This month was Manistry/Womanistry month. This means that the men and women of B-Squad said their goodbyes to each other and split off on adventures of our own. The women of Somewhere Beautiful joined with the women of team Siloam and headed off to Penang Island. In Penang we partnered with three different ministries. Adventist Hospital, Kawan and St. Nicholas Home.
Adventist Hospital- Every year the hospital gives away 50 free heart surgeries to children whose families could not otherwise afford them. So our time spent at the hospital was working to raise support for the heart patient fund.
Kawan/Kawan Shop- Kawan is a soup kitchen for the homeless and needy. We helped in the kitchen preparing food, cleaned the bathrooms and shower rooms and built relationships with those who came through. Kawan Shop was a second hand store that was started up in order to support the soup kitchen. There we helped prep clothes to be sold.
And St. Nicholas Home- There is a large blind population here in Malaysia. St. Nicholas is a home for the blind where they also teach them skills for life. We did a whole variety of jobs at the home; office work, cleaning, organizational, ect.
But this is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about how I felt like my team served me this month. It felt like in some ways that I was their ministry, and it was incredible how God taught me a lot about his love through them.
I was nervous for this month. Women have a tendency to be dramatic and “catty”, and without the balance of men I was worried I would be overwhelmed by it all. That we would be caught up in petty arguments and emotional outbursts. I was afraid that the month would be a month wasted on the race. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Our team name for the month was “Elani”, which in Greek means light. This month was an incredible month of God calling me up and out. He was challenging me with the question, “who am I calling you to be?” This was good, but it was hard (this will be addressed in my next blog). I felt very alone in my struggles and kept them locked up inside. I was outwardly acting but inwardly stuck in the dark not quite knowing what to do. But Elani lived up to its name, they were a light that penetrated the darkness and helped to raise me up into the light! The loved me when I fought against love. They encouraged me with words, notes and prayers. They were an example of what a woman of God should be. They breathed life and spoke truth over the lies, helping to push start me down the path of self-discovery that God is leading me down.
It really was Beautiful. I have never known women to be so filled with love and grace. These women are incredible and I will forever be thankful for them!
In Vietnam we had a many different ministry opportunities. We worked with a home for the elderly, the disabled and the orphaned. We worked with a local deaf church. We visited coffee shops around town and just talked with people who came specifically to meet us and practice their english. We prayer walked and did street ministry. But most of all we built up and encouraged our contacts. Our contacts here were very young, but on fire for God! They were also going through rough periods in life and really need a light in the moment. Broken hearted and ready to give up, but God sent us to love on them with all that we were, and that was our main ministry.
Final supper with our ministry contacts
saying goodbye
This is a blog written by our awesome squad leaders in support of their B-Squad! Thank you Thomas, Ryan and Kayla!
Disclaimer: If you choose to watch the video above, you are making the choice to open your heart and ask yourself, "What can I do to help?" This may require a little sacrifice and we have no way of keeping you accountable but we ask that you give generously.. Thank-you and Enjoy!
Half way has come and gone...
Adventures have been lived...
Relationships have given us purpose...
The Spirit has sent us for whirlwinds...
The Father has prepared the way for us...
Worship has left us undignified before God...
BUT...
WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!
This is a cry out for support!!!
B-Squad has stood together through so much and we know that we are to finish this journey together. Every member serves as a piece to the Kingdom Bringing, Life Altering, Spirit Breathing, Love Giving and Good News Preaching that this journey and our squad have to offer.
We have had the opportunity to play with toothless kids, witness miracles, see people come to know Jesus, help each other become closer in our own walks, offer our bodies to grueling physical labor, laugh with people we have come to love but the following people need your help to continue and finish the Race...
Read their blogs and choose to support and fight for them! The amount is how much they have left to raise.
Can I be real? Like really real? Talk about the hard things on the race, the difficult things to talk about?
