My Adventures - The World Race June 2009 - A Ragamuffin's Chronicles

Malawi Wowie Bibles!

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

How can YOU help Malawi????

Well thank you for being curious and stopping by. YOU can help Malawi by donating money (to the account below) for Bibles. The believers there do not have the money to buy Bibles and our squad has this amazing opportunity to raise money to send to them for Bibles. Please be praying that we would be able to raise as much money as possible to send to them. Also be praying to see if God wants you to help out with this cause. I know this is short but if you read this and want to help please follow the steps below right away so you don't put it off and forget about it. PLEASE help out Malawi and our fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ to get them God's Word so they can grow in their relationship with Him.

Thank you for your prayers and your support

Here are the easy steps to follow to get the money in the right account. PLEASE DO NOT PUT MONEY IN MY SUPPORT ACCOUNT SINCE IT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TRANSFERRED TO THIS ACCOUNT.

www.theworldrace.org

Please click the tab "Donate" on the top right side of the page.

Click on the link "Click Here To Give!" This will take you to the donation page.

In the box that appears, you will see:

ONLINE DONATION INFORMATION

Please select "Support a World Race Project" under Choose Program.

Please enter "2010Mar I Squad" in the Project field provided in order to be sure your funds will go into the account designated for this ministry.

These gifts are tax-deductible.

If you wish to send a donation by mail, please make your check payable to Adventures In Missions and mail it to:

Adventures In Missions

P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470

Please indicate "World Race Project Fund - 2010Mar I Squad" in the memo section of the check.

Again Please do not put money in my support account. Please follow these easy steps for a tax-deductible donation.

Thank you

A Malawi Wowie Christmas

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A Malawi Wowie Christmas.

Anyone who knows me back home knows how much I LOVE Christmas. I am one of those people who start listening to Christmas music consistently in October (or sometimes July). I love decorating the tree and wrapping presents- I wrap almost every present that goes under the tree at home. it's the one time of year that I will tolerate, maybe even enjoy the snow. And I just love a good Christmas movie. By the time the holidays are over I have watched pretty much every major Christmas movie out there, often more then once. I love attending Christmas parties because I can wear red and green plaid headbands. I love baking and frosting my mom's Christmas cookies. I love driving around and seeing houses all decorated with brightly colored lights. I love giving and receiving gifts. I just love Christmas.

Please read that paragraph again and count how many times I mentioned Jesus.......the answer would be zero. Woah.

This past Christmas, December 25, 2009, was unlike any other Christmas I have ever experienced. For starters I was in Africa, Malawi to be precise Likuchi to be even more precise. I was dripping sweat from my entire body, eating a "feast" of beans and rice, our Christmas tree was a drawing we taped to the wall, and we were all living out of our tents. Besides that team S'more was by ourselves with one squad leader, Tiffany, hours away from all other members of I-Squad. Not the typical American style celebration I had anticipated happening back in June when I started on this World Race thing. Yet, it was the most amazing Christmas.

God amazes me; He really does. About 5 days to 1 week before Christmas God convicted almost everyone on our team about Christmas. All of us realized that we had never had a Christmas that was truly all about Jesus. The typical American Christmas always managed to over shadow Jesus and His birth. My first paragraph about how much I love Christmas was my mindset for so long. And I never realized that was the case until I was in a place where I had NOTHING from home or my normal Christmas to distract me. It was such a humbling experience. We decided to celebrate by listening to a sermon on Christmas Eve, followed by worship. The sermon we listened to was called "The Cost of Christmas" by Louie Giglio; if you want a new perspective on Christmas and what we have turned it into in America, find this sermon. We didn't bake cookies, decorate a tree, unwrap presents, watch a Christmas movie or attend any party, and we certainly didn't have any snow (unless you count a few paper snowflakes we hung up). But I wouldn't exchange that time for 1,000 presents.

We spent Christmas morning at church, where the pastor made Kimi, Tiffany, and myself have a dance-off. I lost the first round but in the end we all tied. After service we had a delightful meal of beans, rice and eggs (or chicken, I can't remember), and then proceeded to have a 3 hour question and answer session with the local church pastors and leaders. At a quarter to midnight my family called and I was able to chat with them- it was the little taste of home God allowed me.

As I stated earlier, Christmas this past year was unlike any other I have ever experienced and I hope that from this point on I will continue to see Christmas as what it truly is- a day all about Jesus. I pray that America will no longer dictate what Christmas means to me, but that God does.

