I’ve been working on this blog for a bit now, I wanted to let you guys in on a few stories that made up my year! This blog includes just a few of my favorites- I hope you guys enjoy reading and remembering with me. Bonus- I added some pictures!!!! 🙂
P.S. It actually goes in order of each country I went too.
One time in Panama we didn’t have set in stone ministry , but we had like 200 leftover empanadas from an empanada eating contest we had done with our ministry hosts. So, we decided to go out into town and pass out free empanadas! We got to pray for people and bless them and somehow by the end of it we ended up in the governments office of the city of San Felix and had sweet conversations with the people there! It was a blast.
One time in Costa Rica for Halloween half of the girls on my squad decided to dress up as the men of I-squad. Throughout the week we would break into their tents and steal some of their clothes, we would also study them and practice their mannerisms. Needless to say, Halloween was a hit, so much so that even facebook couldn’t tell who the real men were.
One time in Costa Rica my teammate Jenna got a pretty brutal spider bite. It didn’t become so much of a concern until we arrived in Nicaragua. Our first day in Nicaragua we ran around the city of Leon to try and find her a safe & legitimate enough hospital to get checked out at…. This wasn’t happening so we had to take a taxi all the way back to the capitol, Managua. We ended up spending like four days in the hospital hanging out with Jenna. It was a pretty wild and crazy experience overall. We thanked God a lot that Melody is fluent in Spanish.
One time in Nicaragua we did this horseback riding/ swim in a volcanic crater package. It was pretty cool, at one point myself and my teammate Lindsey had to walk our horses down this super steep slope because they were stumbling and almost knocking us off. Then we got to swim in the giant volcanic crater for awhile. On our way back our horses also decided to go crazy and gallop the last 15 minutes- this would have been SUPER fun if someone had taught me how to ride on a galloping horse. But, I just held on for my dear life. It’s one of those memories you laugh a lot about now.
Another time in Nicaragua my team got to host Thanksgiving dinner at our ministry site!! We had two alumni squad leaders with us so we had a HUGE feast planned. We even invited some locals to enjoy and celebrate with us. We were planning on like 40-50 people. Preparation the night before was crazy because we lost electricity the whole night. And then the day of WE GOT INFUMIGATED( I don’t even know how to describe what this is to you). Basically, these guys came with giant smoke machines and started infumigating the entire building we were cooking our food in! Once this infumigation junk touched our food it was going to ruin it! It was pretty much hilarious chaos. But, we managed to pull thanksgiving off! We lost electricity the entire night, but it was still a blast.
In Honduras we got to help paint some homes in the community. It was a super fun two weeks because we painted about three houses, but the three houses were all from the same family. Throughout that week we got to build really special relationships with them. I remember everyday they would make us hot coffee and tasty warm tortillas. These families had barley anything, but they were always looking to serve us and help us get the project done. The last day the grandma of the house Melody and I were painting made us a fabulous lunch of juice, beans, tortilla, and freshly sliced papaya. She also told Melody and I that we had to somehow call her when we had arrived home safely because she wanted to make sure we’d be okay! She blessed us so much. We did have to take some anti-worming pills after some of our meals we had there, but it was totally worth it.
Honduras was an incredibly special month. Being with the children that month resulted in a lot of laughter and joy and smiles and I just feel like God met us most through those kids. The little girl I connected with most that month was named Brenda. She had a personality of silliness and joy. Some of my greatest memories from Honduras came from time with her- whether I got to put her to bed and sing over her and rock her to sleep, or run around and play with her, or cheer her on as she took her first few steps- whatever it was with her or any of the babies was an absolute joy.
Also two days before Christmas, while we were in Honduras, we received two infant brand new baby boys who had both been abandon. It was such a heartbreaking story, but such an honor and joy to get to be a part of welcoming them into the giant family during such a special time of the year.
In Malaysia we got to meet our international family! One of my favorite nights is when we went to this prayer room and there was like 15 different nations represented. The night of worship and prayer we had was UNREAL. It changed me forever. God showed up in that room and knocked us all off of our feet. This was also the night we met some of our family from Uganda they help lead Watota Children’s Choir. The rest of our time in Malaysia we got to spend time with them and the kids and go to their performances. Who knew God was going to connect us to our family in Africa while we were in Asia?
One time my old team and I decided, hey since we are so close to Singapore we should just hop on over to Singapore for a few days! So we did, we took this overnight train and got there the next morning and spent two full days there. This was one of the only times on the worldrace we went full blown tourists. We WERE THOSE PEOPLE. But we didn’t even care! We had such a blast exploring and having the time of our lives. It definitely left a dent in our pockets- but it was so worth it.
In Thailand once, God romanced me by providing a SUNFLOWER FIELD. If you don’t know me then you wouldn’t know my love for sunflowers. It goes a lot deeper though, sunflowers are symbols of Gods faithfulness in my life and that He is a promise keeper & it came at such a needed time.
Also in Thailand, God brought myself and the team I was with a guy from America who completely transformed parts of our month! He was totally a blessing. I bet he had no idea God would be calling him to Thailand to use him to bless a team of 7 American girls, but I don’t know what we would have done without him. It goes to show that God is always working in the most unexpected ways. Bob, if you are reading this, thank you. You are amazing!
