I Will Never Forget...

Upon returning home there are some very important lessons that the Lord has taught me over the course of this year. So I thought I would write out a few of them.

I will never forget:

·         That the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ, is the one and only true God. There is no other. Everything else in the world is just a set of rules that the devil has masqueraded as religion to keep people in bondage.

·         The Lord is good in every way, at all times, in every occurrence.

·         The Lord always brings life. We must stop attributing bad circumstances as the work of the Lord to punish or refine. The thief (devil) comes only to steal from you, kill you, and destroy you. But Jesus Christ comes to give you LIFE, life ABUNDANT! (John 10:10)

·         The Lord loves me (and you) and has adopted me as His child! (Romans 8:15-17) God loves me with a powerful love! He loves me with the same love with which the Father loves the Son. (John 17:23) That is powerful love!

·         Jesus Christ is the only sure foundation, the only truth for me to stand upon. He is dependable in every way and in every circumstance. Whether driving through Zimbabwe with a very unreliable company or dealing with spiritual oppression in Thailand, He is my safety.

·         Much of the time the very thing that sucks in life is the very thing that the Lord is using to refine me. So just suck it up and deal with it. And by "dealing with it" I don't mean complaining and asking "why me?" I mean start worshiping the Lord and thanking him that he has not left me alone, but cares enough for me to work on my character in order to bring me closer to himself.

·         Love is not a fuzzy feeling that we get when we like a person, rather love is choosing to put another person's best above yourself and your own convenience. (1 Corth 13:4-7)

 Ukraine Ministry

Instead of sending the teams to ministry locations, this month we were able to choose what ministry we wanted individually. I chose to go to Kiev along with four of my lovely squad members. Jen C, Sara, Kara, Krystle and I all boarded a train for Kiev, and after a surprisingly restful journey we arrived.

As things are always changing on the world race, our first week, very unexpectedly turned out to be a bit more of a restful week with a wonderful missionary couple, the Nelsons. Richard Nelson is a dentist and is here in Ukraine with his wife serving the people with dentistry. We were able to attend one of their clinics with the dental van from YWAM. The five of us put on a children's program for all of the kids who were waiting to see the dentist.

This week consisted of many different and varied ministry opportunities, but the Lord really blessed us with what we needed most, rest. Vicki Nelson has the gift of hospitality; we were very blessed and spoiled for the time we spent at her house.

The following week we made our way out to a camp that was being built for orphans. Jenny and Andrew, our ministry contacts, have been in Ukraine for over 10 years ministering to street kids, orphans. They are two very talented and blessed people. It was our pleasure to stay with them for the next week and a half to do construction work on the camp.

We spackled, sanded, painted, hammered, drilled, measured, etc. My personal favorite was working with the miter saw, but I also used to the circular saw. We had a great time. Truly I think our most favorite of all, was babysitting their beautiful 9 month old daughter, who is SO smart! We all loved her.

Our time at the camp was the perfect place to end our world race. I could not have asked for a better ministry for our last month.

VBS Kids Time!

The last week we were able to put on a four day kids program for all the little ones here in the village. As it was Easter time we focused on the Easter story and Holy Week. All the children came together with bright smiles on their faces eager to start playing games and singing songs.

Each day the children had so much fun, smiling and laughing as they came together learning about the Lord. I love children and how they are so joyful. I am so thankful to have had an opportunity to teach the kids and play games with them. Praise the Lord for the simple joys in life, like the smile of a child.

Teachable Moments

Jesus is always up to something in my life. I am never left alone. And that is a darn good thing. Lately Jesus has been talking to me about how everything in this life is truly all about him. The reason I am here is him. The reason this world was created is him. The reason I am loved is him. Its all about Jesus. And that truly is the best news.

Now please know that as I proclaim this...I am not perfect at it. Rather I still have many moments when I need to have a reminder that my goal is heaven and not anything on this earth. I think the important point though, is that in those moments, by Gods grace and his reminder, I am able to change my focus instead of being blindly set on things here on earth...even good things here on earth. Praise the Lord!

