India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam. 5 of the 11 checked off the list and I am almost halfway through my Race.
Time is a funny thing like that. It moves at a snails pace when you find yourself feeding babies everyday, or collecting garbage on the side of the road, but when all the sand in the timer empties you want nothing more than to flip it over once more. For just one more snuggle with those little Vietnamese babies or just one more wild adventure in the Thailand jungle following the Lord’s voice and watching His immeasurable power unfold.
Currently I am sitting in the Singapore Airport, awaiting the last leg of my flight to Ethiopia. (Forgive me in advance for any loopy things I may say, running on about 2 hours of sleep.) That’s right, in the famous words of Shakira, “It’s time for Africa.”
But, before what I am sure is going to be an incredible next season in this journey, I want to reflect and recap on a few of my favorite experiences of the Lord’s faithfulness during my time spent in Asia. For my sake, and for yours! I ask that you lift up each my new dear friends in prayer, as I know I only was able to experience a tiny slice of their journey with our Heavenly Father. I continue to be overwhelmed with gratitude by all of your love and support and not ONE of these moments could I have been apart of without you all. So as you read take note that YOU were a key member of bringing more of Jesus’s kingdom here on earth.
I’ll start at the beginning: India. This seems years ago! But the world of head bobbles, curry, crowded streets, and those deep dark eyes that peer right into your soul have forever been written on my heart.
In India we were given permission to love on Woman, rejected from society, suffering from disease and mental illness as result of human trafficking. We sang songs, drew pictures of Jesus, gave hugs and saw smiles on faces that had started to forget how to smile.
I will never forget the night during slum house visits when we prayed over a family to know the Lord and they asked me to name their newborn son.
Or the friend Raju we made at the HIV Hospital who was able to celebrate his 13th birthday, the first birthday celebration he was given in the past 10 years.
And even if I wanted to forget the after school children we tutored ever day in an impoverished neighborhood, I couldn’t because they still reach out to our team, 4 months later! We recently were able to teach them a Christmas song via video chat and they performed it in their recent Christmas Pageant.
Then came Nepal. Swirls of dust constantly in the air, battling lots of sickness on our squad, but refreshed every morning by glorious Himilayans peaking out behind the sunrise.
We worshiped and thanked the Lord as 2 woman met during our human trafficking ministry decided to leave the prostitution business and attend the trade school.
Our time spent at our favorite coffee shop led to a great friendship with a barista who was desperately seeking answers and wanted to hear the gospel. His name is Montee and he still reaches out to us on Facebook. Jesus is going to find him!
We worked at the Prayer Tower run by disabled individuals who had been casted out from society. We left this place fired up by the presence of the Lord on this mountaintop, with greater appreciation for the fervor that comes as a direct result from suffering and oppresion.
In Thailand my team and I had the heavy weight of being an answered prayer to
ministry host. Through a miraculous turn of events we were placed at the very last minute with PJ, a church planter who had been praying for 4 years for a team to be sent to his church in the small village of Thoen.
During our time with PJ we were able to fully see that the God of the Old Testament is still our same God today. We saw countless miraculous in these small villages in Jesus’ name as the lame walked, the bleeding woman no longer bled, back pain was removed, and anxiety ceased.
In Thailand PJ took us to one of the darkest, and heaviest places I have ever experienced. A Buddhist complex of underground shrines dedicated to demons. Here we proclaimed the name of Jesus as we worshipped and prayed, being the first foreigners to ever enter the compound.
We traveled to an unreached people group and the Lord opened the way to allow my team and PJ to immediately have a meeting with the chief. The chief agreed to having future English camps hosted in the village where the Bible would be taught.
In Cambodia we were given the task of finding future World Race ministry hosts in the city of Siem Reap.
We were able to find several amazing individuals who have been seeking and praying for just the help we were offering.
As well as a smoothie maker name Reina who now owns her very first Bible and is getting to know this Jesus that has so actively been searching for her.
And lastly Vietnam. The last Asian hoorah. We learned how to simultaneously love 18 babies at one time. We learned how to depend on the Lord for our energy when we had none left to give.
We witnessed how real it is for many on this earth to be persecuted for their beliefs. Despite real threats from local officials our host showed us what it looks like to fearlessly give God your yes everyday.
Last night, before heading to the airport my squad of 50 people were able to finish our time in Asia standing on a Starbucks rooftop, on the busiest, walking street of communist, anti-Christian Vietnam, singing worship songs at the top of our lungs for all the World to hear.
This is the Big God we serve! HE, and he alone makes a way to bring good out of evil, light in the darkness.
While these stories only scratch the surface of my time here in Asia and how the Lord is moving in this continent I hope you can be encouraged, just as I have, to know that God loves Asia in BIG ways.
So it’s goodbye for now for Asia and I but In the very least you better believe how excited I will be for the day I dance at the gates of heaven, speaking the SAME language with all of these new family members.
Thanks for reading, for praying, and for loving my team and I so well these past 5 months!
Xoxo.
**quick update in regards to Africa– I may or may not have access to wifi as we are starting our time in a small remote village in Ethiopia. I hope to find ways to post blog updates so be on the lookout! But until then, my team and I welcome any and all prayers specifically for safety and health in these next months**
