-do you have 6 weeks of winter and not 6 months
-do you milk a cow and then drink the frothy and warm milk that you just squeezed out of it(not good)
-do you scrape your nail polish off with a knife because there’s no nail polish remover
-do you know your whole team’s wardrobe including underwear and socks
-do you not wash your towel for a month
-do you get lice for 6 months (don’t worry it’s not me )
-do you go to bed at 8:30
-do you wear the same outfit for a week or more (i need a new outfit)
-is your second home the bathroom...
-do you throw your used toilet paper in trash cans
-do you misunderstand English as a foreign language
-do you get overwhelmed when you see more than 2 shampoos (so many choices!)
-do you eat silk worms as your Christmas feast mmm...
-do you think a 15 hour train ride is short (it is... the lasted train i was on was 49 hours)
-do you think an out-of-date chocolate bar is gooood (hard as a rock but GOOD)
-do you long for a good cup of coffee and not Nescafé
-do you not bathe for 4 days or more
-do you hoard your snacks so they won’t be gone in 5 minutes
-do you wish you could be by yourself
-do you say hello and goodbye 11 times to people passing through life
-do you go through multiple pairs of headphones in a month
-do you get confused as to what country you’re in
-do you have 11 different currencies in your purse
-do you bathe in rice patties
-do you get so excited when your contact has a blow dryer (woohooo)
-do you not know where you’re going in another country until 2 hours before you leave
Hey guys! We made it to Romania-- month 10!! Today we officially have 2 months left on the race. It's crazy to think that this journey in my life is almost complete. I'm looking forward to the next few months and continuing seeking what the Lord has for me now and after the race. I officially booked my ticket home, and it's really hard to stay focused here since it's so close to the end. This month we are working at camp getting ready for summer. It's beautiful here; we're in the middle of the beautiful Romanian countryside. This month we're doing lots of manual labor, and I enjoy doing projects around the campsite. I think it'll make it easier to be focused here since I enjoy the work. We are also working with two other teams this month, and I enjoy getting to know them more. Yay for Romania!!
Selah.In our month 8 debrief Noe shared with us what it mean to Selah. In Psalms you will see this word a lot. It means to pause and reflect, take a breath. In my life I feel like I’m always going, especially on the world race when we are moving every month. I look at this word and Gods tells me to slow down and just take a breath, rest in me. It’s just one of those words that has stayed with me. So when life is too busy, Selah, take a breath and enjoy your life. Life should be fun!!
The World Race we're all about cheap travel. So when we landed in Kiev, Ukraine we had to hop on our train which was 19 hours to get to our ministry site. Here we are staying with an American family. Their family is awesome. They treat us with all the American fixings. Here we are going to be doing eye clinics and giving out free glasses which these people can't afford to get. We've also been working with youth groups and have had them over for taco night. Next week we will be traveling to their town to spend more time with them. We've also been helping with the homeless and doing feedings. The last feeding we went to there was an old man that caught my attention. He was blind. All the other homeless people had to help him around. He would sit in front of a store all day asking for money because he couldn't get around because he couldn't see. In Ukraine you have to have a passport to get a job or go to school, and he has no hope because people are not going to hire hime just because he's blind and the governement is not helping. Leah, one of my new teammates, gave him a scarf just to keep him warm at night. I'm excited to see what God does in their lives.
So the past month in China I couldn't update you because there was no internet... CHINA.
China was a great month even though the sky was gray, and we couldn't see the sun. The kids we got to work with were awesome. In China we worked with an organization called ICC. It was an orphanage for all kids, but mostly for kids with disabilites. Because in China, as you know, they're only allowed to have one kid. If they have a kid with a disability, they get rid of the baby. There were 24 babies in a room to only 3 caretakers. They didn't get very much attention because there were so many of them. They would sit in their chairs or sleep in their cribs all day. It was so sad to see these kids not wanted. There was a little boy that we called "old man" because his Chinese name was too hard to say. His story was that he was found in a dumpster because he was not perfect. In China it was weird going into a month where we had a 9-5 job. It was kinda preparing us for when we go back into the real world.
Also in China, we got to spend a week in Beijing for our 8-month debrief where they started to talk about us re-entering home. It's crazy that we're coming home in 86 days. I'm very excited about coming home. I think that's one thing that's been hard-- trying to be here while thinking about going home and what's next. But thankfully, I have my team to keep my accountable. Also on the debrief, our leader Brandon, decided that God called him to step down. So that meant team changes. Sarah, from a different team, is now our leader which she is one of the most awesome girls ever. And Leah, is also a new teammate which means we lost Kayla and Jaime. World Race is all about getting out of your comfort zone.
