This is the month. The phenomenal month that when you get home and people say tell me about your race, aka sum up the past year of your life, this is the month that you’d talk about. The month where you say God broke me this month. God showed how much He loves. And even more God showed me that His love has no bounds and that sometimes He’ll use me to be His love to others.
Coming into this month there was already an expectation that it was going to be different, set apart; a month on the race that alone could make this whole 11 months worth it. Little did I know that this month was going to make my life worth it, that for the next however many years I can say I do what I do because of two boys that changed my life in Thailand.
This month we got to work with an organization that works on the preventative side of sex trafficking. They go in and offer the family a place to live, go to school, learn a trade and be successful for the child so that they can be saved from the industry, so sweet ministry. I knew that I was going to love this ministry right off the bat just cause I’ve been longing for the chance to work at an orphanage or group home all race.
Two boys is all it took for my world to get wrecked. Sitting in Church Easter Sunday and these two boys came in their Thai outfits and sit right next to me, one on each side and from that moment on I was putty in their hands. I don’t know what happened that day, it was a normal Church service and a normal experience that kids sit with you on the race, but this was different these two boys had my heart.
Getting to hear their story was heart breaking. I knew that it would be just from the organization’s mission but somehow I wasn’t prepared for this. Gnot, 11, had parents who where alcoholics and didn’t have enough money to support their addiction and their family so they choose their addiction and Gnot was out on the street. But money was still not good enough for the family so they had to take out loans and there is a sure fire way to pay off loans and that is through your child and their purity. So Gnot went to live under his Aunt’s house that did not have enough money to support him, so he would live a mixture between under the house and in the jungle. Then came that life changing moment, an offer. His parents got an offer for Gnot. But praise God that there is this organization got wind of it and also offered his parents something, a better life for Gnot. The parents went with the later offer. Soon Gnot’s Aunt was offered a very similar offer for Mot, 8, but the organization got wind again and gave the same offer. So the boys ended up at this home, where I got to meet them.
Gnot and Mot are phenomenal boys. God used them to sow me that even though there is a language barrier, cultural barrier and just over all a barrier. Love is all it takes. It’s weird how just loving on two kids for one month can change you, but it has and I glad I got to meet these two future amazing on fire men of God. Through volleyball, wrestling and being a human jungle gym for these two boys I’ve grown to love them and have gotten to see God’s love for me in my love for them. I have loved Thailand and I have loved every moment that I have gotten to spend with these boys, future leaders.
To be honest with you, I have no clue what the post-race life will bring. I’m still called to Rome. And I’m still called to youth. This month was epic and I did ask God what He had for me in Thailand and it was pretty clearly said, “Don’t deviate from Rome.” I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see these boys again or if I’ll get to know what happens to them, but I do know whenever I huge a kid, give a student a high five, through a child in the air for fun or just love on somebody, it will be as if I am loving on Mot and Gnot. And thanks to these boys, I will always have a reminder of why I do ministry and how deeply God loves me.
It's so weird sitting in month eight and looking back upon the feelings of the race. All the stress, all the fear of the unkown and the known. A great example is the fact that I knew that I was going on the race, not my friends. Not my support system, not the people that I had learned to depend on and had the opportunity to serve, grow, love and become who I am today with. I know that this is a thing that I should have realized but it didn't hit me till about this time last year, a couple months after I signed up for the race. The realization that I was going on the race was huge to me, let's be real it almost kept me from coming on the race.
I've experienced amazing community throughout my life. My senior year of high school my friends/small group were phenomenal and then I went to a college where they are all about community, North Central University, and had 4 amazing floor communities that I got to experience throuhout my years there. But none of these poeple were gonna be with me, none of them would be in my pack that I could just pull out whenever I wanted to talk, vent or just have a super great laugh. And if you go on the race you will come to this realization that you are going, not your family, friends or Church, your riding solo on this one, if that's the attitude you take.
See the greatest thing about this month is the people that I get to spend it with. This month I get to spend it with seven people that I was not expecting to come on the race with, seven friends. This month, even more than any other month on the race, is all about community. "Manistry" as we call it, where us eight guys come together and serve for the month at a ministry and get to go deeper with one another. These dudes are some of the most amazing men of God that I have had the chance to learn from and be challanged by. Though I had a fear of not having my friends beofre coming on the race, I see now that God had seven amazing men set aside to add to the circle of friends. Men that I can trust, lean on, support and laugh with. These men are amazing men of God.
Just remember when you are going on the world race or even just in life you are not alone. Cause you never know who you will end up sharing a bed, peeing your pants, splitting some girls leftovers, forcing to eat somthing discusting, spend hours pillow talking, sharing a moto, or raft the nile with and it might as well be your best friends. So here's a tribute to the men of A Squad; y'all rock!
