I know it’s been a hot minute since I have posted a blog so, I wanted to update everyone on the last couple of months in my crazy life. Honestly, I have started three blogs about different topics but I am not sure that I am ready to finish and share those stories quite yet. In the meantime, I want to share what the Lord has been doing in and through my team.
Starting with month 7 which we spent in Croatia doing ATL (ask the lord) ministry. As a team, this was our first month waking up each day and praying about what ministry would look like for the day. We had a rough start, since we had no idea what we were walking into, we accidentally booked an Airbnb way outside of the capital city. Upon arrival, we had no idea what to do and we ended up in a really small town with no kitchen in our house and all of us sleeping on couches. Our landlord spoke zero English so we communicated by gesturing back and forth which was hilarious. Since we didn’t have a ton of people to interact with, we prayed for the Lord to provide and He sure did. A few days later, we visited an English speaking church where we met a ministry who provided housing, transportation, and an opportunity to work with Roma village kids. We got to spend a week there loving on people that are considered outcasts and come from a very impoverished community. At the end of the month, I accidentally booked an Airbnb for our team on the island of Bol, Croatia. It was an instant book and it would cost more for my team to cancel the reservation than to travel there. So we packed up and traveled to Bol which consisted of about 100 people during the off season and….it was definitely the off season. Despite my mistake, the Lord was for sure at work in us going to this little island. One of our first days there, our team met a guy named Tommy who was a Christian and one of the only Christians on the island (Croatia is predominantly Catholic). We got to pour into him (and him into us) and we had a Bible study and also dinner with Tommy and his brother (who doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus yet). We met a couple families that spoke English and we got the chance to share what we are doing and all the Lord has done in and through us on our journey. The main reason that I personally believe the Lord brought us to Bol, was to encourage and meet Tommy. After spending time with him for the week that we were there, he informed us that he hasn’t been baptized. We offered to baptize him in the frigid ocean, if that was something that he wanted us to do. He definitely wanted us to baptize him and took the night to pray about who he wanted to take the artic plunge with him! We all got up very early the next morning, and bundled up to head to the beach. We sang some worship songs and spent some time praying over Tommy. My team mate Heather had the awesome opportunity to dunk this tall, God fearing man into the freezing water! In that moment, despite the cold, I realized that this moment is what it means to bring kingdom. Even if it’s just one single person, that individual is worth the time, energy, money, and travel. People are worth all of those things because they are so loved by a Savior and they need to see that love displayed through us. As a team, we learned that trying to make our own plans will always fail, and that from the beginning we should allow the Lord to guide our steps.
Month 8 Thailand: After a couple of long flights, our squad made it safely to Bangkok, Thailand. I am not sure how many of you have had the chance to travel to this awesome country but it is incredible. It has been one of my favorite months on my trip so far! However, it is also one of the darkest countries that I have ever encountered. The sex industry is rampant and very in your face and it is one of the most heart breaking things that I have ever encountered. I will never forget as I was walking with a team mate to get dinner on our first night, there was a group of American guys walking in front of us. As they walked past the “massage” parlor, girls literally grabbed them trying to convince them to come have a “massage”. I knew that sex trafficking and prostitution were a big issue in Thailand, but it’s a little different when you are experiencing those encounters firsthand. The next day we traveled to Chiang Mai on a sleeper train, because my team would be doing ATL (ask the lord) there for the month. Before leaving Europe, my team prayed and we decided that we would not book a place to stay in Chiang Mai, but instead we would show up and trust the Lord to provide us with a place to sleep. As someone who values sleep even when I am not traveling, this was a huge step of faith for me. All I could think was I am going to be exhausted, most likely hungry, and it is going to be hot as hell. We are going to get there and walk around with all of our crap for hours and have a really hard time finding a place in budget (which is very small by the way). I was very skeptical about this idea, but I told God I will allow you to work on my attitude and I will say yes. Y’all we didn’t even have transportation from the train station when we arrived, and even if we did we didn’t know where to tell them to go. When we arrived at the train station, we got off the train and we started the morning off by worshipping and praying in the station. When we finished we went to the tourist desk where a man offered us free transport to come look at their guest house (which was wayyy out of our budget) but, the ride was free even if we chose not to stay. We loaded up all of our bags and ourselves into the back of a red pick-up and went to go see this place. When we arrived, the lady who owned the guest house showed us the rooms which were pretty nice, well to us anyways J. We couldn’t afford to stay there and we decided to try and negotiate with the owner, so my team mate and I started talking to her. We told her about our trip, and we offered our price with a guarantee to stay for a week. At first it looked like there was no way she was going to come down on her rate, but then something changed. She not only agreed to our original rate but ended up giving us these really nice rooms for even lower than what we agreed on! It was so incredible to see the Lord give us something out of our budget in a prime location so quickly! We spent our first week doing ministry at night praying as we walked the streets and talking with different people that we encountered. I’ll never forget some of the situations that I witnessed that first night as we walked by bar after bar. I was so deeply affected that I didn’t know if I was going to burst into to tears or literally throw up on the sidewalk. Coming in for only one month, I knew that there was not a whole lot that I could personally do to help girls that were in these situations. However, I do believe in the power of prayer and I do believe in coming alongside of people who are working to rescue these women. I honestly didn’t know if I could walk into a bar and talk to these women while they were working without punching one of their customers, so I felt led to do something a little bit different. Intercessory prayer is something that the Lord began to impress upon my heart last summer, right after I applied for the race. Intercessory prayer is simply making requests on behalf of other people and hearing specific things from the Lord about what to pray then repeating those requests out loud. I invited my team into what God was asking me to do, which was an all-night of intercessory prayer for the country of Thailand. I would spend a total of 6 hours in prayer, once we returned from our night of ministry. The Lord gave me 6 different things to pray for, one for every hour. Prayer shifts atmospheres and it has an extremely powerful impact. Prayer is referenced over 600 times in scripture, and even Jesus himself spent hours in prayer. If Jesus devoted himself to praying, how much more should we as believers pray?