Our Christmas Tree

Our home on Christmas

Malawi Wowie A to Z

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Malawi Wowie A to Z

A is for Anthony, our main contact in Malawi. He worked for Harvesters International and was in charge of their northern Malawi division. My team traveled with him in northern Malawi, working with the local pastors in each village we visited.

B is for Bucket Shower, which is exactly as it sounds. You sit or crotch or stand in a bucket of water and use a bowl (or your hands) to dump water over yourself. I took maybe 2 bucket showers my entire 3 weeks in Malawi.....it just was too time consuming and really, what's the point when you're dirty 10 minutes later?

C is for Christmas! Because it happened when we were in Malawi.

D is for Discipleship. This was issue weighed on all of our hearts during our three weeks- there was just such a need in Malawi for discipleship of new believers and discipleship for the leaders in the church.

E is for Eagerness. I have never before met so many people so eager and hungry to hear about Jesus. Everywhere we went people wanted to know about Him. It was awesome!

F is for Five Alive Berry Blast and Apple Splash Juices- some of the best tasting refreshments ever in the history of Africa.

G is for Goodwin. Goodwin was one of our favorite people we met in Malawi, he traveled to a couple locations with us and did a lot of translating for us. He has one of the biggest servant hearts I have ever experienced. We just loved him!

H is for Hannah because that is my name and this is my blog.

I is for Instant Coffee, the one item I never thought I would come to enjoy and the one item my team couldn't live without.

J is for Jumping. This is what Cori, Tiffany, and myself did one day when we were sitting by Lake Malawi, the most ocean like lake I ever seen. If someone had told me it was the ocean I would have believed them- there were waves, a beach, non-slimly bottom, rocks to climb on. BEAUTIFUL.

K is for Kwacha, the Malawian currency. It was approximately 150 Kwacha per US Dollar, which I never remembered until we left Malawi.

L is for Likuchi, home to Pastor Clenly (spelling most likely off), one of the pastors we worked with in Malawi and our Christmas location.

M is for Mango Tree. At one location we camped under a mango tree and throughout the day and night mangos would drop on our tents and in a few instances almost hit our heads.

N is for Nature. While in Malawi God spoke to me through nature, which is something I hadn't really experienced before.

O is for Owen, the name the pastors gave to my teammate Warren.

Preaching and Prayer. Basically everyday we had an opportunity to preach/teach; I ended up preaching a Sunday sermon twice. Prayer is something that God has been teaching me about this entire trip and He really put it on my heart to use our time in Malawi to delve into prayer even more.

Q is for Quintuplets. We never saw any quintuplets while in Malawi but I bet there's some somewhere in that place.....

R is for rice and beans, which is pretty much all we ate.

S is for Sweet Thai Chili chips, some of the most amazing chips I have ever tasted.

T is for Truth. This is the word that God gave me over and over for Malawi. God wants the people of Malawi to seek His truth above all else and to follow it, even if their culture is telling them something else.

U is for Up, Up Jesus! This phrase was something the pastors and leaders we worked loved to say throughout their services. (The entire phrase is Up, Up, Jesus, Down, Down, Devil)

V is for vans. We traveled to 4 different villages while in Malawi and therefore spent much time in vans.

W is for Wan don day la, e ne a wae....this is my attempt to write in Chichewa (local Malawian language) the lyrics to a song that one of our pastors was determined to have us memorize.

X is for Xeric, which means- dry or desert like conditions, having very little moisture. This was the opposite of Malawi, which was lush, green, humid, and beautiful. Yes, I looked this word up online because all I could think of for X was X-ray and Xylophone.

Y is for year. Year 2009 ended and 2010 began while in Malawi! Yay!

Z is for Z End! (compliments of Kelly Rampmeyer)

Asia Malaysia Baby!

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The final leg of the journey is here! Our last continent. I have been waiting for this part of the trip from the beginning. I just had this feeling that I would love Asia, and so far my prediction has been right on- I LOVE Asia!!

We arrived late Tuesday, February 2, 2010, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our 20+ hours of travel consisted of a 3 hour van ride to Johannesburg, 2 flights, and a 6 hour time change. Now during all this travel I did not sleep at all, mainly because God did not give me the gift of sleeping on transportation of any kind, and also because I wanted to be able to sleep without any jet lag in Kuala Lumpur. Well, that did not work. You'd think after almost 48 hours of no sleep you would be able to fall asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow. Not so. I laid in bed for until about 230am until I could fall asleep. We have been in Malaysia for almost one week now and we are still having some trouble adjusting to the time difference. Oh well.