In China we got to do some crazy things like, go see the Terracotta Soldiers. It was crazy that a man buried a thousand soldiers in his tomb. I also got to go to the Great Wall with the squad. It's been something I've always wanted to do since I was a kid. While we were in Beijing we also got to see the Bird's Nest and the Cube from the 2008 Olympics. And we pretty much stayed in Tiananmen Square. We got to stay in an awesome hostel that was a short walk from there with all the American things you needed.
*Due to privacy I cannot post the kids’ pictures online.
We had a weekend off, so the girls on the team decided we should do something fun. Singapore was one of our options and not too far away. One of our dearest friends that we’ve met here, Eli, has to leave every month. She is from Mexico and her visa expires. Conveniently, the weekend we had off we left for Singapore. We walked to the train station and got on our 10-hour train ride. We arrived in Singapore around 10am. Once we got there we did some shopping, had some delicious American food, and got yummy coffee. We went to Universal Studios and walked around the harbor. The most fun part of the day was when I luged down a huge hill and ended at an amazing beach to watch the sunset. Ending our day with an amazing water and light show and a dinner at Mozza, a swanky pizza place. Let’s just say my weekend was amazing. It was a weekend that I needed… a relaxing, calm weekend with just the girls!
We are now finishing up Malaysia and as I’m writing this we are waiting to get on our train to Kuala Lumpur to catch our plane to China. It will take us 5 days to get there, so keep us in your prayers. While I’m in China I will not have internet, so I will talk to you in 4 weeks!
Hey Guys we made it to malasia after a 9 hour train ride. The train ride was crazy, every minute the train felt like it was going to flip over. It was the scariest mode of transportation I have taken on the race yet. This month we have been teahcing English at the Center. The Center is kind of like a school. Mr. and Mrs. K. are the most wonderful loveing, caring people that I have met and they are the owners of the Center. Here in the small community that we live in there are so many different cultures. There are Chinese, Malays, Indians and probably more than I am missing. Malaysia is pretty much the melting pot of Asia. Here they struggle with just loving eachother and not judging by the color of their skin or religion. God has been teaching me a lot the last week about the word love and what it means to love someone. These people look at one another and are disgusted when all they really have to do is love eachother. I think sometimes its hard for us as a team to love eachother just because we are around eachother 24\7. We live with eachother, eat and sleep together. Sometimes it is a bit difficult but we have to chose to love eachother even when we don't want to.
So on Saturday our contact wanted to take us on a tour of the community. He pulls up in a van and if any of you watch lost the van looked like the dharma vans. So we got in and hoped this van would make it to wherever we were going. We went up to these cool looking caves, went to a river and had lunch. On the way home it was a bit difficult for this van to make it over a speed bump. On the way home we had to make it up a hill, for us this was a small hill but for our poor litte van it was gigantic. So Mr. K. starts driving up the hill and the van begins to slow down. We soon noticed that the van was slowly going backwards and then completely stopped. Mr. K. told us to walk to the top of the hill and he would meetus there. As we were walking he waved us back, saying that the van wouldn't start. He asked us to push the van up the hill and that didn't work out so great so we just pushed it to the side of the road until Kim came and saved the day.
Its crazy how we have been here for a week and we will soon be on the way to china for eighth month debrief and two weeks of ministry. Last night my team had a meeting and the AIM office sent an email asking we if we are going home with AIM or not its a bit crazy how we are starting to talk about the plans of going home. We are on month 7 and have 4 months left but we still need your prays !! thanks again for your support
So when we landed in Kiev, Ukraine we had to hop on our train which was 19 hours to get to our ministry site. Here we are staying with an American family. Their family is awesome. They treat us with all the American fixings. Here we are going to be doing eye clinics and giving out free glasses which these people can't afford to get. We've also been working with youth groups and have had them over for taco night. Next week we will be traveling to their town to spend more time with them. We've also been helping with the homeless and doing feedings. The last feeding we went to there was an old man that caught my attention. He was blind. All the other homeless people had to help him around. He would sit in front of a store all day asking for money because he couldn't get around because he couldn't see. In Ukraine you have to have a passport to get a job or go to school, and he has no hope because people are not going to hire hime just because he's blind and the governement is not helping. Leah, one of my new teammates, gave him a scarf just to keep him warm at night. I'm excited to see what God does in their lives.
