Hello again God!!

So, we’re in Ireland…land of the leprechaun’s and green
clovers!!!  We’ve just finished
with an amazing conference called The Awakening where all the World Racers who
are out in the field now plus alumni plus coaches and leadership from our
organization come together and worship and have teachings from some incredibly
wise men.  My team (which is
different AGAIN) was involved in so much of the production of this conference
and I’m so proud and honored to be able to serve with people who are so gifted
and talented in different areas. 

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged so I’m just
going to give some highlights of the last few months to get you caught up.

>  Kenya was
great and we had one of the best contacts to work with.  I miss that place like crazy!

>  We
traveled to Tanzania…NEVER want to experience a bus ride like that
again…EVER!!!  Over a three day
period we lived on three different buses, one of which was a 19 hour ride
through the Serengeti desert on a bus that wasn’t completely sealed so we were
covered with about a half inch of white dust…miserable!  Then we got to the hotel only to find
out that we had two whole hours to shower and rest before we had to get on
another bus to travel 8 more hours to our ministry town.  What a life!

>  Our time
in Iringa, Tanzania was pretty restful. 
Our ministry was about two hours a day (maybe) so we got to do a lot
together as a team.  At that point
there were five of us girls; Emily Conner, Ashley Huizenga, Alycia Butler and
Susie Virzi…and me J

>  We went on
a safari to the Ruaha National Park…AMAZING!!!  We saw elephants, 
lions (including two who were mating…so awkward and beautiful), a
leopard, lots of monkeys, hippos, crocodiles, a creepy looking owl, and
hundreds of giraffes.  Such a cool
experience to see a beautiful and mysterious environment.

>  Traveled
to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on our way back to Nairobi and stopped off in a mall
and whose picture did I see up on the wall at the Adidas store…none other than
Jeremy Wariner!!!  It was so weird
seeing someone I know plastered on the walls of a sports store.  It was comforting seeing someone that
is familiar after so many months!

>  Traveled
to Uganda to begin our third month of ministry in Africa.  First stop, Jinja, home of the Adrift
Adventure Camp.  Our whole squad
got to spend three days hanging out by the Nile River and experiencing a place
that is spoken of in the bible…it was kind of awe-inspiring to be in the places
that you read about in God’s word.

>  Within
that three day time period was my 31^st birthday…I can honestly say
it was the best birthday EVER and I will have to get pretty creative if I ever
want to try and top this one.  I
got to bungee into the Nile River, then most of our squad went white-water
rafting down class 5 rapids!  I was
fortunate enough that all of our guys let me go on a raft with them so we could
get the most out of our experience…and boy was it fun!!!

***So right now you’re probably thinking this all sounds
like a bunch of fun stuff and that we aren’t really doing ministry…I’m getting
to that part right now.

>  We arrived
at our ministry sight in Uganda only to be quickly taken to the site of a
crusade that our contacts were hosting. 
The area was spiritually really heavy and there is a strong cult that
thousands of people follow.  My
team, which now consists of Emily Conner, Ashley Huizenga, Susie Virzi, Lauren
Sims, Caleb Dufresne and Jake Kennedy, went to several different schools to
teach the kids about who Jesus is and give them bibles so they can read the
truth of the word of God.  Several
of the kids wouldn’t even take the bibles because their parents were part of
the cult and they would be beaten if their parents found them with a bible.

>  Over the
next week at the crusade we spoke at three schools and did door to door
evangelism and, according to our contacts, 1,181 people accepted Christ that
week.  Now, that’s a shocking and
incredible number of people!  I’m
still a little skeptical at the depth of what people understand about the
decision they made and my prayer is for a lot of discipleship for those people
to really and truly know who Jesus is and the love that He pours out on them.

>  We went to
the wedding of the Bishop’s son and the Arch Bishop of all of Uganda did the
service…and the King of that province was there.  The next day I got to preach three services and one of them
had the Arch Bishop attending.  He
was there to rest and be fed that day…just a little bit intimidating…and the
services were televised so I was apparently on TV!!!

>  That week
we put on a youth rally for the youth of the church and the community…in Africa
youth can mean anyone from ages 8-35 so it was a broad range that we got to
speak to.  It was incredible and
the youth were all so attentive and purposeful with their questions.  We really felt a sense that the Lord
would continue to work in this community through these youth!

>  Now we’ve
come to Ireland and we’ve had a chance to get our spirits filled back up at the
Awakening.  All the squads who are
in the field right now had a dance competition a couple of days ago…guess who
dominated!!!  That’s right, N Squad
(that’s my squad)!!!  The level of
unity that this process of coming up with a dance for 50 people to perform,
teaching everyone how to do it and getting everyone excited about the
competition was incredible.  Our
squad has never been closer…we REALLY do have a family of 50 young people. 

>  After we
performed and WON, everyone asked to see the dance again and, of course, we
loved the idea of doing it again. 
In one part of it I flip over Caleb’s back.  Well, this second time I don’t quite know what happened, but
I landed bad…really bad…it felt like two knives had been jabbed straight into
the front of both of my ankles. 
But, I went on and finished. 
Two hours later the pain began to really set in…almost
instantaneously.  It was really
strange because I went from a slight tightness to excruciating pain in my left
foot.  I stuck my foot in an ice
bucket (hated that) but it just kept getting worse and worse.  I was convinced that something was
really wrong…possibly broken…but there was no way that I was going to go get it
checked out.  I’m tough,
right?  The stubbornness inside of
me was screaming for people to stop making such a big deal over this…they
wanted me to go to the hospital, they wanted guys to carry me to the car, they
wanted me to get in a wheelchair! 
Everything in me was resisting letting people help me, but the pain was
beginning to overtake my stubbornness. 
I was “talked” into going to the hospital to get it checked and now I’m
so thankful for all of the prayers and strong words from the squad coaches and
AIM staff who got me out of my own stubborn head because in that I got to see
God work in the most phenomenal way!!! 
Four hour hospital visit later the four other people who were with me
prayed over me and asked God to really show up.  Actually I don’t really know what they prayed because I was
in and out of sleep, but when I woke up there was absolutely NO pain in my
foot.  I was shocked!  I was convinced that I didn’t need an
X-Ray anymore, but I got one and there was nothing wrong…nothing.  They gave me crutches and pain medicine
and sent me on my way.  Less than a
day later I threw the crutches down and never got the prescription filled
because someone greater had already healed me…and a lot of other people through
the whole ordeal.  I don’t know if
I’ve ever experienced anything quite like the way God worked in my own body and
in my own spirit.  I honestly feel
a completely different mood has come over me.  I feel alive and excited again in a way I haven’t felt in a
LONG time.  Wow!