Oh where has the time gone. I just checked, and my last blog post was in January… And it’s now May. So I figured it was time for a little update! Let’s start with February… Ethiopia… The two months prior in Uganda and Rwanda were really hard for me. I think it was a combination of switching continents/culture shock, being really far out of my comfort zone, and missing Christmas with my family that got me in a little funk, so one more month in Africa (specifically Ethiopia) did not sound appealing. But God is full of surprises, and it ended up being one of my favorite months so far. We were with four other teams from our squad doing manual labor (they called it gardening), and it was great.
Heading to Eastern Europe was kind of weird. Six months down, five months to go, switching continents again, it was just kind of surreal. And of course way different from Africa. But we adjusted rather quickly into our cute little apartment along the water in Kotor, Montenegro. I had to look it up on a map too, but it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, so if you’re looking for a little vacation spot, I would highly recommend it.
Our ministry consisted mainly of forming relationships and just showing people the love of Christ. It was more flexible and less structured than what we were used to, but it also seemed kind of like what life will be like back in the states. We all agreed it was a good test month preparing us for what the race likes to call our “reentry” into America come July. One of my favorite memories is when we would go to the Farmers Market on Saturdays to see “our lady”. We met this lady the first week we went and couldn’t help but go back and see her every week. We couldn’t communicate at all besides the smiles and hugs, but she always threw in a few extra veggies for us and we always gave her a few extra kisses on the cheek.
Month 8 (April) was Albania. We had team changes going into the month, so I was still with two girls from my first team of seven months, but I also had the opportunity to start getting to know five other girls better. We were working with a church right outside Tirana, and got to live in a princess palace! It was actually a preschool room with Disney characters on the outside, but we made it into our palace for the month. We spent a lot of time with the youth from the church and drank lots of coffee! I’ll never forget the day we handed out food to people though. Our church was under construction, so my team and I made the workers lunch one day, and we ended up making wayyyy too much food. No one knew what to do with it all, so we decided to look like crazy people and start walking around town handing out food, which is apparently very uncommon. We were yelling “WHO WANTS SOME PASTA?!”, and got a lot of strange looks, but we also gave away all of the pasta, so it was worth it.
Soon that month was finished too and we began our trek to Honduras. Tirana to Rome. Rome to NYC. NYC to Miami. Miami to Tegucigalpa. And two minutes after our plane landed in Tegucigalpa, my parents plane landed! I was still sitting in the airplane waiting to get off when I saw them walking from their plane into the airport. I don’t know if anyone could have captured the extent of my excitement on camera, but I really wish there was a picture of my face when I first saw them. The next few hours in the customs line were filled with lots of hugs, tears, pictures, and stories, and the whole week wasn’t much different. I still can’t really put into words how wonderful it was to have them by my side for a week, but I do know that they gave me the life and energy I needed to make sure I finish out this journey the best I can. Saying goodbye to them was for some reason harder this time than it was when I left in September, but I also adjusted back into “normal race life” quicker than I thought I would.
My team this month is working with a young couple in a “cloud forest” (as opposed to a rainforest) in the Valley of Angels, about a 30 minute drive up the mountains from Tegucigalpa. We bring food each day to the students at a school located even higher in the mountains, where we are also trying to shovel a hill flat to make them a soccer field, and we have spent some time attempting to learn how to make piñatas. Honduras is said to be one of the most dangerous places in the world, but God has been taking great care of us and I have yet to feel unsafe. And thankfully our ministry host likes to run, so I’ve been able to get my run in without having to worry my Dad.
I still can’t believe how fast time is going. July 25th is quickly approaching, and as excited as I am to go home and see everyone and begin the next chapter of my life, I am also realizing that I am kind of scared, which I wasn’t anticipating. I’m scared of not having a definite plan, and I have a hard time remembering that God has a plan for me and he will lead me in the right direction. So if you’re looking for something to pray about, that would be a good one. I also have still been having eye issues (since December), so it’d be lovely if you could continue to pray for that also.
I never know how to end blogs (one thing I’ve learned this year is that I’m not a blogger), so I’m just going to end it by saying thank you. And that Jesus loves you. And I’m excited to hopefully share more of this adventure with you in the near future.
“Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place. “ Deuteronomy 1:29-31
