The past 5 months I’ve had the pleasure of serving with Kathryn Law and Jamie Smith, as our continents change, there comes a new season. We have had our last breath as Team Ruach; Jamie and Kat are now serving on team Beauty From Ashes.
And to add to our family, we now have *drum roll please* Tiffany Chen as a team mate! She is from Fullerton, California. I’ve had the pleasure to get to work with her in South Africa as well as Romania, and the remainder of the race!
Photo by Tiffany Chen
I am sad to lose Jamie and Kat, but excited for Tiffany to join us. And of course, with this new team change, comes a new team name….
Introducing…..
TEAM VIA GLORIA!
Why Via Gloria? We want to walk in God’s glory for the next three months (and the rest of our lives). It means taking up our cross daily, and following through His path no matter how rough it might get for us. We want to finish the race strongly.
For our first month as a new team we are in Chimaltenango, Guatemala, working at Los Gozosos orpahange for special needs children. This month the men and the women in our squad are split up, so the girls from Team Via Gloria and Team Super Mario are living here.
Photo by Tiffany Chen
We are living in our tents! This will be an interesting month, today is our first official day on site, more about our experiences soon.
First of all, I would like to apologize for not being diligent in posting blogs for the last three months, all of which where here in Eastern Europe. I am currently sitting in the bottom bunk in our hostel in Budapest, frantically trying to get something out before we leave for Central America tomorrow morning.
The biggest thing I’ve learned during our time in Eastern Europe is that LIFE IS MINISTRY, or at least it should be viewed that way. As believers, everything we do should be done for the glory of God. Whether it is having coffee with high school kids, teaching, playing, or working in a yard. When you have a relationship with Christ, God permeates through all your situations.
Whether you are away from your home or half way across the world, God can use you. You don’t have to be “on the field” to minister, to help, to love… You can do it anywhere you are!
I have the honor and the privilege to serve around the world, and when I get back, to serve in the States. Don’t make excuses, you can find ways to serve people all around you, at school, at work, wherever you may be. Smile, give a hug, give gifts, however you show love DO IT, don’t hold back, share that beautiful love that has so graciously been given to you.
Here is a short video so you can see part of the craziness that was Eastern Europe.
And I am not even in Africa anymore! This month we are in Slavonski-Brod, Croatia, working with a local Baptist church. Our ministries include English classes for high school and elementary aged children. We are also working with renovating the church: cleaning up old trash from the previous owners, fixing the backyard, painting the church, and fixing up other odd-ends of the newly acquired land. It was very rewarding to be able to physically see the works of our efforts in Croatia.
We were also able to make many new interesting friends, ranging everywhere from radio hosts to gypsies to high school teachers, and the students themselves. The end of the month was heavily relationship based and it was hard for me to leave these newly acquired friends. We pray that they will continue to gain knowledge and be loved on by the Christian community in Brod and Nova Gradiska.
And a few pictures!
This is the backyard after we removed all the wood, trash and debris; as well as leveled the ground and planted grass.
Before we were here this space was full of trash. It also had an old outhouse that we tore down.
Having fun for UNA Club with the kids from the gypsy community.
Dave and Pete got to play baseball with the local team.
At the gypsy community having UNA Club.
Some of our fabulous new Croatian friends.
The day we were interviewed by a local radio station. Here is the link to their website.
Bulgaria was a rejuvenating time for our team. We worked with a local church and lived on the second floor of the apartment of Nasko and Eirrin, our ministry contacts. The two of them met while serving for YWAM.
Unfortunately, they are moving from Hisaraya, Bulgaria soon, so we were only able to stay with them for about two weeks. During our time in the popular tourism spot, we worked with schools and the church. We taught English classes during the week and spoke at churches during the weekend. We did bible studies in a near by gypsy community as well as had children’s club on Saturdays.
Although our time there was short lived, we quickly fell in love with our ministry there.
Here is a video my team mate Kathryn Law made for our time in Bulgaria.
And a few pictures!
Bible study about gossip with some of the kids in the community.
My Bulgarian friends, Cveti and Maria.
One of the classes we taught.
Gypsy village bible study.
Ruach with our ministry contact and their children.
The month of Romania we worked with a local Baptist church in Dragensti-Olt. We were broken up into different ministries including street evangelism, office work, gypsy community activities, English classes and working with children in the community. I spent the majority of my time working with the children.
I worked with Tiffany Chen & Megan Miller (both from Amaranthine) as well as Kathryn Law (from my team). We helped the children with various school subjects particularly math, since we didn’t need to be fluent in Romanian for that!
I really enjoyed working with the children and our ministry contacts there. I felt very loved. It turned out to be unexpectedly good month, despite the freezing temperatures (not normal for a Southern California girl). I hope to one day be able to return.
Here are some photos from the month!
Getting off the train in Romania into 3 feet of snow!
Shoveling snow, this was outside of the mayor's office.
My beautiful team on Valentine's Day.
Some of the boys I tutored.
Maria, my favorite Romanian child.
The women I worked with at the church's tutoring program, Ana and Mariana.
