This past month, my team served in Georgia. And by Georgia, I mean the country. (Side note: I had a friend in high school who was a foreign exchange student from Georgia. When he told me where he was from, I was confused as to why he did his foreign exchange in Missouri. Lo and behold, there is a country named Georgia.) Georgia is a beautiful country situated between Russia and Iran with Turkey to the left and Azerbaijan to the right. There are beautiful mountains here and it reminds me a lot of Colorado.
We did not have a host this past month, which meant we were free to find as many contacts and opportunities as our hearts desired. We were able to make some contacts with longterm workers in a small village town in Georgia. Our team has several healthcare professionals on it, including two nurses and a dietitian. Once the longterm workers found that out, they asked us to do a women’s health seminar to educate the women about chronic diseases and the importance of nutrition as well as the importance of hygiene.
While preparing for our women’s health seminars, we discovered that the average Georgian woman has had at least six abortions. Georgia is an Orthodox country, which means that abortions are not supported by the church. Additionally, the church doesn’t support any form of contraception, like birth control. This has resulted in women turning to abortions as their only form of contraception. When we did the women’s health seminars, we got to teach women about pregnancy and what parts of the baby develop during each month of the pregnancy. Our goal was to help women see that there really is a baby on the inside.
We also got involved in doing cafe ministry. We lived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and there were cafes on every corner. Imagine the number of churches in the Bible belt of the U.S.—that’s how many cafes there were. We took advantage of those opportunities and were intentional in getting to know the workers and customers. Towards the end of our time in Tbilisi, we went to dinner with a girl that some of my teammates had met at a cafe. As we were talking about our faith, she said Georgians know Jesus, but not with their hearts. She was hungry to know Jesus and have a relationship with Him. It was so cool getting to share with her that Jesus wants a relationship with her, too!
This last month presented some neat opportunities to share the love of Jesus with people and use our gifts to further the Kingdom. In all honesty though, last month was a hard one for me. I got sick with a cold right before Christmas and it turned into bronchitis that lasted for a month. There’s something about being sick that just makes life hard and it was really difficult to be intentional. In all of that came feelings of being homesick and feeling a little down. Thankfully I am feeling 100% again and I feel spiritually renewed and rejuvenated. I feel ready to take on these next 4 1/2 months that we have left!
Tomorrow my team heads to Armenia where we will be for the next three weeks. We do not have a host again, so we will spend our first few days praying and seeking opportunities about where God would have us to serve. After Armenia, we will cross the Caspian Sea and head into Kazakhstan. I seriously can’t believe how fast time is flying. People are starting to talk about what they are going to do after the race. I’d love your prayers for me to continue being present and intentional with the here and now, but also preparing for any steps that God would have me to take for what’s to come.
Thank you for continuing to follow my journey around the world!
Team Jubilee! Let me just say–being on an all girls team is the best.
Our women’s health seminars.
We rode a cable car in Tbilisi to a fortress.
The fortress in Tbilisi.
Our ski trip in Bakuriani! We came out of this ski trip with a lot of great stories. And I also learned that teaching people how to ski is much harder than I thought.
The sunrise in Sighnaghi where we had debrief.
Ending the month with a bang–literally!