  A Romanian Moment

Just the other day I took a walk with my dear friend Dre on the road that goes over the hills behind the house. I was hoping to have some time alone with her to chat, but a very chatty girl named Maria saw us walk by and came to join us, also bringing her friend Catalina. Quickly I realized that Dre and I were not going to have our chat, rather we were going to spend our time trying to figure out what Maria was talking to us about.

We walked past the homestead that had the big mean dogs and continued on to the lakes. Soon we came upon the weeping willows that line the lake side. At this point, had Maria not been there, I would have just walked by as any other day, but Maria insisted that we all take a turn swinging from the branches of the weeping willow. This is something I had always wanted to do since I was a child! I felt a little sheepish as I approached the tree, all its branches floating in the wind covered in small green leaves. I took an extra large bundle of branches knowing that at 25 years I carry quite a few more pounds than my 10 year old friend. I took a step back, nearly held my breath as I lifted my feet off the ground. And as simple as that, in just a few seconds, I was a little girl again, swinging from the branches of a tree.

We continued our walk, Maria led us away from the big mean dogs on the road way..."they bite" she says. We scampered up the hills, and got a beautiful view of the valley. Then as we came down the other side Maria and her friend picked wild flowers for us. Whites, pinks and yellows...all the beautiful colors of the Romanian hill sides were now gathered in to a bouquet that we held. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk with an unexpected friend.

  Ministry Update

This past month my team and three members of team Gracers spent time in Malawi planting churches. I had never planted a church before, so I didn't really know what to expect. Pretty much our team, along with 6 amazing African Pastors who were also our translators, drove into some remote African villages where there was already a local Pastor contact. We would start our "program" which consisted of loud African praise music, dancing, about two testimonies and a gospel presentation. The people would generally flock over to our area to see what was going on, then we would split them up into different groups, give the gospel again and an alter call. I was always amazed to see that the majority of people would raise their hands to receive Christ. I was also amazed to see that no matter where we went the majority of people already knew who Jesus Christ is...even in the very remote villages! It seems to me that what is really needed around here is discipleship...hence planting churches.

It was a very challenging month as most of our days were very long filled with "programs," driving long distances, getting stuck in the African mud (a lot), then returning to spend the night in our tents. We went to about four different villages, which means that we picked up and moved camp five different times before we were done for the month. We were all spent by the end of our ministry time. I think I reached the end of my rope when I was sitting on the floor of Pastor Harvey's house, having just returned from our long ministry tour and I got shocked by the electrical outlet when trying to plug in my computer. I nearly cried. I was so done.

Among all the hard times during this month, the Lord really sustained me and allowed for me to learn a lot. One of the things that I learned was how much I love to teach. I really like teaching God's word, it is a passion inside of me that I have to let out. I also learned that evangelism is not so hard as I originally thought. The Lord taught me about being an empty vessel and just allowing him to move through me. He defiantly used every last drop of me...but you know I really wouldn't have it any other way. The Lord is so faithful, he never left me without.

Church Planting

So we are church planting, something that I have never seen as my forte. Throughout this trip I have realized how incredibly important evangelism is. Most of the time I have been the girl who stays in the nursery or works with the children's church, but the Lord has been calling me out. A passion for evangelism is being birthed...not that I want to be the person on the street corner shouting "Jesus loves you" all day long, but now instead of running from it, I know that I want it to be a part of my life and ministry.

Recently I have been reading a book by Bill Johnson called Face to Face with God. I loved reading his books because they always challenge me and draw me out of my comfort zones. Anyhow, I had just been reading a section about several well known revivalists and how they encountered the anointing of God. Needless to say, I was fired up again, desiring so strongly to experience the presence of God and preach about his character.

Well, that desire was soon satisfied when our pastor asked who wanted to give the message the next day when we planted a church...I said I would. I went to prepare, but instead of writing out a message I felt the Lord just calling me to worship, and so that's what I did. The next day on the drive to the village, the Lord was teaching me about being an empty vessel and just allowing him to speak through me.

When it came time to speak, I wasn't anxious, the few notes that I had written down never came out, I just open my mouth and listened as the Lord spoke an amazing message of his love to the people. It was great! Praise the Lord! God is so good and continues to teach me and grow me in MANY different ways this year.