"I'm going home", though these are not words that have come out of me one of my friends is in great need to stay on the race. In 11 days Mickey Wingrove will have to go home rather than continue with his squad for the next five months unless he can raise 3,000 dollors. I know from my own life that this is completely possable. I ask that you pray for Mick as he tries to raise this money and if you feel lead you go to his blog and click "support me" to help him out
mickeywingrove.theworldrace.org
Here is a blog about his reflections of the race so far:
I remember day one of the race thinking what did I just get myself into? I’m going to give up a year of my life!
A year of sleeping in MY bed (comfortable, big, and doesn’t change places every few weeks)
A year of being away from family and friends
A year of being in the comfort of my own city that I know
A year of having a normal routine that stays constant
I’m going to have a year of eating strange food that I may have never eaten before or would have never even thought to eat
A year surrounded by these people I barely know
A year of being engulfed in unknown cultures and languages every month that I don’t understand
A year of seeing things around the world that I know are going to break my heart
A year of constant travel and long travel days (21 hr bus rides, 13 hr plane rides, 4 day travel days)
A year of many more unexpected things I never thought I would have to give up or realize that I gave up until I was gone…aka for example:
Being able to go the bathroom in a normal bathroom that isn’t a squatty potty or a hole in the ground or a tree (if lucky) off of the highway
Not having to make a day plan to schedule a time to Skype home; waking up extra early so with the 12 hour time difference people are awake and available, find a place that has internet and not just internet but good enough that you are able to actually Skype and then figure out transportation there (walk, bus, tuktuk, taxi) and try and slot out enough time to talk to everyone before you have to take the adventure back home or to ministry
The ability to have my own space or make my own decisions all the time
Taking a shower, let alone a hot shower
Not being able to talk to anyone at anytime when I want to…basically no cell phone…I know foreign concept :0
Now, at the half way point of the race I can say although I have given up so much for this year, I have also been given so much.
Time to truly focus on my relationship with God
Find out who I am and what I’m made of and the famous World Race line, who God says I am
Ability to travel the world and see the ways people live all across the regions
Live like a local not a tourist, see and experience the country in a different way than most
Change my perspective on what I actually need (hot shower, normal bathroom-although would be nice lol, cell phone, internet, access to a fast food restaurant at my fingertips, normal living conditions, air conditioning, or even electricity)
Help others in need whatever way that may look
Do a wide variety of ministry I may have never done before
Orphanage
Wheel Chair Factory
Play with street kids
Work amongst the locals in farming, construction, etc
Work with local churches and see how churches across the world work
Teach English
Prayer walk places Christians/white people have never taken step before
Helped at a School for special needs children
Work with the deaf
Able to worship the same God with people from across the world despite language barriers
See God in different shapes and forms than usual
Watch people come closer to the Lord and be part of something greater than myself
So far on the race as you can see I have been able to experience so much, more than I had ever expected; BUT in order to continue on this journey I need your help! I am in need of prayer and financial support. The final support deadline is April 4th, where I need to be fully funded (14,300 total). I still need $3,000 by then, which can include one time donations or monthly donations for the remainder of my trip (5 ½ months). I have seen the lord working and have experienced him in ways I never would have imagined. Please help me to continue this race God has put me on.
Thank you so much and God bless!
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!
Hebrews 12:1b “And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”
Patrica and Gaga, were their names and I had no clue what to talk to them about.
One day before evening Church service we were sitting on our patio having worship when these two men came up and started sitting with us. Our team leader, Gary Lee, was mainly speaking to them as we got started going on our 35 min walk to Church. But Gary forgot something and soon I was walking with them. So after we did the whole talk with one another about the general things we soon ran out of things to talk about that. So what do we land on then none other than Justin Bieber. So what else did we do except sing Justin Biebs.
These two have been great to get to know them and see them everyday and talking with them about God and everything that he does in their lives! We get to talk with them everyday and get they agree to come to Church with us more and more. Pray for them to continue to come.
My final deadline is coming up March 1st and I still need financially support to stay on the race, so please consider supporting me by clicking support me.
So as a tribute to our conversation enjoy some Justin Bieber and imagine a African man singing it in English!
6;40- wake up and work out
8:00- Jesus time
9:00- start walk for Breakfast
9:30- Breakfast: Boiled eggs and chapatti
10:30- ministry: going to door to door evangelism or going to school to teach children awesome stories
1:30- Lunch
2:00- walk home
3:00- team time!
6:30- evening Church
8:30- Dinner
10:00- walk home
10:30- Good night
Be praying that we have energy to keep up all the walking about 4 hours a day and for our health.
Also final deadline is coming up March 1st and I am still not there so if you feel like supporting me financially just click support me and it would be a huge help!
In my previous blog I wrote about the hesitations that I feel with going into hospital visits. And how we were going to be spending the next two days in the hospital. The experience ended up being a good experience.
During our two visits in Mwanza we got to see God do a lot of cool stuff. Throughout the two days we saw people get saved and come to Christ but what I loved and started to help me move past this was when we went to the children’s ward on the second day. Day two was a phenomenal day of ministry where we prayed and talked with 30 children and their family. We got to see God touch a lot of people in Mwanza through us and just supply them with hope again. Hope that has been lost through years of being in the hospital without anything getting better.
