Our amazing squad the last day of the Race. Such an incredibly passionate and talented group of people!
I have been back in the States for just over three weeks,
and I think the one word that best describes this time of transition is.....WEIRD.
I still forget that I can flush toilet paper and still carry
some back up toilet paper in my purse just in case the bathroom doesn't have
any.
I am still amazed at how clean bathrooms are and that the
toilets are western style, actually flush, have toilet paper, and soap! (A rare
luxury on the race)
My body is still not used to AC or ice in my drinks,
therefore I always have a jacket with me even though I live in Florida and it is in the
90's outside.
I have had a few awkward moments of starting to reach for a
stranger's baby to hold it, then realizing that it is not culturally appropriate in America.
For the first few days home, I was always surprised by the
fact that almost everyone around me spoke English. I didn't have to play a game
of charades just to order a meal or ask where a bathroom was, what a luxury!
Stepping into my closet for the first time was like walking into a store, the
variety was almost overwhelming! To actually have clothes hanging and in
drawers and not a back pack has been amazing!
I am excited that I get to choose what I eat for each meal,
which will NEVER include rice...ever. Eleven months of rice will leave you never wanting
to eat it, look at it, smell it, or even think about it.
I have enjoyed Diet Dr. Pepper, Moe's, Chick-fiil-A, alot of
real cheese, dill pickles, fluffy towels, the smell of clean laundry fresh from
a dryer, not having to hand wash my clothes, real coffee...sometimes multiple
times a day, fast internet, my own room that I don't have to share with six
other people, my own bed, and spending time catching up with friends.
My emotions have been all over the place since coming home. Sometimes
I feel nothing, sometimes I am extremely excited for the future, sometimes my
anxiety about not knowing what is in my near future overwhelms me, sometimes
the amount of hurt I have seen in this world overwhelms me, sometimes the
amount of joy that I have experienced and witnessed this year brings me to my
knees in awe of our Father,....the list could go on but I think you get the idea.
I am all over the place!
The fact that one of my best friends in the entire world
left for the race a few days after I got home, did not help my crazy emotions. The Lord did bless Sara and I with a day and a half together in 2
years, which I am grateful for. However having to say goodbye again after such
a short period of time was really hard. The Lord is going to use Sara to touch
so many lives and to call so many people into greatness and I am so excited
that we will share this crazy world race journey.
I am SO blessed to have these incredible women in my life. A day spent with the three of them a day after getting home was exactly what my heart needed. The Lord has been SO faithful during this transition period! (Melissa top left, Emily top right, and Sara bottom right)
Sara is currently in the Philippines so please keep her, her team, and her squad in your prayers (check out her blog at saranorton.theworldrace.org). The Lord is SO incredible and
gave Sara the opportunity to meet my little man, baby Sparrow, in the Philippines!!!(Check out my previous blog about baby Sparrow, and to see Sara's blog
about meeting him copy and paste: http://saranorton.theworldrace.org/?filename=two-day-thrilla-to-manila ). He hasn't been in the hospital in 5 months, which is
incredible! This little guy's story is one of healing and redemption and I know
that the Lord has huge plans for his little life!!!
It is hard to even begin to put the past 11 months into
words. One thing I do know is that I am extremely blessed to have been given
this opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in some of the darkest
places in this world. I am blessed to have seen the injustices in this world
first hand, because through my heartache I was given the smallest glimpse of
just how much our Father loves us and cares for us. I held orphans, fed the
hungry, spent time with widows, sat with families in the slums, and loved on
street kids. This year I discovered who I am in Christ and the authority I have
through Him. I experienced the Lord in ways I never dreamed possible. A fire
was ignited in the deepest part of me to be the face of Jesus to this world. My
heart was radically changed this year, and the Lord ignited a passion for long
term missions in my heart.
So now the question of what's next....
As of now I feel called to gain nursing experience for a few
years in the U.S., however I know that I went to nursing school to take care
of the sick around the world. I am not sure where I will end up in a few years,
but I haven't been able to stop thinking about Kenya and I have an unnatural love
for African babies. I love them from the deepest part of my soul, it is a crazy
love that only our Father could have placed inside of me. Who would have
thought the non-outdoorsy, city loving girl may end up living in the bush of Africa? Sometimes all I can do is laugh at God's sense of
humor.