This month has the potential to be the best month yet. My team is working with Global Ministry Team (GMT) and their Kuala Lumpur office this month and through them have been given some amazing opportunities. Our first week served as an introduction to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, GMT, and Isalm. We were able to explore the city some, speak to different GMT staff and partners, visit a Friday prayer at the Federal Mosque, and do some prayer walking. It was quit the full first week but God definitely spoke to us through it all.

Our second week will be spent living in a city about 30 minutes from KL called Sham Alam and will be living with a group of Christian college students. We hope to serve and encourage this group of believers for the week, and while they are in classes do some prayer walks and planning for the last two weeks. These students live in an area and attend a school that is over 90% Muslim and about 2% Christian. They really only have each other to support one another and we just want to love them for this coming week.

Week 3 will be spent in the jungles of Malaysia! Sounds exotic right?! We will be living in one village and traveling to surrounding ones, running VBS camps, sharing testimonies and the love of Jesus. Week 4 we will be living in KL again but will be traveling 30ish minutes outside the city to village, possibly teaching English, prayer walking, doing home visits, maybe playing sports with the kids, whatever God lays on our hearts to do. I am tremendously excited for these coming weeks, I know it will be hard but I also know it will be an incredible experience, filled with God moments. More to come!

Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack!

Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Ducks Fly Together!

Guess what everyone?! There has been another team change! Surprised? I'm not.

The last week of January I-Squad was blessed to return to the Beter House in Nelsprite, South Africa for another debrief. I have pretty much realized the norm for I-Squad when we get together is that some kind of change happens. And this time was definitely the norm. Our squad leaders came to us one morning and announced that some changes were going to happen and as a squad we could make the changes together or we could let the squad leaders decide. We all decided to make the changes together and make 4 completely new teams. I knew it was what God wanted, even though I was still really sad. I loved S'more! Each person on that team I saw as my family and our 4-5 months together was just incredible. Team S'more was epic, that's how much I loved my team- I'm giving it epic status. But as soon as the squad decided to go that route of making new teams, I felt confirmation that it was what we were supposed to do.

And after a couple of hour process are new teams were formed and new leaders were chosen. I am part of Team Mighty Ducks (Disciples Under Christ Kindly Serving) and my fellow ducks are William Miller, Erin Neufeld, Kelly Rampmeyer, Scott Sexton, Patricia Stratton, and Amanda Thompson. For our time together in Malaysia I will be the team leader and for the Philippines Kel will be our leader. Everyone really wanted both Kel and I to have a chance to lead, so we are. Leading is not something I ever really wanted but I knew God was telling me to do it. We'll see where this new adventure leads! (hahaha...leads, because I am now a leader)

Mozy On Down!

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Please enjoy this video that Erin and myself put together of our homestead in Mozambique.

Olsen's Anatomy

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Olsen's Anatomy....Grey's Anatomy.....funny right? The title might make more sense as you read....

So I helped deliver a baby. In a van. That was moving. In Swaziland. Just another day on the World Race I guess. Myself and 5 others were just sitting around one day watching The Office (our typical Swazi free time event) when someone walks in the room and says "Anyone want to help deliver a baby?" Everyone stares at each other for a moment and then suddenly chaos breaks out. Everyone jumps up, runs around the house searching for our pursues and shoes, I even stop to throw on a t-shirt over my tank. 6 of us pile into Pastor Gift's van White Chocolate and drive to the woman in labor's home. And let me tell you this woman was REALLY in labor, like she was ready to burst in any second. I had a brief thought when we helped get her into the back seat of the van: "We are going to deliver this baby in the van today. Nah, that won't happen, that's crazy. Things like that only happen in movies"....and Africa apparently.