In Thailand on Valentines day we baked about 200 cookies and hit the streets and loved on women who were selling their bodies. We knew women would be in high demand on Valentines day and we wanted to meet them where they would be at and love them. One of the bars we went to the women gleamed when we handed them some cookies and notes that we had written in Thai that said “You are loved”. The women invited us into their bar, we got to eat some free food and watch live music, but more than that we got to be a safe haven. Every few minutes we would get to chat with the women and encourage them and give them a few seconds away from the degrading stares of men and the high pressure to make a sale. It was a difficult night, but one I will never forget.
While we were in Laos we met this amazing homeless man, Kom and his daughter named Nun. They were the two most amazing people ever. Almost everyday when Tommy and I would go and get chicken fried rice we would visit our beautiful friends. Some days we would get ice cream with them, or color with them, or just say hi. I’ll never forget beautiful little Nun’s giant smile. Her laugh and her smile showed me that God was working through her in ways we couldn’t understand!
Another moment we had in Laos was something almost straight out of a movie!! We got to be a part of a GIANT revival service that ushered in thousands of local Laotian people. What made this story especially cool is that Laos is a closed country- meaning Christianity is illegal. So to be a part of such a big Christian movement is pretty risky, but we didn’t care, we were excited and ready. We saw incredible things happen all night. God was showing up BIG TIME! Nearing the end of the service we started seeing police officers and government officials trickle in. Word started spreading that they were going to shut down the revival service, but it wasn’t going to be that easy, they were on the look-out for arresting people and foreigners were on the list. So, we had to leave in groups of one or two, jump on our bikes, and not look back. Ronny and myself were the last two to leave. We got to see everyone shuffling out of the revival as fast as possible. What made this moment especially amazing is the look on everyones face. Most Laotian people were going to get in big trouble for being a part of this, but instead of looking and seeing fear on their face, you saw PURE JOY. It was amazing knowing that God was giving them the peace and comfort they needed. Once we finally hoped on our bikes, snuck out, and raced off into the night, Ronny and I started singing worship songs at the top of our lungs the whole bike ride back home! It was such an invigorating moment.
In Cambodia, it was the hottest month of the entire year, and Cambodia is probably one of the hottest countries in the world. So just imagine our heat experience. Sometimes to find a moment of relief from the heat we would purchase home-made snow-cones. These snow cones were made by using a rusty razor-blade to “shave” the ice. We were always pretty unsure whenever we would purchase and eat these, but the relief was worth it.
One time in Cambodia we found a mouse scurrying around in our kitchen so we went and got our friend Lao and asked him to come help us. His idea of helping us was grabbing a broom and beating the mouse to death. And then he left the mouse there… in the window sill…dangling over our food… dripping in blood. The next morning we had to practically beg him to get the mouse out. After much convincing he grabbed the mouse and tossed him in the yard. It was pretty gross.
One time in Swaziland, I fell in love. Her name is Achesa. She is 9 years old and we hung out whenever I would go down to the carepoint. In one of our first conversations she told me her favorite color is white because that was the color Jesus wore when He resurrected from the dead. Can’t argue with that.
Another time in Swaziland was basically our whole month experiencing African sunrises and sunsets.We lived in the perfect place to see both the sunrise and sunset every single day and it was breath-taking. God met me most through creation that month and conversations with people were always so filling and encouraging when your watching the sunset behind panoramic mountains.
One time in Botswana I told my team our first night there that Botswana was going to be the best two weeks of our entire lives. Everyone laughed because typical Sprads-I overexagerate things, BUT THEN I WAS RIGHT. All of our lives were changed and we fell madly, madly in love with that country and those people.
Another time in Botswana we had our friends over at the house we had been renting to say goodbye to them. We did not want to leave that country or the people we had met, but God was calling us on forward. We were leaving the next morning at 6 am and realized this would be our last time seeing everyone. There were a lot of tears and hugs. The next morning we shuffled out as quickly as possible and made it to the bus rank. We had to wait an hour in the cold for our bus. About 20 minutes after waiting we saw our friends sneak out from behind the bus! WE BURST IN TEARS. They surprised us at the bus stop to say goodbye. That was the moment I knew these were friends for life.
One time God made the impossible happen by getting us to Namibia. This story is far to long to type out, but let’s just sum it up as such. We had no money, no resources, and basically had no way to get to Namibia. But then God provided and blessed us by using people! Our one week in Namibia was life-changing.
Another time in Namibia Jenna shared her testimony with 700 high schoolers and almost every single one of them accepted Christ that day/ wanted Christ in their lives. We got to pray with a bunch of them after and encourage them. That day Jenna finally accepted the call she has on her life 😉
In South Africa I would go for runs outside at night after ministry. The kids lived on the same property we lived on and when they would see me running they would all start chasing after me and running with me. Some of them could only last a couple laps, but some of them would run with me the whole time! Usually we would run hand in and hand and we even perfected the ability to run while I had one earphone in and another child had the other earphone in. It was probably the cutest thing ever.