Most of all I want to say THANK YOU for all of your
financial and prayer support that made this year possible. Through your support
you touched the lives of so many people in this world. Words really can't
express just how grateful I am for you making this year a possibility. My life
has been radically changed through this journey and I will never be the same. Thank
you!
S-squad representing at the Awakening, 2 weeks after getting back.
(A worship conference for world race alumni, family, and friends)
I am currently in Bangalore, India, after a few days of travel, including a 36-hour train ride for our FINAL month of the race!!!!! I still can't believe the race is almost over! We will be working with YWAM this month doing various types of ministry throughout the city. However, before I jump into this month I wanted to catch you up on the end of our month in Tanzania.
Our "tribal" village experience wasn't quite what we expected, but it was exactly what it needed to be. The landscape was breathtaking and left me in awe of our magnificent Creator. Below are some pictures that give you a glimpse of our nine day journey to three small villages.
Tent city in the first village. The new church plant is the tin roof structure in the background.
Tent city outside of the church in the second village.
This is what happens when 14 mzungus show up and set up 14 tents in a small village.
Since this was month three of drawing a crowd we started having a little fun with it. Although it looks like children were terrified by the mzungus running towards them, rest assured they all returned 10 seconds later to continue watching us in our tents.
I got to hold these girls' sweet baby brother for two hours!!!! I LOVED having a baby strapped to me!
It doesn't get any better than snuggling sweet babies!!!!
This beautiful little one didn't even like mzungus looking at her. If we came within 10 feet of her she would start crying.
This is the crowd that gathered within two minutes of us arriving in the third, very remote, village. The village has only seen two white people ever. Needless to say, when 14 mzungus showed up we were the talk of the village.
This is the crowd we gathered when we were putting up our tents, and this was the crowd that remained outside of our tents everyday while we were there.
This is just how curious the kids were...we kind of felt like we were in a zoo. The kids would just watch us in our tents all day long.
This was our "toilet" in the third village (with the church in the background), that I opted not to use when the sun went down due to an excessive amount of critters. I would just pop a squat behind it or behind a bush (I have come a long way since the start of the race).
Beautiful African women!!!!!
The third village was what I pictured Africa being like, including incredible sunsets and the most stars I have ever seen!
Needless to say we were all left in awe of our incredible Creator.
I got another baby strapped to me!!!! LOVED every minute of it!!!
This was the crowd of adults we gathered while doing our children's program. We kind of felt like celebrities since SO many people just wanted to see us and touch us.
I had the privalege of naming these two three-week-old twins. It all started with me holding the baby on the right. As soon as I got the baby the older women were trying to tell me something in their local tongue (which I obviously didn't understand), so I grabbed our translater to translate what they were saying. Come to find out when you hold one twin you have to hold the other one to bless both babies. So next thing I know another baby is placed in my arms. Needless to say, I was in heaven holding two newborn African babies! Not only did I get to name them (David on the left and Paul on the right) but the Lord also provided an opportunity for me to share the gospel with their mother and she ended up accepting Christ! Such an incredible experience that I will never forget!
Yet another incredible sunset!!!
Visiting the babies in their home :)
With Geneva, the mom of the twins.
Apparently a mzungu holding an African baby is quite entertaining. Everyone just pointed and laughed as I snuggled with yet another precious African baby.
I was sad to leave Africa and all of the sweet African children, however I know that I will be back there one day :) Hope you enjoyed all of the pictures! Since this is our last month we are trying to take advantage of every moment, so I am not sure how much I will blog this month.
Please pray for my squad and me as we are reflecting on the past 11 months and preparing to return home at the end of this month. Words cannot even begin to express how grateful I am for everyone's encouraging words, powerful prayers, and financial support. This journey has been life-changing to say the least and would not have been possible without all of YOU! I can't wait to share more of my heart when I return to the States in less than a month!