This month was very unique because I had the privilege of being able to serve with my parents for a week! They flew across the world to visit me, and join me in loving on people around us! When my team was prayer walking during the first week, we met an artist who sells his work every night to provide for his family. His wife left him about 3 years ago, and left behind two little boys (pictured below). The boys are 3 and 5 years old, and they spend each night sitting in a market with their dad until about 11 PM. We spent several nights just playing, loving on, and feeding these two kiddos. I got to introduce them to my parents and we had a blast hanging out with them! In their time with our squad, we loved kids in the slum community, bought cheeseburgers to hand out as conversation starters and prayed for people (even two Muslim guys!!). We prayer walked through Buddhist temples, built relationships with our hotel staff, and worked with an organization that rescues girls out of trafficking. It was an honor to serve beside the incredible, Godly people who raised me. I can’t thank them enough for all that they have done for me, and allowing them to have a glimpse of what my life has been like these past ten months is something I will never forget.
Month 9 Malaysia: I started out month 9 with a new team, and in addition we had two girls from the US join us! AIM offers a program for people interested in doing the race, and it allows those interested to live with a team on the field for one month. We were so blessed to have Courtney and Haley join us in Penang, they have incredible servant hearts and sweet spirits. We partnered with the Penang House of Prayer, volunteered at a café, and did outreach a few times with YWAM (youth with a mission). In the prayer room, we learned a lot about intercessory prayer (seems to be a theme for me lately) and just spent time in the presence of God. We spent the month interceding for Malaysia, Israel, the church, and the individual states of Malaysia. In addition, I worked in a café with my team leader doing anything from cooking to serving, and the couple who owns it really poured into us. I really enjoyed working with them and learning from them! Personally, this month was about being bold for me! A good portion of my journey on the race has been an inward one, which is great. I’m so glad that the Lord has been working in my heart and in my life. However, this month the Holy Spirit asked me to step outside of my comfort zone in several ways. First, one thing that the Lord has been revealing to me since month 1, is that He desires to use my voice. At the house of prayer, they do different worship sets and this month I had the chance to sing in some of those sets. I do not particularly enjoy singing in front of other people if I have to sing alone or in a small group. Even though I was nervous, the Lord used my voice and honestly I felt more at home on a stage singing about Jesus then I did off of one. Another thing that the Lord asked me to do this month was pray for healing for a man on the street. On the race, I have prayed for healing but I have never initiated the prayer. I can honestly say that I have no idea if the Lord healed that man, he didn’t understand or speak English. However, I know that I was obedient to what the Lord asked me to do and that is enough. During our outreach with YWAM, we built relationships and prayed with homeless people. We also shared with them that YWAM has a feeding program where they can get hot meals, showers, and a place to rest. We got to help with the feeding program a couple of times, and it was such a humbling experience. We met a man named Muhammad and got the privilege to talk, pray, and eat with him. We met him on a day when the YWAM base was not open and due to his injuries he was confined to a wheelchair. Since the center was closed, we decided to wheel him to 7/11 and buy him a few things. I wish I could have recorded the stares we received as 3 American girls pushed this man who was barely clothed down the street in his wheelchair. Honestly, he just seemed so happy that he encountered people that would listen to him and care about what he had to say. Malaysia is mainly a Muslim country, but also has some Buddhism due to the Chinese influence. It was neat to experience a melting pot of different cultures during our time in Penang. As we enter month 10, please keep my team in your prayers! We are serving in Mongolia this month and I can’t wait to share what the Lord will do here! As always, thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Mom and I playing with the boys!
Dad and I on his first day in Thailand
My new team, plus Haley & Courtney with our ministry host from last month
