paris and rome (day 319)

It seems crazy that after 11 months of being outside of the United States, we will be landing tomorrow night in New York City. And soon after that, I will be driving back to Ohio.

Back to home.

 

I wish I could explain everything in a blog.

I wish I could explain everything in a conversation.

 

The thing is, this year changed my life.

The people I lived with changed my life.

The people I saw and met changed my life.

God changed my life.

 

And that is not something that can be portrayed in a blog or a conversation. 

It would take a book and millions of conversations to even scratch the surface.

 

I lived in 11 countries this year. I have stamps in my passport from 20 countries. 

Talk about a crazy year.

Or a crazy life.

 

The best I can do in a blog is share several moments from the year. These are a small picture of who N squad is and what God let us do.

 

NEW ZEALAND

We started our race in an unconventional way by spending our days with the “inner city” kids of NZ, taking them on fun trips to the beach and various site-seeing places around Auckland.

 

AUSTRALIA

There was a night of worship with 30 racers. It concluded with my teammate Emily yelling at Satan to quit lying to her and that was the night she found insane amounts of freedom in Christ.

 

PHILIPPINES

God let my hold a woman for 20 minutes one night. She had been kicked out of her home that day and wasn’t even allowed to step foot in the community.

 

 

MALAYSIA

Jake and I spent an afternoon attempting to read the Malay Bible to a group of women. While I’m sure they didn’t understand everything we said, another message of God’s love was very clear.

 

 THAILAND

I found myself standing in a hospital room with 50 children and their parents, singing “Amazing Grace” to a little boy.

 

 KENYA

My team walked away from Mildred’s home longing to build her a new one. God let us raise the money over the next few months and Mildred is currently building her home in Kitale.

 

 TANZANIA

The women of the church in Tanzania thanked us for spending our Tuesday afternoons with them. They honored us by giving us African fabric and throwing us a party before we left.

 

 UGANDA

God rocked our worlds by allowing us to see village after village of people who would sit and listen to the Gospel story. And because of Him, several of the people we met came to Christ.

 

 UKRAINE

We were able to honor our contacts by throwing them a huge Christmas bash. We brought home to an incredible family that has lived in the Ukraine for 5 years. And we got to have crazy fun in the process.

 

 MACEDONIA

We watched “The Book of Eli” with a Muslim family in their home. 9 people were living out God’s love in a very real and practical way and he opened numerous doors for us.

 

MOLDOVA

We were able to do something practical, in giving away food and helping a woman chop wood for firewood. Sometimes something simple is all it takes.

 

 It’s been a crazy year.

 

And the only thing I really have left to say is thank you.

 

Thank you for your support, your encouragement and your prayers.

 

It is because of all of you that this year and all of these things plus more even happened.

 

I’m coming home.

I’ll see you soon.

Thank you.

 

“Another aeroplane

another sunny place

I’m lucky, I know

But I wanna go home

I wanna go home.”