The
second half of our time in Uganda flew by! We prayed with patients at
a local hospital, visited the elderly of the church, did evangelism
in a rock quarry (For more information on this ministry check out my teammate Mary's blog), spoke with the girls at a local
high school (Check out Mary's blog about this
ministry as well), and visited a local home for disabled children.
After
finishing up our time in Mukuno we headed to Jinja to meet up with
our squad for bungee jumping and rafting the Nile. No, I did not
bungee jump however I did raft class 5 rapids on the Nile. Although I
feared for my life and swallowed half of the Nile, I still had an
incredible time!
I am the one in the back right of the raft underwater. One of the moments I feared for my life.
I am in the back left of the both praying that we don't flip going through this rapid.
After
surviving the Nile we began our journey to Tanzania. In order to give
you a glimpse into how crazy our travel day was to Tanzania, I
included the time table of events below....
7/1
-12PM:
All packed up waiting for the bus scheduled to leave at 12
-3PM:
Bus arrives and we all quickly load up to begin what we thought would
be a 28 hour bus ride.
7/2
-8AM:
17 hours after beginning our journey and 2 border crossings later we
make it to Tanzania
-9
AM: Spot 6 giraffes walking in the distance! The first few hours of
our journey in Tanzania seem almost unreal! It is what I always
pictured Africa being like: flat dry dirt with very African looking
trees and shrubs, mud huts, Masai tribes dressed in traditional
clothing walking along the road, and wild animals running in the
distance. The scenery was breathtaking!
-5:30PM:
Bus breaks down after stopping for a quick dinner
-8:30PM:
After spending 3 hours waiting on a spare part to arrive to fix our
bus, we were informed that the wrong part was on the way and we would
be spending the night in the restaurant we were currently sitting in
until a replacement bus arrived in the morning.
-10PM:
World racers take over the restaurant, start setting up tents and
pulling out sleeping mats.
This is what it looks like when world racers take over a restaurant for the night.
-11PM:
Head to bed to try to get a few hours of sleep before we pack
everything back up at 4AM to get on the road.
7/3
-3:30AM:
Awoken by people quickly trying to pack up their things since the new
bus just arrived.
-3:45AM:
Managed to take down my tent, deflate my sleeping pad, and gather all
of my belongings in 15 minutes (My best time yet!) thinking we were
leaving within a few minutes.
-4AM:
Settle in to my seat on the bus to learn that we would actually not
be leaving until 5AM which is the earliest buses are legally allowed
to travel for safety reasons.
-5AM:
We are finally on our way again.
-11:30AM:
Arrive at the central bus station in Dar Es Salaam and grab a quick
lunch of chips (French fries) before we catch our second bus to our
ministry site two hours away.
-1:30PM:
Four teams pile into a very small bus to head to Morogoro.
-4:30PM:
Close to 50 hours after first starting our journey we arrive in
Morogoro and were greeted by our contact's smiling face, bringing
an end to our crazy travel day.
This
month we will be working with a local church doing door to door
evangelism, Bible Studies, Prayer services, and Sunday services. We
also have the incredible opportunity to visit tribal villages for the
next 9-14days, which means no internet and no blog updates. We will
be living in our tents without electricity or running water, which I
am quite excited about! I am sure I will have many stories to share
once we come back to civilization, but until then don't expect to
hear from me.
I apologize for my lack of blogs this month, but it has been quite a busy month so far. We are currently in Mukono, Uganda working with Christ Ambassador Church and Champion's Christian Primary School. This month we will be splitting our time between two different ministries. Since we are about to head to our second ministry, I figured it would be a good time to let everyone know what we have been up to for the first half of this month.
Phil and I being swarmed by some of the students at the school we are teaching at.
First of all I just want to mention how blessed we are this month! We are staying at a guest house with an incredible roof top terrace overlooking the city. The view is amazing, especially at sunset.
Our contact's wife provides us with fantastic meals filled with fruits and vegetables, a rarity on the race. Bananas are a staple here in Uganda so I am quite grateful they are one of my favorite fruits!
