Below is the letter I emailed to many of my supporters and I posted it here in case I missed anyone!
Hi friends and family!
First, I want to thank you so much for all the love and support I’ve received from all of you. This trip wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for you. The Lord has blessed me with such amazing experiences in the 6 countries I’ve been so far and I couldn’t be more grateful or blessed.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 5 ½ months! It feels like just yesterday that I left Atlanta for India. And boy, was India not what we expected… We joined with a ministry called Bibles for the World in Manipur. We were up in the North East part of India, which is much more like South East Asia. While our squad was together at the same place, my team, Coram Deo, was blessed with the opportunity to go out to surrounding villages in the hills to help hand out supplies to kids who have supporters in the states. We had an amazing time and learned a lot about what it means to give everything to others when you have nothing. Every time we visited someone, we were given chai tea, cookies, fruit, and sometimes gifts from those who had practically nothing. It was a wonderful experience and a life lesson I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
After leaving India, we went on to stay in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal with Agape Love and their mission of spreading the love of God through evangelism and working with street kids. With the ministry, we went out into the streets and to temples to pray over the people we met and to talk to them about Jesus and how great a relationship with him could be. It was amazing to learn how to communicate the Word of God without pushing it on people. Just simply sharing how the Lord has moved in your life to show His goodness to others. We had the opportunity to hang out with street kids every week and play sports with them. It was an awesome month of spreading the love of God in a very dark place, filled with false Gods and idolatry.
From Nepal, it was onto Africa! And boy, did I not expect the things to happen there that did… We started off our 3 months on the continent in Cape Town, South Africa. Our ministry looked a lot different than many other months. We were in an Unsung Heroes month in which we didn’t have a ministry to partner with and instead spent our time looking for new partners for future teams to partner with. The Lord blessed us with lodging at a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base in Muizenberg, a 2 minute walk from a beautiful beach. We got to meet new up and coming ministries that we’re hoping future teams will get to uplift and help to really get their feet off the ground. The Lord moved in mighty ways in all of our lives that month, showing us new things about each other and ourselves. We were truly able to live in a community that called each other higher and helped one another to live for the kingdom.
After South Africa, it was on to the small and absolutely beautiful country of Swaziland. Things with teams changed up for the month because it was ‘manistry’ month. Of a squad of 51, only 9 of them are guys and so they get some time to themselves for the month at one ministry and the women were at another. We stayed at an orphanage on a beautiful mountaintop, overlooking a valley with a river running through it. Each woman was paired with a child or two and we got to play with them and love on them all month long. I was paired with a 16 yr old boy named Meselane, and at first it wasn’t easy. We had a hard time connecting, but by the end of the month, it was hard to leave him behind. The Lord showed me his quiet, kind heart and his passion for becoming a pastor one day to effect the people of Swaziland with the power of God’s love.
And from Swaziland, it was off to Mozambique with a new team! Team Felicia was paired with team 2 Mile and we stayed just outside the capital of Maputo with Africa On Fire Ministries. And it was a month I will never forget. Our ministry consisted of praying in peoples’ homes, going to church Sunday thru Friday, and living life with the people we stayed with. It was just simply amazing. We learned what life looked like living in a strong community that truly lived every day for the Lord because they had nothing else to live for. They truly rely on the Lord for everything and it taught me how to trust the Lord in all things, even the small ones. My new team, Team Felicia, had a wonderful time living in tents, riding in the back of a flatbed truck, and taking bucket showers when the running water would stop. We created a family with our ministry host and loved every minute of the monthWhile there, the Lord put getting baptized on my heart and the heart of two others and our host, Pastor Felito, couldn’t have been more excited to baptize us in the Indian Ocean. It was truly a month of growth, prayer, and transformation for all of us. And it was the hardest goodbye…to our new family and to the continent of Africa. I pray the Lord calls me back there one day.
Once we had the difficult goodbye in Africa, it was off to Europe. We’ve been in Latvia for 2 ½ weeks now, staying with a woman and her 4 children in their home in Kekava. Kaylana is an amazing mother who has been showing us what it is like to do ministry in everyday life with a family. We get to play with her kids, cook, enjoy the fresh air of the countryside, and love on her family. We are also spending time about 2 hours from her home in a town called Valmeira where we have been helping out in the garden and doing house work.
The house translated from Latvian means ‘Young Palace’ and is a mid-wife house being opened in August as a place for young, at-risk pregnant women to find a safe-haven where they are loved and taught how to be a mother and live a sustainable life. Many of these women have bad family backgrounds and don’t know how to cook, clean, or take care of a baby. They are cared for and discipled by amazing women who have all had families of their own. We have been gardening and organizing the house so that it is a beautiful sanctuary of peace and love. We’ve also gotten to have a lot more freedom this month with traveling into Riga, the capital of Latvia, and living in a more westernized culture, much like home.
These past 5 ½ months have been fun, exciting, new, crazy, trying, tiring, life-giving, life-changing, and, most importantly, hard. I’ve learned what it means to live in an effective community full of people that truly love me and want the best for me. I’ve learned hard things about myself that I’ve overlooked in the past and learned that they need to change. That I need to change in order to become the woman God is calling me to be. He’s slowly revealing who I am in His eyes through my quiet time, and through the people around me. Without this trip, I would be stuck in a dark place back home, and probably spiraling downwards. But He called me out to be here. He asked me to trust Him before I knew Him as my best friend and constant companion. He asked me to leave the easy life at home to take a journey that would transform me completely and trust that it would all be okay. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve been completely broken down, and it hurts. But in order for Him to mold me, I had to be broken to be remade.
So thank you for your prayer. Thank you for your love. Thank you for the thoughts. Thank you for the support of my race so I could find in myself what many of you have seen in me, and what God sees in me.
At this time, I have raised $11,990 towards my final deadline of $16,250 on July 1st. Thank you all so much for you support to help me to get here. If you feel lead to continue to support me, check out the support link on the side!
Love you all, keeping you in my prayers, and God bless,
Becca Schibler
