All I can remember is walking up to a basketball court, and Jeremy Lin came up to play some one on one. Lets just say this was a Lin-sanity moment especially for those who watched him play basketball for the Knicks last year. My knees became weak as I bounced the basketball around looking for a clean route to charge the goal. Jeremy Lin moved a little to the left to create that clean route then I bolted for the goal. As the ball left my hands I watched as it ………….
Lets row this boat back a little bit because most of you are wondering where I am and why it has taken me so long to blog. Well if you did not know the world race appoints two logistics leaders to get the team from country to country. One of the logistics leaders is Meghan and she handles all the financial aspects of the squad, which is a great blessing for me. I happen to be the other logistics leader, and my job is to handle most of the traveling details. When our squad got to Thailand we all met for a couple of days for debrief. Debriefs consists of times when the squad can get on the same page, and future debriefs will consist of team and leadership changes. At this debrief logistic leaders had to find a Vietnamese Embassy, so that we could take all of the squads passports to get visas. Once we filled out applications we rounded up all of the passports and went to the embassy. Everyone knows that USA passports are valuable, and here I am walking around downtown Bangkok with 52 passports and money to pay for each person’s visa. Lets just say that if I were jumped those gangsters would have hit the jackpot. Anyway to sum it all up I have not blogged in awhile and would like to go over what I have been doing.
After debrief we started off to our ministry sites. Teams spread out all over Thailand from south to north and from east to west. My team went 12 hours north of Bangkok to an orphanage called Sila Home. This orphanage cultivates beautiful children that have a burning passion for Christ. From the first day we arrived I could feel the Lords presence on every single child that walked past me. His presence was different in this place because I felt an overwhelming amount of peace, love, and protection that had been placed over these kids.
Sila Home
The day after we arrived we began to do some real work around Sila Home while the kids were at school. That real work consisted of hoeing multiple fields to get rid of the grass, so they can expand their buildings. I love outdoor work so I felt like I was in my element, and we continued to hoe fields throughout the next week. Nightly ministry is very different because during the week we have activities with the kids and on Sunday we help with Sunday school and also give our testimonies.
Here are the four fields that we have been hoeing:
One of the main things the world race taught us before we left was to lose all expectations. They wanted us to lose expectations for two reasons: 1- our travels and ministry contacts can change and 2- Gods expectations are better then we could ever imagine. Well I along with most people came into this month with expectations that we would be working in the red light district of Thailand. I cannot tell you how many people I talked to about Thailand before the race. Well another world race team that was on month 8 took the red-light districts while we went on to other ministry sites. Yea it was a little bit of a shock but I had a heads up because of logistics lol. Anyways God is always good at wrecking you so that His love can be spread in a different direction. His love spread through us directly to Sila Home and there is no way I would ever want to go anywhere else. Yea spiritually you are going to struggle when your ministry looks different from the standard Christian ministries but we have a chance to love these kids and the amazing staff. Here at Sila Home there is a dedicated staff behind these beautiful children. From the pastor to the teachers every single one of the staff walks in the light of Christ to bring a new life to these children.
Oh yea I almost forgot about playing basketball against Jeremy Lin. Well back to the story, as I saw the clean route to the goal I took it, and as the ball left my hands I watched as it bounced off the wooden backboard completely over the goal. Jeremy Lin laughed because the silly American did not know how to play on a Thai basketball goal. The story ended with me losing to the famous Jeremy Lin but the experience was well worth it.
Jeremy Lin a great friend from Sila Home!!!!
Please pray that:
- As world racers we can totally rely on Christ in every situation and that He can be given Glory 24hours a day.
- Even in times where we are not doing ministry that we keep our eyes focused on our Father.
- Sickness does not define the race and that His power will be made perfect in our weakness.
- Our bodies keep the adequate amount of fat, muscle, and antibodies to keep us pushing forward.
- We always walk in the light!
- God can use us throughout the next 8 months!
- Gods Will be done earth as it is in heaven!!!
In the fundraising process we have deadlines every couple of months and December is the final deadline. One of my friends and squad mates, Carmella Nicholson, still needs funding to meet the October deadline. I am not worried one bit because God has confirmed her journey time and time again. She walks in the light of our Father, and is ready to pursue Him throughout the rest of the race. God is the ultimate provider and He will not let money stand in the way of His kingdom. God will call people to give! I do not know who those people are, but I would like to encourage you to take part of your day to pray about giving, and to remember that God has called people to give and serve. Please give to a faithful servant that is ready to bring Gods love to those less fortunate.
HERE IS THE LINK TO HER BLOG:
http://carmellanicholson.theworldrace.org/
Pictures of our accommodations !
Yea we have a washer!!!!! WITH A SPIN CYCLE!!!!
Yea thats A/C!!!! Sorry could not rotate pictures
CLUB THAI!!! Mine and Justin's sweet room!! Also could not rotate lol.
Last but not least is the beautiful cow BETSY!! She loves to get lose and run around Sila Home!!!
I love you all and I thank God that He has placed me with such a great group of supporters back home!