Our primary ministry this month is teaching in the school started by our contact and his wife. For some reason, people in foreign countries seem to think that we are all qualified to be teachers. Not only are we teaching the students English, but we are also teaching math, science and religious studies! It is astounding how much you forget from those early years of education! The first day the teacher handed me his science book and notes and then just walked away. Awesome! After quickly reviewing the transpiration of plants, I began instructing the group of 6th and 7th graders to the best of my ability. I have come to realize that the key to teaching is confidence. If you act like you know the material and speak confidently the children actually think you know what you are doing! It's amazing! This ministry has stretched me and challenged me, but I have grown SO much during our time here because of it.
The sweet preschool class that I fell in love with. I would visit their class before and after teaching the middle school classes.
Our afternoons are filled with various church activities. We have gone house to house, taught home cell Bible Studies and preached at three local churches.
Praying healing for the sweet baby sitting in my lap. Her mother brought her to me after we finished house to house one day and asked if I could pray for healing for a birth defect the child has.
Last Sunday, I ended up being pulled out of the service to teach a Sunday school class. Praise the Lord our team has put on children's programs prior to this month because I had absolutely no preparation time. It was me and nearly 40 children under the age of five. We sang songs, we danced and we laughed. I doled out roles of Daniel and the lion's den and directed them in an hilarious reenactment. I was SO completely filled with joy after that time spent with God's beautiful children I almost couldn't contain it! I even got to snuggle with a little three-month-old for an hour after the service! It was one of my most favorite mornings of the race thus far.
The sweet three-month old that I was able to hold. I was in heaven!
My days this month have been filled with children, which has been AMAZING! Our walk from the guest house to the school is filled with sweet neighborhood children greeting us with huge smiles and shouts of "Mzungu, Mzungu! By-ee!" The more I hear little voices crying out in excitement when they see us coming the more I fall madly in love with African children! We even have little toddlers that dance and sing for us every time we pass by their house.
A sweet little girl that ran up to me and grabbed my hand as we were walking home one day. She managed to find me again the next day. We didn't talk, we just smiled at each other and walked since she didn't seem to know any English. Sometimes a smile is all you need.
When we arrive at the school we are swarmed with children all wanting to give us huge hugs. They run full speed up the hill towards us with such force that it's a miracle we manage to stay upright. Everyday I fall more in love with Africa, specifically African children. I am going to miss the children at Champion's school, however I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for the second half of this month. Stay tuned!
I LOVE Africa! Every day I fall more in love with the people
and the beautiful country of Kenya! Somehow the sky seems SO much bigger here
and it's grandness leaves me in awe of our brilliant Creator. We have had the
privilege of participating in a variety of ministries this month, which has
allowed all of us to use our specific gifts and talents for God's glory. I
wanted to share with you an opportunity I had to use some of my nursing
knowledge.
This is the "front office" at Liberty school.
As I mentioned in my previous blog I had the opportunity to educate children at a rural
school how to properly care for wounds and their sick relatives. In order to
make the lesson more interactive I had decided that I would draw cuts and
scrapes on me and my teammates with a red marker, then cover them with dirt so
the kids could practice cleaning wounds. I knew that most of the children would
not have the typical things we would use to clean a cut with, so I decided to
bring a few of our clean socks. I figured most of the children would at least
be able to find some form of a clean cloth at home even if it was a sock.
The beautiful children that we had the pleasure of teaching.
They were always SO attentive! (Photo taken by my teammate Angela.)
After teaching the kids the various
steps involved in cleaning a wound, I asked if anyone wanted to help clean our
"wounds" to practice what I just taught them. I was expecting a lot of
volunteers since they all seemed to be so engaged while I was teaching, however
not a single hand went up when their teacher asked them in Swahili. After some
more coaxing from the teacher four kids reluctantly got up from their seats and
came to the front of the classroom. Despite the lack of enthusiasm I was ready
for them to show me everything they learned. First they pretended to wash their
hands...good, they remembered step one....then they each got a clean sock and
dipped it in the clean water....awesome, they remembered step two and three....now
it was time for them to actually clean the dirt off of the "scrape" on my knee.