People were able to find hope again through God and were able to find what it means to rely on Him for help.
My deadline is March 1st and I still need financial support to stay on the race.
All they need is love and I was not able to give it to them. For Christmas we went to an orphanage for mentally handicapped children. The goal was for us to go and love on some kids and watch their Christmas program. Well I get there and my teammate Kelsey looks at me and says, "Are you okay." Now me in my not quite sure how I feel or know what to say just simples says, "I'm fine". Side comment my friends and I have an acronym for the word fine "freaked out, irrational, neurotic and emotional." So anyways Kels knew that my answer was not what it was so she took me home. Now later when Layne, her and I were talking about I could not figure out why I could not work with these children when I typically have no problem working with children and I could not figure out why the mentally handicapped part freaked me out so much and after talking with them for a while we decided to just let it drop for a bit.
Well tomorrow we are going to do hospital visits and the same freak-out feeling is building up inside me. And I have to think why is this happening. I sat down and thought of the process of my Great Aunt Bea and the process of her death. I remember the retirement home, the accidents that happened, her starting to forget things. It puts me right back in the spot where I was as a thirteen year old feeling helpless watching someone slowly stop working. When I was with the handicapped children I was rushed into thinking the same thing again, hopelessness and at a complete loss for how to help these people and the thought that tomorrow will bring the same mindset is frightening.
Here's the thing I know that there is no need to feel helplessness because we serve a God that is more powerful than any of our own mindset, but there is still a hesitation that exists so I ask for prayer that tomorrow i can have confidence to walk into those rooms without fear or helplessness but instead walk in with the mindset that God can do anything.
We made it here to Tanzania and are pumped to be doing ministry. We are working with a national Church here and doing door to door ministry trying to bring more people to Christ in this area of Tanzania. Our living situation rocks; the only thing I have to say about it is that we live on top of a hill which makes life very interesting. To put it simply I am an extrovert and tend to get restless fairly easily, so when there are 11 people living in a house on a hill and there is not much to do we have to create things to do, so here is a list of things that we have decided can be good if your living on a hill:
Cards Games: but not any card games be creative, we have started to make up card games. Including the one where each card has a different question that you have to answer.
Playing guitar: don’t know how to play, don’t worry the race is the perfect time to learn how. And even though you’ve been playing for two months expect to lead worship, so just be prepared.
Getting to know the team: There is always time to ask a bunch of questions
Play with African Children: They love time playing with a Mzungu, white person, and they are super fun to play games with.
Go on a walk: the best activity we have is walking down the mountain and then back up it, who needs in insanity when you have a hill.
Finally we’ve decided to spend time in ATL, just taking part of our day and asking God what he wants us to do with the day rather than just doing what we want. Maybe going and working with some construction workers, praying with people or just sitting in awe of God’s creation.
So if you ever find yourself on a hill in the middle of Africa looking for things to do, hope this list helps you entertain yourself.
Something that has been interesting about India has been that each time that we pray for someone there is typically a condition. Like this one woman who told us that she would only except Christ as her savior if she was healed. Which we prayed for her and she did receive healing and then accepted Christ as her savior. And there have been many others who had that same idea that if God healed them then they would get saved.
There was this one day though where we went to a Hindu Village and did our door to door ministry. This day we started and it was a weird day, we sent to talk to the village leaders when we first arrived and the people where not receptive and I was ready to write off the day. But as we kept going people became more receptive, we got to see three women get healed and saved. After a while of walking around and being shown the village by a Christian in the village we start to walk down the last ally. There was this one woman that I got the chance to talk to. We got to talk about the Christmas story, getting to tell her about Jesus and tying the Gospel message into the story and she came to know Christ. It was so great to see her come to know Christ, but then came the most impressive thing in my mind and that was coolest was she didn’t ask for healing, she didn’t ask for anything. She took the Gospel message as it was and that was enough.
She was a huge challenge to me, cause think about it, how often do we tend to ask God for random things or tend to look at God for what he can do for us rather than just acknowledging who He is. That is what was so cool about this instance, God was enough, that was all she needed to trust in Him and like her I need to remember that He alone is all I need.
There is this thing in India where they say yes by bobbling their heads. They get this look on their face that says no but then bobble their head from side to side without which means yes. For example your talking to a tuck tuck driver, basically a taxi driver, and you say how about 50 Rubies and they say no 100 so you start to walk away and then they grab you and you say 50 and they bobble.
The bobble was frustrating cause it seemed to say if I have to then I will. I feel that it was a similar situation with me and God sometimes. God tells me to do something and I do my head bobble, saying if I have to then I will. But that’s not how it should be and defiantly not how I should respond to God. Each head bobble was another reminder that we should not just bobble our head to God but instead say yes and mean it. Knowing that He has our best interest at heart and that we should willingly follow him.