All 6 of us surrounded the woman and her cousin, held her hand as she went through contractions, prayed over her and even sang a worship song, hoping that we would make it to the hospital. After driving for about 35 minutes Kimi did a baby head check. "I don't see anything yet, I think we still have time." Literally 3 minutes later I look down and a baby just popped out. I was in shock. I look up and everyone has this huge smiles on their face and tears in their eyes. It may sound cheesy to say, but it was a beautiful moment. Before any of us really had time to think about what had just happened Pastor Gift is yelling instructions to us: "Close the windows! Put your finger in the baby's mouth! Wrap it up in a blanket." "We don't have a blanket!" "Well, what do you have?" Everyone looks around and suddenly I remember that I had on two shirts! I pulled of my yellow t-shirt and we wrapped the little bundle inside. I couldn't believe that God had prompted me to put on an extra shirt for no real reason earlier that day! When the baby was about 15 minutes old we finally pulled over because apparently as the baby was being born we had developed a problem: a flat tire. Pastor Gift attempted to change it, only to disover his spare tire was also flat. The hospital was only about 5 minutes away so we made the decision to drive the rest of the way on a flat tire and just pray that we make it safely. And we did! Along the way the mother asked us to name the baby. We all thought for a few moments and the suggestion of "Hope" was thrown out. Immediately everyone knew that was the name for this little girl. I felt that she truly was going to be a beacon of Hope for the dying country of Swaziland. We all did.

Despite the excitment and beauty of this day, I also felt some sadness. We found out earlier that day that the mother was a prostitute who was HIV positive and was giving the baby up for adoption. This was also the 5th child she had given birth and put up for adoption. My emotions were all over the place- I felt immense joy, hope, and love for this beautiful little girl, but I also felt sadness. Stories like this are all over the Swaziland, and it makes me sad.

This is a video I made about Baby Hope, the baby myself and a few others helped deliver in a van in Swaziland! I have also included links to a few of the other girls blogs who were in the van with me, so you are able to get different perspectives.....isn't that nice of me? This is seriously one of the highlights of the trip for me, if not one of the highlights of my life. It was truly incredible to be there and see this little tiny baby be brought into this world.

Kelly Rampmeyer: http://kellyrampmeyer.theworldrace.org/?filename=oh-baby-baby

Tiffany Berkowitz: http://tiffanyberkowitz.theworldrace.org/?filename=hope-was-born-in-white-chocolate

Kimi Cantrell: http://kimicantrell.theworldrace.org/?filename=its-a-girl

Time to Mozy On......

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Friday, November 18, 2009: I-Squad departs Nelspruit, South Africa (our debrief location) and begins the journey to Mozambique. Bamboo Brigade is sent off by themselves, while Illuminations, Former In Tent City, and S'more join forces for the work ahead in Vilanculos. This tourist "city" (I put the work city in quotations because its really just a small beach town but in the grand scheme of Mozambique it's a city) is located right on the beautiful Indian Ocean. This news excited me because I desire to touch as many oceans and seas across the world as I can, and the Indian Ocean was one I had not yet experienced. But, I am getting ahead of myself. After 18.5 hours on a tightly packed, very uncomfortable van bus ride thing, we arrived at the abode of the Rudolph family (members include Jaco, Maria, Maggie, and Rudo), our home for the next 3ish weeks. Did I mention that it was pouring rain when we arrived and we had to set up our tents because that's where we'd be sleeping? And did I also mention that all of our packs had been attached to the van bus thing in metal cart, covered only in tarp, and therefore most of our stuff got wet and some stuff even got moldy, including my Boston Red Sox hat! Huzzah. And we had to walk for what seemed like 30 minutes, but which was actually about 12 minutes, in the rain around a lake. This was the start of our time in Mozambique.

Every night we would fall asleep to the croaking of frogs and the sounds of goats, as we laid in our tents, begging God a breeze. Often it would rain in the middle of the night and I would find myself scrambling in the dark to put on my rain fly. Jaco and Maria were amazing contacts; they truly blessed us and served us in numerous ways. Maria cooked all of our meals and Jaco would make endless trips into town to bring us to church, the beach, the pizza place or the internet almost everyday. We would pile anywhere from 9 to 14 people into Jaco's land cruzer and drive for 10 minutes down the bumpiest, sandiest road I have ever experienced. Jaco and Maria also gave us the day off when they found out it was Thanksgiving and prepared a wonderful feast for us!

Our time in Mozambique ended up being one of the most diverse months in terms of ministry on the race yet. We had the opportunity to preach, visit the prison and the hospital, be part of the cooking team, do home visits, prayer walks, spend a night at a orphanage, children's Sunday school, and show the Passion of the Christ movie outside to the local community. Despite having a plethora of ministry opportunities, when I think about our time there what sticks out the most to me is the internal growth that happened. I was brought to a place of brokenness early on during our time there and through this brokenness God was able to do a work inside of me and grow in ways I didn't expect. He has continued to teach me about defining myself in Christ and looking to Him for acceptance over others. I can't fully explain all that happened internally, all I know is that one day I realized I felt like a different person then I had even 2 weeks ago. It was an exciting and surprising realization. Often I ask God to speed up the process of healing or teaching me something, and this month He did.