So far so good I thought, then as I sat there with my "hurt" knee ready to be
cleaned, I suddenly realized why they were so reluctant to volunteer.
Each of the children proceeded to clean THEIR wounds with our
socks and some water. They were cleaning their wounds in front of their entire
class with a few of our old socks! We were all shocked at what was playing out
before us. As I watched each of the four children clean their infected and
painful wounds with our socks, my heart broke for them. After getting past the
shock of what I was seeing I lovingly encouraged them to stop cleaning their
wounds with the socks, since I could bring back supplies to properly cleanse
their wounds the following day. I thanked the children for volunteering and
told the teacher I would treat the wounds when we came back the next day and we
just moved on to the next subject.
Some of the children who "volunteered" to clean their own wounds.
They are always SO joyful! If it wasn't for the misunderstanding I would have never
known these children had infected wounds. (Photo taken by Angela)
The following day I cleaned
infected wounds on six children, a few of which I recommended see a doctor due
to the extent of the infection. Unfortunately, when you barely have enough
money to eat, seeing a doctor for an infected cut is the last on the list of
priorities. I had a limited
knowledge of wound care as well as limited medical supplies, but I knew that I
was probably going to be the only medical care those children get. Feeling
completely overwhelmed with the infections I saw before me, all I could do was
pray for each child as I did my best to cleanse their wounds. In that moment I
truly had to rely on the Lord for wisdom and discernment in how to treat each
of their infected cuts.
That day at the school is one I
will never forget. I was full of so many emotions that day from shock, to
anger, to sadness; and my heart broke for each of those children and their
living situations. However, I know that the Lord put each of us at that school
to use the skills and talents He has given us to touch the lives of those
children. There are so many unimaginably tough realities in this world; however
I know that I serve a God who is infinitely bigger than the problems in this
world. I wake up each day willing to go wherever He leads me, to speak whatever
He wants me to speak, and to do whatever He wants me to do so that He may be
glorified in this world. I am humbled every day at the thought that the Creator
of the Universe allows me to be a part of His plan and works through me to
bring His light to this hurting world.
We have been in Kitale, Kenya for just over a week now and I LOVE it here! Kitale is situated at the base of Mt. Elgon, which means incredible scenery including rolling green hills! The contrast of the green hills, the red brown dirt roads, and the crazy intense blue sky takes my breath away sometimes. It is SO beautiful and I am loving every minute of living here! The fact that we are at a higher altitude makes our morning jogs a little bit more challenging, but we are hoping to summit Mt. Elgon at the end of the month if the weather permits so we just consider it a part of our training.
Picture of the beautiful area we live in, with Mt. Elgon in the distance.
Our contact, Pastor Moses, is one of the wisest men I have ever met. We have the incredible privilege of staying with his family in their home, and have felt nothing but welcomed since the day we arrived. We have comfortable beds and hot showers, which was the last thing I expected in Africa. The other day we found out that Pastor Moses's wife, Roslyne, fasted and prayed for us for a week before we even arrived. How amazing is that? That is just a small glimpse of just how incredible our contact is this month. Pastor Moses pours wisdom into us every single day and treats us like we are his own children. We have nicknamed him Papa Bear because of how much he cares for each for us. The amount of love that he has shown us in just a week's time has blown us all away! I am SO excited to continue to soak up as much wisdom and knowledge as possible during the rest of our time here.
The food that has been cooked for us every day has been delicious! It is probably my favorite food of the past eight months, mainly because no meal looks the same. Variety is quite rare when you are living on $4 a day for food, but somehow Roslyne manages to blow us away with every meal. We are especially excited when a meal includes our absolute favorite food: chapatti, which is kind of like a mix between a tortilla and a crepe. We may have a tendency to burst into song and dance whenever we are served chapatti because it is just that good! Pastor Moses thinks our excitement for chapatti is a little crazy, however he does not know just how appreciative we are to have chapatti and not ugali. We have managed to only eat ugali once since being in Africa, and I am SO grateful!
