because we heard that the rest of the girls were done cleaning. So we caught a red truck and were a couple blocks away from home when we got a call that there was still work to be done and that they were waiting at Starbucks for us. So we turned the red truck around and back we went to Starbucks. We finally made it to our destination, just as all the cleaning was finished. Oh, the adventures we have on the World Race!
Even though we did not help with any of the cleaning, I know that God had a plan in the midst of it all. We were still able to show love to Philip…twice! Although we didn’t have a “God” conversation with him, we were able to show God’s love by taking the time to talk with him and let him join us in our adventure.