This month we watched half way come and go, we are now on the home stretch of our journey. The Home Stretch… wow
And I have been in a slump. I am tired; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I am exhausted. For a couple weeks I was ready to quit, ready to be done, I was tired of fighting and pushing through. I was angry with God. I was angry that He sent me on this trip only to then break me. I was frustrated that I had to fight so many unexpected battles; for myself, for my team, for my relationships. I was angry that this was harder than I ever could have expected. I was angry that I was angry!
I. Was. Angry.
But something happened. I was tired of fighting, but my team was ready to wage war, ready to fight on my account. They were ready to love me, encourage me, pray for me and push me to the places I didn’t want to be pushed. They were even willing to fight against me when I tried to stand bull headed in my anger. They were ready to be my support when I had no more strength to support myself.
And when I finally let go of my anger and opened my heart again I realized that God was still speaking love into me. Reminding me that this adventure has only just begun and that He is waiting for me! Waiting for me to get up off the ground, brush the dust off my pants and join Him in the beauty He has planned for me.
So today I am fighting through the brokenness. I am fighting because God is worth it, because my team is worth it and because I am worth it! In my brokenness I am beautiful, and when I walk in that God moves.
So now I have two requests for you:
1st I am in need of encouragement, and am asking for you to fight with me, for me. A verse, a word from God, a prayer, or whatever you have. An e-mail, facebook message or comment on this blog would be amazing!
2nd My final financial deadline to stay on this race is April 7th. I still have about $1,300 to raise before then. Would you consider partnering with me in that?
Thank you for ALL of your prayers and support! It is because of you that I am still here and I am so blessed by that!
Blessings,
Rachel
Somewhere Beautiful (my awesome team!) with our contacts in Vietnam
This is our home made tuk tuk. Even though it was held together by neck ties and many a screw was missing its bolt, it served us well and never dissapointed to take us on an adventure.
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I am finace for my team. Cambodia came with the interesting challenge of multiple currencies. The ATMs would give you cash in USD. We were usually asked to pay in Thai Baht. And we almost always recieved change in Cambodian Reil.
Cambodia isHOT!
Cambodia is filled with bugs far bigger than they should be.
Cambodia is seriously lacking flushable toilets.
Cambodia is the country that stole my heart…
This month my team and I were told we would be working in a town called Poipet. Of course we jumped right on Google to research it. This is what we read: “Poipet rhymes with toilet, which is fitting because that is exactly what it is, the toilet of Cambodia. It is filled with thieves, pick pockets, and prostitutes. Stay as little time as possible in Poipet.” Exactly what we wanted to hear. But it turns out we weren’t staying in Poipet. Turns out that Poipet is actually where we quickly retreated for our days off. Turns out that we were living way off in the middle of nowhere, the Yaourt (YAY-ort) village.
When I say out in the middle of nowhere, you have to understand that I mean the middle of nowhere. I used to consider Trout Lake (my home town) middle of nowhere, but Yaourt gave me a whole new definition. And I loved it!
Our team struggled in Thailand/Laos. We traveled nearly every day and were exhausted. So we prayed that this month we would be put in a place where we could just enjoy each other’s presence and get to know one another. Let me tell ya, prayer works! We lived in a small cement building with four rooms; two bedrooms, kitchen/dining room, and a front room. I laugh as I give these titles to the rooms, because I feel like it gives an image that isn’t fitting. Cement walls and tile floors, four rooms yes, but the walls were not connected to the ceiling so sound traveled easily and made it feel like one big room. We worked in the morning doing physical labor and in the afternoon we taught English. But our main objective for the month was LIFE. Cooking our own food, dishes and hand wash laundry consumed much of our day. Every other day we took the 45 minute tuk tuk adventure to the open market where our grocery list consisted of eggs, potatoes, rice, fruit and vegetables. We became experts on the third world cooking techniques of eggs, potatoes and rice. And can I just say I’m impressed with some of the things we came up with to cook! We didn’t have electricity so often our evenings were spent sitting in the dark talking about everything under the sun or playing games under headlamp. Our biggest ministry was each other, loving on and caring for one another.