Our ministry this month is going to consist of a variety of different things. Each Sunday one of us will have the opportunity to preach at local churches that our contact oversees. So far Christina and Cara have spoken incredible truth that I am sure impacted many lives. Apart from preaching we have also had the opportunity to visit a local private hospital, where we talked with and prayed for the patients that were there. It was quite an experience to see how primitive a private hospital is, and I can't imagine what the public hospital is like. We will have an opportunity to visit the public hospital at least once this month, which I am sure will be an eye opening experience to say the least.
The labor and delivery ward.
The one treatment room.
We also spent a few days this past week teaching at a rural school for poor and orphaned children, which I LOVED! Teaching is not my favorite type of ministry; however, dancing and singing with 60 beautiful African children quickly changed my perspective on things. We will be teaching for two more days this upcoming week, and I will have the opportunity to use some of my nursing skills to teach one of the lessons. Many of the children have to take care of their sick parents or grandparents, so the teachers asked if we could do a simple teaching on how to care for the sick. It is going to be quite different to teach a 6 year old how to care for a sick adult, but that is their reality and I am going to do my best to teach them how to best care for the ones they love with the limited resources they have.
The rural school that we taught at for four days.
The sweet children we had the privilege of teaching.
(Photo taken by my teammate Angela)
It took me two days to get sweet little Agape to warm up to me.
If we even looked at him the first two days he would burst into tears,
so the fact that I was able to hold him for a few minutes with no tears was a huge success.
(Photo taken by Angela)
Then he had the realization that I was a mzungu.... (Photo taken by Angela)
I decided to try my luck with Agape one more time before leaving.
However poor Agape was tired, hungry, and sick of mzungus by this point.
(Photo taken by Angela)
I am excited for the other amazing ministry opportunities we are going to have this month including house to house evangelism, visiting a local women's prison, visiting the local slum, and visiting an orphanage. So far my time in Kenya has been incredible and I only see it getting better as the month goes on.
I just wanted to quickly let you know that before heading to Africa there were a few team changes, and I am beyond excited to tell you that team W.O.W. (Women of Worth) will now be led the incredible Christina Palmer (Click here to check out her amazing blog!) After much prayer, Mary decided that the Lord was leading her to step down as a leader and into a new season of rest. By doing this, it provided the opportunity for someone else with AMAZING leadership skills to step up into a new role. Our team is the same, just with the addition of Christina as our leader. We have been under Christina's leadership for about a week and half and our team has already grown tremendously. It is amazing what a new perspective can do for the growth of a team. Christina is the breath of fresh air that our team needed to continue to grow as a team and as individuals. I can't wait to see the how Christina continues to grow as a leader and how she continues to push us to look more like Christ every day.
Hey everyone! Just wanted to give you a quick update about where I am and what we will be doing this month. I am currently in Nairobi, Kenya preparing to head to Kitale, Kenya where we will be doing ministry this month. I realized that I had never mentioned we would be going to East Africa instead of South Africa. Instead of South Africa, we will be going to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, or possibly Rwanda. We have only been in Kenya for two days and I am already in love with the people here. They are so friendly and warm and I feel so welcomed everywhere I go! The weather is also AMAZING! It is the perfect temperature during the day and gets a little bit chilly at night, which is a nice break from the intense heat in Cambodia.
This month we will be working with Pastor Moses just outside of Kitale. We are not sure what exactly we will be doing as far as ministry goes, but I am pretty sure we will be doing house to house evangelism and preaching. We may also have the opportunity to visit an orphanage, do prison outreach, and hospital visits. We will be living with Pastor Moses and his family, which I am really excited about! We have what is supposed to be an 8-hour bus ride ahead of us, which may be quite the adventure from what I hear about bus travel in Africa. It also isn't too comforting that the flight attendant on our flight when hearing we were going to Kitale, only talked about how terrible the roads are. With that said, please pray for safe travels as we head to Kitale tomorrow. I am not sure what the internet will look like, but I will post blogs as often as possible. I am SO excited to be in Africa and can't wait to share all the amazing things the Lord does in this incredible place!
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