An Oversight in travelling to Malawi

Let me share with you one of our most recent travel experiences and why we should have taken the plane. We boarded the bus at 9:30 am to make our way to Malawi...such began this journey through misery. Things were going quite well, until about two thirds of the way to the South Africa/ Zimbabwe boarder when the tire of our luggage trailer nearly fell off. The frame was bent to about a 60 degree angle. So we waited on the side of the road for about 2 hours while that got fixed.

Ok, on the road again. We got to the boarder to enter Zimbabwe, what a fiasco! It was late at night, dark, crowded, paper work for our vehicle took hours! As we waited in a traffic jam, three of our bags were stolen out of our trailer. Finally we made our way through only to realize down the road the missing bags. We were able to drive most of the night with out issue, but as the sun dawned we came across a police check point where the Prime Minister's car had rolled over. The police was not happy with us, apparently our driver had been speeding, and told us rather forcefully to return to South Africa.

This actually turned into a God moment as through lots of prayer and a couple hour wait in our car, Krystal felt in her heart that we should go offer to pray from the Prime Minister and the situation. We did so and God softened the heart of the Police Officer and we were allowed to pass through. Praise the Lord! He works in great ways!

But...we were then stopped at every police check point from there to the boarder! Each time we waited anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour!!! There were maybe 15 -20 check points. Ugh!!! Finally we made it to the Mozambique boarder and praise God we made it before the boarder closed. Here we were blessed with another hour and a half to two hour wait as what Jen dubbed as "the slowest man on earth" made out all of our visas.

By the time we got our passports back, our van being on the other side of the barrier, the police officer tried to tell us that "the boarder is closed, you go sleep over there." Calming the furry mounting in some of us, Tara, one of our gifted communicators talked with the police officer while we just walked across to the van disregarding what the Police officer said. Praise the Lord there was no issue.

Now that we were in Mozambique we were able to drive one of the bumpiest roads all night. Pretty much the driver would drive fast, fast, fast, then suddenly brake hard, then we would drive over a really rough gravelly patch of road...repeat all night long. I tried sleeping but such instances caused me to come out of my drowsy half -sleeping state thinking that we were out of control crashing into the ditch on the side of the road. After waking up in such a confusion about five times, I decided that trying to sleep was not worth the anxiety it caused.

We reached the Mozambique boarder about 1am, where we waited/slept in the can until it opened at six. Crossing into Malawi was quite a bit better, aside from getting to unpack our trailer and wait for the customs officer who was going to be there "just now." For those who don't know "just now" is an African phrase that means in a little while. We went through all of our luggage, then repacked and where on our way again. Our driver said it would only be about 4 hours until we reached our destination.

1,2,3,4...5,6,7,8,9 hours later we were pulling into Lilongwe were we met up with Pastor Harvey. Unpack, repack into his little van, a van that had some issues...issues such as when we were driving to the hostel the sliding door fell off the top hinges. That's right, the door just fell off! Sigh...what do you do? After 58 hours in a van, all you can do is laugh...laugh a lot and laugh hard. Praise God we made it safely and I got to sleep in a bed that night. God is good, He is good every moment, even if you are stuck in a van in very questionable circumstances for 58 hours of your life. J

Quick tip on travelling in Africa: always pack lots of water, lots of food, and pray hard!!!

Moments to Remember

One of the things I love about Swaziland is the children. They are just so ready to be loved! As soon as your drive up there they are at the door looking for that special person who will hold their hand or pick them up and just love on them. I have never met a bunch of children quite like these ones before...they are so precious!

One such afternoon as I was sitting with my friend Nozipho and her friends, they were chattering on half in English and half in Siswati about different things when they thought it would be a great idea to braid mine and Katie's hair (another world racer). So suddenly they are telling and motioning to me to sit down. Before my hinny even got down I had about 6 little hands swarming in my hair combing, parting braiding and more. Unfortunately, my hair (soft and straight) is much different from what they are used to (super curly and rough). So the braids where not staying. One, at this point might just give up and try something different, but these determined children decided it would be better to try smaller amounts of hair and pull harder. Ouch! Alas, my hair would not cooperate and they gave up, placing my blonde strands back into the clip where they started. One of the many moments that I will cherish with these precious children.