For those of you that know me very well, you know children aren’t my strong point. If they aren’t my nieces or nephews they’re lucky if I even hold them.
That all changed in Swaziland.
Once we got to Swaziland, I didn’t know how I was going to handle working predominantly with children. I just figured I would try my best.
After just a few days at the Timbutini care point, I was completely in love with the children there. I played with them, told them bible stories, taught them English, and even some Spanish!
The rest of the month I ended up walking a few miles every day to go to the Tulani care point with David. There I met a special little girl that captured my heart. Every morning she would see me with some of my team mates walking by her home and she would run up and to hold my hand.
She would come with us and at the care point we would love on the children. Play, sing songs, dance, and just have fun.
Before this point I never knew I could love a child as if they were part of MY FAMILY. But I do, and not only her, but all the children I met in Swaziland and all the children I now know in Romania.
Watch the video to see the faces of the children I fell in love with…
During our time in Swaziland we had several ministries we were involved in. Every Tuesday and Thursday Team Ruach and Team 220 went to the Nazarene Hospital to pray for patients and the Hope House to spend time with tenants.
The Nazarane Hospital was heart breaking. On our first visit I walked into the third room on the right side. This particular room had babies with tuberculosis. As I walked to the woman was holding her child, as I approached her I asked her if I could pray. She said yes and as I prayed for this little baby he started crying.
It broke my heart to see this baby boy crying. The World Health Organization estimates 400,000 children dying from TB in Africa and Asia every year. This was just one of the heartaches we saw at the hospital. For those of you that do not know, it is estimated that 25.9% of the population of Swaziland has HIV. The life expectancy at birth is 48. We were informed by our ministry contact that many HIV infected children are abandoned when parents find out their status.
During our time at the hospital we meet two abandoned children. We are not sure of their names or what they had, we just knew they were abandoned. Every time we visited the hospital Team RUACH and 220 made sure we held, played, spoke, prayed, and loved on these children.
Though we don’t know their real names, the hospital gave the names to go by. And all I can think about is what God thinks about them. He LOVES them. (John 3:16) He MADE them. (Psalm 139: 13-16) They are a GIFT. (James 1:17) He DIED for them.
There was not much more we can do for these children, just love and pray.
Mozambique was my first month with my new team Ruach. I had a wonderful time serving beside my new teammates as well as old ones at Beacon of Hope ministry. It was the first time in my life that I had to do hard labor… And I mean it was HARD. Six days of the week we worked in the “garden,” which was more of a mini-field.
We harvested the corn, pulled out weeds, got rid of everything in the way, and planted more crops. All this, in the blazing African sun, but I loved it.
What a beautiful picture of what the body of Christ looks like. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
says,“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”
We have no power whatsoever to make something grow; all we can do is go in with a heart of service, and faith that God will bless what we do. We saw that a lot in Mozambique and know that the vegetables, freshly painted rooms, and new curtains are going to bless the boy’s home.
For those of you at home, I want to encourage you to work for Christ even when you can’t see the fruits. Even when you can’t see the fruits God sees the sincerity in your heart. This is what He is looking for. Just love on Him and love on those around you. Be blessed and feel the joy of working hard.
This video was made by my teammate Kathyrn Law, I thought you all would like to see how Mozambique looked.
Throughout my time on the race, I’ve asked God for certain things, not things that I needed but just things I wanted. During the Philippines (Month 1) I told God I wanted fabric to be able to do something with the JAZ girls, sure enough that very day our squad leader Megan said she had a present for me, and handed over a bag of fabric.
During South Africa (Month 3) I was running low on thread, I was going to buy some but instead prayed for some. A few days later, Stacy (a World Race alumni from P Squad), brought me a present. She said she had come into the possession of random spools of thread and she felt like God was telling her to give them to me, and she did!
Near the end of out time in South Africa my old team, Fuego de Dios, was challenging me in my creativity. They wanted to see more of what I could do with the creativity that God had already given me. I fought it and said I didn’t want to draw or paint.
My team member David asked me which was the way I best liked to express myself creatively. I responded to him that I most enjoyed sewing, but not sewing by hand, sewing with a machine. In turn he and the rest of Fuego responded they would be praying that I would have the opportunity to use a sewing machine in Mozambique.
A sewing machine, really? In the middle of Africa? Yeah right. How in the world are we going to find a sewing machine?
Then we got to Mozambique…
We met our awesome contact Angie and got began working on the garden and the Hope House. A few days later during casual conversation I mentioned I liked sewing and Angie said she would take out her sewing machine when we got home. AND SHE DID!
From there on this month, I have had to opportunity to sew during my free time as well as do some sewing projects for Angie.
So, yes, I did get a sewing machine… In the middle of Africa.
But why do I share this? To encourage you to share your desires with God, no matter how silly or ridiculous they may seem.
I wanted fabric, I got it.
I wanted thread,I got it.
I wanted a sewing machine, I got it.
They were tiny little desires, but God cared. How much more does He care about my bigger desires, or yours?
i
