Africa… The travel and living conditions left a lot to be desired, and yet it was by far my favorite continent. Read about my favorite (and not so favorite) things about each country!
Kenya
Summary: Our team lived with a Pastor and family in Nakuru, Kenya. Our ministry was evangelism and helping at local schools and orphanages.
Liked the beautiful views and animals at Lake Nakuru. The community my team had this month was pretty great too. Family style meals, game time, etc.
Loved dancing during worship. Man, they go all out – moves I NEVER thought I’d see inside a church building!
Loathed when malaria made its first appearance
Laughed when I was told I had a posse. A group of kids always swarmed the church when they’d see me outside and would spend the afternoon staring at me as I told them stories in a language they couldn’t understand.
Learned lots of new dance moves, the importance of always being prepared, as well as vulnerability and allowing others to help me.
Lasting Memory: Peter getting attacked by a baboon during our safari. It jumped right in our car, teeth barred, going after a bag of chips. Our driver proceeded to punch it in the face and it scrambled out still holding the chips.
Uganda
Summary: My team served with a young ministry designed to impact the lives of the youth in the community through sports ministry and discipleship. Our team did a variety of ministry including designing curriculum, door to door evangelism, school visits, website design, 
and more. We lived in a beautiful community in Northern Uganda that was greatly effected by the war.
and more. We lived in a beautiful community in Northern Uganda that was greatly effected by the war.
Liked the chapati… man, it was good this month! Honestly, I liked everything about where we were. How remote it was, the Acholi huts, the red dirt against the incredible African skies… it was the Africa I had dreamed of visiting my whole life.
Loved the prayer meetings! All the churches in the village joined together and had intercessory prayer and worship twice a week, and wow, did the Spirit move in that place! I loved all the church services as well, the dancing and jumping… by far my favorite services from around the world! I was given the opportunity to get to know a missionary living in Rackoko and get a better understanding for what life is like there long term. I was so blessed to get such insight into the community from her and the local pastors. The month was nothing I ever imagined, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Loathed the bus rides (by far the worst travel on the Race!) were rough… potholes everywhere they speed through, sticky, smelly African men sleeping on you, flies everywhere, etc. The hardest thing by far was hearing the horror the people have lived through their whole lives and witnessing so many suffering from AIDs. We also saw how difficult it is for the people to get to hospitals – there are so many preventable deaths in the area.
Laughed when lice struck… The other girls on my team all had lice, and when they asked locals if there was anything to treat the lice, they pointed to a barbershop and told them to shave off all their hair! So we had a big delicing party where they boiled their clothes in a pot over the fire, and put olive oil and vinegar in their hair attempting to kill the lice, then I had the pleasure of picking out all the nits, strand by strand! It was so frustrating, the only thing we could do was laugh…
Learned A LOT this month! Besides how to make make chapati, I saw just how real spiritul warfare is, the need for intercession, began to hear clearly from the Lord, solidified my identity, and learned so much more about both forgiving others and receiving forgiveness. This was a month of change and transformation.
Lasting Memory: Our last day we went to Arum for church, and it turned into an all day dance party! This day stands out as my favorite on the Race… so much redemption and joy in that place.
Tanzania
Summary: We were joined with another team in Mwanza. Ministry was half hospital ministry, and half door to door.
Liked having another team with us, there were always card games going on and people around to talk to
Loved the views! Between the rock formations and Lake Victoria, it was incredible.
Loathed having to sit out of some of the ministry due to illness AGAIN
Laughed just about every night in that house… especially when I was teaching a contact to play euchre and he immidiately started talking trash he couldn’t back up at all!
Learned just how different hospitals around the world are from ours… the things we saw in that hospital left me speechless.
Lasting Memory: Looking out at Lake Victoria as the sun was setting, as my friends started a dance party on the beach with EVERYONE staring at us.
