Hi family and friends!
First, my apologies for taking so long to post a blog. Between, extremely poor wifi, the busyness of everyday living, and honestly just a lack of motivation and a loss to put things into words, I just have not blogged so I’m extremely sorry for that! Wow, so yeah, as of yesterday, we have exactly 1 month before our feet are back on American soil. It has only halfway sank in, partially because I’m trying to avoid the reality of it and also it just can’t be possible that it’s already time to go home. Didn’t I just leave??
So, I’ll just give a quick overview of what these last several months have looked like for me on the field-
After Greece, we headed to our final European country. We spent the month in Pomorie, Bulgaria, Which is a beautiful little resort town surrounded by the Black Sea. It was summer for them so most of the residents were Russian and Ukraine tourists. This month was a tad bit of a struggle for my team. Ministry was very minimal so it was a lot of ATL (ask the Lord) ministry again and just really relying on the Lord to provide us with things. We did feel like this was a month that the Lord was giving us to simply rest in him before changing continents and doing our last 3 months of the race. Also to pour into each other on our team as it was our last month together before another team change. Our host was incredible but it was her first time hosting a WR team which is why ministry was so slim. There’s SO much potential for future racers there so we were excited to sit with our host at the end of the month and give her some great ministry ideas for future teams. Majority of our ministry ended up being pouring into the youth that we spent alot of our time with. We actually got to be campers for a week at a huge youth camp up in the mountains. It was extremely encouraging to see a generation of youth on their knees before the Lord worshipping him whole heartedly. We also had the opportunity to visit 4 churches, one being a gypsy church, and just got to share about the WR and what all the Lord was teaching us. It was very relaxed and honestly it was practice for us for when we get home and have the opportunities to share with our own church families about this year. At the end of the month, we headed to Sofia, Bulgaria where we met up with the rest of the squad and had our debrief-worship, sessions, and final TEAM CHANGES. And then it was time for…….
AFRICCCCAAAAA!!!!!!
Going to Africa has honestly been a dream of mine for years. It was a huge reason why I even picked this route (which is the same for a lot of people on my squad). I’ve been here 2 months now and can say I absolutely LOVE it here and everything about it. The people, the weather (Africa has actually been our coldest continent. Can you believe it?), and even most of the food! Did you know that Africa has mountains?? Me neither! It’s just absolutely beautiful here and the simplicity of life that these people live are perspective changing.
Our first stop was Zimbabwe! My team was partnered with Hope Ministries for the month in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. We lived with our host and his wife along with their 3 daughters and 2 gardeners. Needless to say with all of us plus one of our squad leaders who stayed with us for the month, plus all of them, it was a full house! A typical day for us was going to the ministry office at 8am, doing a devotion and spending time in prayer with the Hope Ministry staff, and then splitting up in 2 teams to do house visits until about 4pm. We visited a lot of the church members of a few different pastors we worked with through the month. We absolutely LOVED the people we were working with. Everyone was just always goofing around and truly loved the Lord! There was always just so much joy and laughter that filled our days. I have learned since being on the race that the Lord has given me a true passion for hearing people’s stories and their hearts so this month truly filled me doing house visits.
Towards the end of the month, we headed out in the bush to a village called Binga. Hope Ministries is in the process of having an orphanage and several guest houses built out there so some of the team got to help a little with making bricks during our time there. It usually is only a 7 hour ride from Bulawayo but by the time we finally arrived, it had taken us almost 12 hours to get there. We had several of the ministry staff go with us but drove in a separate vehicle. On the way, their car kept breaking down so we had to stop every few miles to let it cool off. Once we finally reached a car repair place, which was basically just this wide open parking lot, we had to just leave it there and the 5 people in that car piled in to the van that was already packed with the rest of us. We hit a rocky, dirt road right when the sun went down that would lead us straight in and normally it’s only about an hour out from there. Halfway down the road, we started hearing a dragging noise so some of the guys get out to check and saw that the trailer hitch had completely detached from underneath the van and was dragging the ground. It was dark at this point, (and when I say that, I mean pitch black out) so we started driving slower and realized it was just making it worse so they unpacked some things from the trailer to make it lighter, it still didn’t help, so then, we decided to all hop out of the van and WALK. Haha, yes. (We’ve learned from the Africans the saying TIA- “This is Africa”.. expect the unexpected!)The van went ahead of us while we were all walking and it still was getting torn up so they ended up having to take the trailer off and just drag it the rest of the way to the orphanage. Satan was certainly trying his hardest to stop us but he did NOT succeed! There was no power whatsoever when we got to the orphanage but we were so exhausted we set up our beds and passed right on out.
The next 2 days, we got to do village to village ministry! It was INCREDIBLE! By far, one of my favorite experiences on the race (I say that a lot, but truly, it was so awesome) We had a group of the elders from the pastor’s church that went with us. It was a group of the sweetest ladies. Didn’t know a lick of English but man did they have beautiful voices. Each homestead we visited, one of us would share a testimony or a short message and usually end in singing and dancing together. A few of us would wake up early in the morning to make coffee over the fire outside while watching the sunrise and just spend time with the Lord. It was so good. Those were more goodbyes that were very hard to say. I truly miss them.
Once we left Binga, our host set up things for us to be able to go to Victoria Falls! Pictures just don’t do justice. What an incredible reminder of how creative the Lord is in his creations. The beauty of it is just unexplainable. We got to stay with the sweetest family who is madly in love with Jesus! They welcomed us in and treated us like their own family. They even had hamburgers waiting for us when we arrived! Truly, a precious family.
Zimbabwe was a really great month. We stayed extremely busy but the Lord provided the rest that we needed and sustained us with his energy and ability to pour into the community there with His love. I believe that Zimbabwe has one of the highest percentages of Christians in the country which is very encouraging to know that souls are being won over with the help of bold, God fearing people.
You’ll have to read my next blog to find out about Swaziland! It’ll take an entire blog to write about all the wonderful things that I’ve gotten to experience this month!
Wifi isn’t strong enough to post any pictures right now so next week when we get to South Africa, I’ll post some in a blog for you guys!