God also taught me about trust in Him. Almost everyday in Vilanculos people were putting their faith in God: every time we visited the hospital or the prison, went to church, or showed the Passion movie there were new believers. It was exciting but at times I found myself doubting their sincerity. I just couldn't believe that all these people decided to put dedicate their lives to Christ after a 30 minute or less testimony. But, through a teammate God reminded me that there is power in His name and His truth. We don't need to doctor up Jesus and make Him sound good. We don't need to prove Him. We just need to speak the Truth and trust that God will take care of the rest. I found that Mozambique was really just the beginning of this lesson and many others that God would continue to teach me about during our time in Malawi, but more on that in the blogs to come.

Jail House Rock

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

My favorite ministry while in Vilanculos, Mozambique were the 2 days I was able to go to the prison. The moment I walked into the small room, where over 100 prisoners had been crammed, I was overwhelmed by two things: the smell and a feeling that God was moving in this place. I have never walked into any place or any situation and felt that why. But all throughout the hour we were at the prison, I just couldn't get the feeling that God was going to use this small prison to change the city. I also saw such hopelessness in their eyes, like they had given up believing they were worth anything. During our first visit there my teammate Jessica spoke and at the end of her talk she asked if anyone wanted to put their faith in God. Every person sitting in the crammed space raised their hand. All during this time my heart was racing and an excitement was rising in me. I wanted to give the prisoners hope and tell them that God had a plan for their lives! But, I doubted that the words running through my mind were from God so I remained seated on the floor. Throughout the following week each day I felt God confirm that I was suppose to speak at the prison, and I felt He gave me a more clear idea of what He wanted me to say. A week after my first visit I was able to return to the prison an share the words God had been laying on my heart. I have never felt God speak through me so strongly as He did that day. I told them of two pictures God had given to me for the prison: the first was that literally every person in that room was going to be raised up to be a warrior for Christ and He wants to use every person in that room to redeem the people of Vilanculos and all of Mozambique. Secondly, I shared with them the vision I received while praying one night with a teammate. People were walking past the prison and stopping as the front gates because they hear this loud, joyful singing coming from inside the walls. I immediately knew that God wants the prison to became a center of praise and worship in the city, and that just by singing their hearts out to God, people outside the prison walls will be touched. Hope was a strong word I kept getting for these people over and over. God is their hope. They don't need to worry about the future or live meaningless lives any longer: they have hope in Christ. It was so empowering to speak these truths to the men and women at the prison. I was so excited and energized afterwards; I loved being able to bring them hope. And I love that God used me in that way. On the way out of the prison that day I realized that it didn't smell anymore. The first day I was there it smelled so bad at one point I had to walk outside because I could no longer breath. But, this time around it didn't smell. I thought that was an interesting thing to note.

Oh My Mamba

Within the first week of being in Vilancolus, Mozambique I had two encounters with a black mamba snake. The first happened our the first day or two after we arrived. Daniel and Becky found a snake in the tree above their tents. Our contact Jacko came out but the snake was too fast and it ended up hiding in the bathrooms for an hour or so before it was caught. Jacko then proceeded to whack it repeatedly on the head until it was dead. Encounter number 2 happened a few days later. I was had just gotten up a few minutes before and was beginning my morning prayer walk around the lake. I had taken maybe 10 steps on the pathway when I heard a rustling to my right. I look down and see a snake, exactly like the one that was killed a few days earlier, slither past my feet and disappear into the grass to my left. Now my reaction was one that I believe most people would have- I screamed the loudest I have screamed in long time and ran away. Now, it was approximately 630am and most of my fellow peeps were still sleeping. A couple of the guys were awake and went to investigate but found nothing. I decided to have a "prayer sit" the rest of the morning instead of continuing on my "prayer walk." As I sat I felt God speak to me. "Walking with me is not always easy. When it gets hard, really hard, will you run away screaming or will you continue with me, down the path I have chosen for you?" I knew immediately what God was referring to. The first week or so in Mozambique was probably the hardest time for me on the race so far. I spent some part of almost everyday crying. I was a complete mess. I was aching to be back in Swaziland, my good friend Hailee had just left the race, and another teammate of mine had decided to go home. I felt that my heart could not continue losing people that I loved. I seriously considered leaving the race. But, I knew that God wanted me to stay. I knew that with the black mamba snake He was trying to tell me that He knows my heart is broken right now but don't run away from it. Be broken in front of Him, allow Him to comfort me and be my friend. We sing the song Shout to the Lord often in the Christian circle and it says "My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength," because God really play that role in my life? Well, in Mozambique that day I realized He doesn't and that I need Him to be. I can't be my own tower of strength anymore. And I can't just give up when things get hard. I am learning that the more open I am to hearing God the more He speaks to me through various methods, even snakes apparently!