So why did I love this month so much? Why was Cambodia so great? I’ll tell you, it was the relationships I built that stole my heart, with my team and with the locals. There were two men who lived and worked alongside us day by day. They were kind, they were loving, they had absolutely nothing yet they were willing to give us everything. I was humbled by the way they loved people. Then there were three boys who lived at the orphanage that my team and I fell in love with! I woke up every morning and played Frisbee with them while I waited for the rest of my team to wake. We spoke life over them daily and by the end they would shout “Men of God” and flex their arms! Also there were three little girls who stole my heart. I taught them how to hug. Not something they have ever really done, but by the end of the month they were seeking me out for hugs just as often as I sought them. There are no words to describe the joy you feel when you’ve taught something as complicatedly simple as a hug.
Why did I love Cambodia so much? Cambodia made my heart happy. It’s as simple as that.
This month my team and I were blessed to have the opportunity to work part of our time in Laos. We traveled day after day to village after village after village; praying and making connections, sometimes even with people whom had never even seen a white person. Here is some of what we saw:
Three months ago Kaleo set out on this crazy adventure called The World Race. My five teammates, Thomas, Mickey, Laura, Chrissy and Heather, are what pulled me through. They were there to encourage me, to pray for me, to laugh with me, to challenge me and rejoice with me. They helped me fight my battles and I helped them fight theirs. We were a family.
Part of being on The World Race is letting go of everything. So this last week I said goodbye to Kaleo and hello to a new team. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sad, but I know change is good. I know that God has a perfect plan and that this new team is just the beginning of something great. So as we leave Central America and begin the second chapter of this journey in Asia, I go with confidence that God is leading.
Meet Somewhere Beautiful, my new team. We chose Somewhere Beautiful as our name because we know that no matter where we are or what we are experiencing God has us in a place that is beautiful.
(Nate, Me, Tom Cruise, Dave, Mickey, Courtney, Renee, Taralah)
See, God and I had a deal. I was very clear on that deal. I will follow Him and he will give me “the desires of my heart”, right?
I once heard a story about how to catch a monkey. Monkeys are very curious creatures, playful and stubborn too. So here’s what you do: take a coconut and drill a hole in it, dump the milk and put a marble inside. You then take that coconut and anchor it in a tree. The monkey who finds the marble will reach inside to grab it. Here’s the trick; once his hand is wrapped around the marble his fist is too big to fit back out the same hole. So he is trapped, desperate for his treasure and unwilling to let go so he can be free.
God called me out. He made me realize that I wasn’t actually giving Him my life. I was giving Him 11 months of my life, and then I had told Him that He was going to give me my life back. Yes, that is what I said, I told God that He was going to…. Dang it, I’m the monkey! I was holding so tightly to what I had that I was withholding my life from God. I was limiting God to the desires of my heart and missing His bigger picture. I realized that I needed to try and let go, to try and release my grip on the life that I had, and give it up to Him. So I have, I am no longer holding God to the contents of the coconut. It’s a really freeing feeling actually, a really exciting one. I understand now that God’s bigger picture is the desire of my heart. If He decides to give me my life back, wonderful! But if He decides that I should go elsewhere, then that too is wonderful.
Walking step by step with Christ is a pretty beautiful thing. I never realized that holding tightly to something without God could make me feel like I’m in a free fall in life, but releasing everything for God gives me a comfort that cannot be explained. I know that God’s got it.
My loves, how I miss seeing your beautiful faces every morning. I am sorry that I have been gone and that I will not see you for Christmas. I miss you, I miss you, I miss you! I bet you both have grown so much, are you taller than me yet!? Or maybe taller than Mr. Mario? Today I read the book “You Are Special” in Spanish to the kids at the orphanage. Remember that book? It will always make me think of you. Promise me something: Promise to have lots and lots of fun until I get back! And then I want to hear all your stories when I see you! I love you both so much! Please give Mario and Erica hugs fro me and have a Merry Christmas! I’m blowing you kisses from Nicaragua, catch them and press them to your hearts and stick them on your noses.
