A Recap through Captured Moments.
September 9, I left the United States for the first time and stepped into nine months, or so I thought, of the unknown. Months of mishaps on travel days, not knowing what our ministry days would look like, or how I would do living in the same space as twenty three other people. The only certainty was that God was by my side through it all.
God knew that the months ahead were not always going to go smoothly or always how I wanted them too, and I think I started to quickly realize that too when we ended up sprinting through the Amsterdam airport and our big packs didn’t make it on our connecting flight to Romania. However, we were reunited with our packs the next day and got settled into our Romanian home. The house with stripes and a spiral staircase.
After landing in Romania on September 10, we had ministry orientation the next morning with our ministry host Raul. During that orientation, less than twenty-four hours after landing in Romania, he offered to take us to Greece that weekend for our first adventure day. Five days later, most of the squad packed into a few vans and drove 12 hours to Greece. We got to explore the Thessaloniki, go cliff jumping, and taste amazing food.
Time in Romania seemed to go by slow. I’d wake up and go to ministry, mainly working in the office alongside Cristina, Paige, and Sumer. When I wasn’t in the office, I had the chance to go to the Roma villages — my favorite memories of Romania. Filled with the laughs of children who relentlessly begged you to spin them around. At the beginning of month two, we had our first debrief in Brasov. It was a time to rest, reflect, and have fun! I got my first tattoo, hiked to the top of the Brasov sign, and had a veggie burger for the first time in a month. Then we went back to ministry after that.
Suddenly it was time to leave for Guatemala. We boarded a plane, had another delay, and sprinted through the Amsterdam airport again. We were greeted at the base by the incredible staff and quickly got settled in. We enjoyed the grass, soccer field, blue skies, and view of the volcanoes.
Ministry in Guatemala looked different for each team! My team worked alongside an organization called One Way. We spent our days in a large field helping teach the kids of San Lorenzo. I taught English alongside one of my favorite Guatemalans, Eli. On Friday’s, we would go to do house visits with Bryan and get to pray for the families. We also spent time in San Lorenzo during the morning and either helped with the young kids, installed stoves, or asked the Lord where to go and what to do.
We had our mid-point debrief during our time in Guatemala at Lake Atitlán. We spent time looking back on the first half of our race and casting vision for the next half. Then at the end of Guatemala, PVT happened and parents came to join there kids on the field. We got to host a soccer tournament with kids from four villages and introduce them to the villages we had been working in for three months.
Then we were on a plane to our final country. We landed in Ecuador and got settled into our rooms then ended the night with pizza from the pizza shop down the road. The next day we had orientation with Fabi and got to know more about what life would look like. Then we got started with our ministries. My team was assigned to Camp Hope, a day-program for children and adults with developmental disabilities. This ministry quickly stole my heart and became my favorite ministry of the race within the two weeks we had there.
Then COVID-19 changed our plans, but was in God’s plan since the beginning. We found out Adventures in Missions had started to send participants home and found out a few days later that we would be returning home. So we packed up on Sunday and ended the way we started in Ecuador, with pizza. We boarded a plane on Monday and started our way back to the States. We had a mini-debrief set up, but that quickly changed with the meetings of no more than ten rule and states starting to shut down. With new rules in place, most of my squad made the decision to say goodbye to each other and fly back home.
At that was a crazy end to my time with World Race.
