First day of ministry technically was 1/18/2017 even though we’d arrived in India on 1/13/2017. We had orientation for a few days and then had to travel a decent distance in the car to get to Ongole, India. We did ministry for the first day 5 hours away from Ongole in a small village called Giddalur. That first day we traveled and were greeted by kids. We were served a delicious meal, then played with the kids in the village for 2 hours, had chai and planned for the church service we were helping with that night. “The church service was kind of all over the place but fun,” quoted from my journal. After church we had ANOTHER huge homecooked meal then headed off to bed. I remember feeling excited, caught up in all of the excitement of being a World Racer and experiencing a culture as opposite from ours as you can get! It was a long day, but oh such a fun one!
My last day of ministry I’m counting as Thursday 11/9/2017 – it was our last day at the school we helped repair [;although, we still did some ministry things Friday,(11/10) Monday (11/13), and Tuesday (11/14)]. Throughout the day, my team kept making references like, last truck ride to ministry, last time working manual labor for the Race, one of the last goodbyes we have to make, etc, etc. We all worked on windows, trying to put in as many as we could. Another group will eventually go back and finish the windows that we could not get in (quite a few of the windows had the wrong measurements so had to be recut.) It was a great last day, the kids were so cute and it was SO hard to say goodbye to them. I left my Camp Swatara sunglasses for one of the boys and my Grand Canyon baseball hat for another boy. They performed dances and songs for us that were in Zulu and then gave us all certificates for helping at their school. It was an AWESOME last day, super sad, but super rewarding.
I’m sitting here, counting down the final few hours we have left here at LIV Village before we meet up with the rest of our squad in Durban for FINAL DEBRIEF! Final debrief runs from Wednesday to Saturday and Sunday/Monday are our FLIGHTS home. This time next week, I’ll be in my own house with my family, probably relaxing watching tv with Jimmy or passed out on the couch while he watches tv lol! I still have’nt quite come to terms with the fact that the Race is essentially over. Like whoa, these last 11 months were so long but so short, so hard but so great, I can’t even explain it properly. All I know is if I was asked if I could go back and change anything, I would say no. Every experience was necessary for growth and used as a testimony to others. I HIGHLY reccommend the Race to everyone aged 21 (you have to turn 22 while on the Race) to 35. It’ll be one of the best things you do! Abba Father, thank You for this incredible journey You led me to go on! I will forever thank You for it!
