March 31, 2012.
Today, I am 22 years old.
As I am entering into my 23rd year of life, I thought I would recap this last one for you all.
– April-July 2011 – I worked a lot saving & fundraising for The World Race. Then I had one week at the beach and one week preparing, packing & saying goodbye to friends & family.
– August 2011 – Kenya. I said goodbye to my mom at the airport & hello to 46 strangers. As a member of the all women's team, I headed to Busia, Kenya to work with Deliverance Church. I had my first experiences with door to door evangelism, hospital visits & saw children living in real poverty on the streets for the first time in my life. I learned to make chapati. I slaughtered a chicken. I questioned why God had brought me on the Race & if I was even supposed to be there. God taught me a lot about knowledge & trusting in Him. Kenya…definitely one of my favorite months of the Race.
– September 2011 – Uganda. I got a little crazy, had a near death experience rafting the Nile River, by the grace of God survived & then felt that after surviving the Nile, I could do anything. Therefore, I bungee jumped the Nile. Also on the Nile, realized how much I love being with women. We moved along to Mbarara, Uganda. I was stretched by the amount of ministry, our location & our contact. I preached for the first time & we spent the month preaching in church, on the streets, & in schools. We lived without running water & electricity…my Mac went caput. God taught me a lot about moving away from distractions & materialism & opened my eyes to spiritual warfare & patience.
– October 2011 – Rwanda. A laid back month…We taught English a few days a week in our church in a village that was a hike down a mountain & up one. We had a real toilet & satellite tv? – culture shock. I learned a lot about the genocide in '94….went to the museum, met people who survived it, saw real scars & heard accounts firsthand. Though they've been through a lot, the church in Rwanda is full of joy & alive in spirit. God gave me a fresh revelation of HIs grace. It was gooood. We went back to Uganda for a mini-debrief with the squad before flying out to Asia. Teams changed. I said goodbye to the all women's team (Ma Binti Wa Yesu) & hello to Team Awakened by Choice (unofficially: Team S.c.o.t.t.).
– November 2011 – Philippines. We had a 55hr travel day & spent 24hrs in the Bangkok airport before arriving in Manila. I made the transition into a new team, lived with the whole squad on one compound & adjusted to having men around! The previous month, I asked God to put me in a place long enough to see lives changed & He put us in Manila for 6wks instead of 4. We saw the mid-night release of Breaking Dawn & celebrated Thanksgiving. Luxury month. I struggled with having all of the amenities around…fell into a bit of laziness but got out of my rut & learned to be productive despite all of the distractions around (an important lesson for when I'm back home).
– December 2011 – Philippines/Thailand. I worked construction, fed & played with street kids, spent a lot of time at the JAZ house, poured myself out, played with my two best friends Angel & Christian & loved every minute of it. I cut my hair shorter…recieved a lot of freedom & God taught me a lot about my identity as a woman of the Lord. Hosea 2:19-20 laid on my heart for a long time. It's the only country I cried leaving…left Philippines mid-December & headed to Thailand. Stayed in Bangkok for a few days for debrief…refreshing. Then the ladies headed to Phuket for an intense month where we worked at SHE, reaching out to women in prostitution by going to the bars nightly. We had a cook out on a lake for Christmas!
– January 2011 – Thailand/Cambodia. Phuket was a hard environment to be in…very touristy, lots of darkness. Thankfully we were living in a community of believers from all over. We were also able to spend time at the beach! I learned to trust in the Lord that seeds were being planted in the lives of the women we reached out to & love was shown. I was able to buy a small netbook. We reunited with our men & then headed to Cambodia! In transit to Cambodia, my computer screen cracked…God's continuing to cut away my dependence on technology. We were in a village in the middle of nowhere, living with no running water, no electricity & certainly no internet! It was a welcomed change from our life in Thailand. We taught English & gardened at a local orphanage. A young girl in the village, Srey Poa, drowned while we were there…I questioned where God was in all of it & realized He was right there in us, reaching out to the Buddhist family through us as we mourned the loss of their child with them.
– February 2011 – Cambodia/Malaysia. We left Cambodia & headed to Malaysia. There, we spent our 3 weeks in 3 different locations – 1 week in Kuantan, 1 in Jerantut & about 5 days in Kuala Lumpur. In Kuantan & Jerantut, we worked with the (Indian) Tamil Methodist Church. We put on a youth conference & went door to door praying for families of the church & community & eating spicy food. We reached out to Hindu families & saw physical healings & deliverance from evil spirits. We basically prayed all day every day, driving from one house to the next. It was exhausting, but one of my favorite months because I realized that when I got to the end of myself & what I could do, God was just beginning. I saw, felt & participated in the Holy Spirit at work…it made me hunger for more. After 2 weeks of non-stop ministry, we had a few days rest in Kuala Lumpur & were able to find winter clothes before we headed to China!
– March 2011 – China/Ukraine. In China, we worked with an organization that takes care of abandoned children & adults with mental & physical disabilities. Some of the children are perfectly ok now, they just had health problems at birth so their parents abandoned them either because of the one child policy or because they couldn't afford treatment (abandonment is illegal, but is still done). I can't post pictures or talk too much about it on my blog, but if you'd like to hear more, I'd love to share my experience with you through email or in person. I began fasting movies for lent, so this month, God revealed to me how much of an idol movies were in my life & how much I was missing out on with Him because I turned to movies for rest, comfort, alone time, happiness, enjoyment, etc. I dug into the Word this month & grew in intimacy with the Father. I was also able to become more spiritually aware of the situations around me…learning to tap into my gifts of wisdom & discernment. We had debrief in Beijing. Now, we've been in the Ukraine for about a week working with a youth camp getting things ready for summer & serving for retreats at the camp site.
To say this has been a big year would be an understatement. I never would have thought that going on The World Race would have been in my life plan 2 years ago…that was when I might have said I have a "life plan." I have been extremely fortunate in traveling the world, experiencing other cultures & working with & seeing the church globally. However, this year has been more about a change in me than travel. I've been put in a lot of uncomfortable situations, eaten things I didn't want to eat, done things I didn't feel like doing or want to do. I've lived in community every day all day for the past 8 months, which means I haven't been by myself for more than 30 minutes in the last 8 months. Through it all, God has taught me so much about myself & who He's created me to be. I'm realizing my identity in Christ & who I am as a woman of the Lord – and what that means. I'm finding out my spiritual gifts & strong points & how to use them to bring the Kingdom. I'm learning how to walk out daily who He's created me to be as He is unlocking what's inside of me. The best part is, this is just the beginning. I still have three months left on the field & even after that…
The best is yet to come.
Hey Ashley- I’m a future racer (Jan 13′) and have been looking through other racer’s blogs to see what others are experiencing while on the race. This blog post was literally one of the best I have read. Thank you so much for posting it! Seriously though, seeing how God met you in each place and how He used you, so inspiring!