A Malawi Wowie Video

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Here is another video by my teammate Warren about our time in Malawi!!!!

Swazi Stories

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Hello! I just wanted to share a few short stories from my 2 weeks in Swaziland.....it has been my favorite place thus far.....enjoy!

The children in Swaziland literally have nothing but the clothes on their backs, hopefully one meal a day, and each other. The trash that is scattered everywhere becomes their toy store. One of the first things we were told by our contact was to burn our trash because if we don't the children will go threw it and try to eat it or play with it. I didn't realize how serious of a problem this was until I stepped outside one day and was greeted by a child chewing a used tampon applicator. I couldn't believe it. What do you do? Take away it because its gross? Or let him keep chewing on it because its all he has at the moment and it appears to be bringing him joy? I found myself in these situations almost daily. I began to feel disgusted at how much stuff I have, both on the race and at home. Do I really need 3 tank tops? And how much food I get to eat every day. It has been hard at times with food on the race. Every month it seems that I am spending more and more of my own personal money on food because I'm "not getting enough" on the World Race budget. But, in Swaziland I realized how even on the World Race budget I get way more then every child and probably every person I passed. You hear about poverty all time in America but to be face to face with a child chewing on a tampon applicator it became a real crisis, a cause I now want to somehow be involved in. In that moment I realized that I wanted to return to Swaziland one day with a tangible to skill to help this country out of the death its in. Some estimates say that by 2050 the population of Swaziland will cease to exist. This is largely because of the HIV crisis here, which in turn feds into a lifestyle of poverty for almost the entire nation.

In my previous Swazi blog I talked about Care Points, the main ministry we did while in Nsoko. At our very first care point there was a boy named Toban. He was probably 5 or 6 years old and he instantly captured my heart with his smile. He was one of the first faces we saw when we were dropped off. Besides his smile and excitement for everything we did with the kids, I also couldn't stop staring at his ears. They were covered in blood and pus and scabs. Seriously, one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. It looked incredibly painful- yet, he was probably the most joyful kid at the care point. All 5 of us on our care point just felt a pull to this boy and wanted to help him. We talked to our translator, Much Money, and he spoke to the Go-gos and they gave us permission to take him back to Pastor Gift's and the medical clinic there. When Toban was told he was going us he run up to me and jumped into my arms. I wanted to cry, it was so precious! He wouldn't let me put him down so I carried back from the care point, about a 15 minute walk. God definitely gave me a dose of His strength and energy because I never got tired. I knew that carrying Toban back was showing him love in a way he hadn't experience before and I was determined not to put him down. We sang "Boom, Chica, Boom" the whole walk back. The doctor at the clinic was able to clean up his ears and give him the proper medicine. He was so brave! We rewarded him with a coke afterwards. He saw us approaching him with a coke in our hand- he lit up and ran towards us! I have never seen anyone so excited for a coke before. We had spent like 50 cents and this boy was reacting like we had just given him $100. I was so touched by his joy and just the life that poured out of him. We were able to visit the care point again and Toban's ears looked so much I better! And he had even more joy and excitement then before. This little boy was truly amazing. And there are so many amazing people and kids all over Swaziland. Incredible.

One night in Nsoko there was an incredible lightening storm. I have never seen anything like it before. There wasn't any rain (at this moment), wind, hail, or any other typical storm qualities- just lightening all around. It was beautiful. It would be darkness and suddenly a lightening blot would come and just lit up the entire sky. I honestly didn't know what to say. I just stood there with a few fellow racers in awe. Around me others had their cameras out, attempting to capture the spectacular site in front of us. And some did get a few pretty awesome shots. But, no matter how incredible the picture was, it just did not compare to being there in person. The picture just could not capture what I was feeling. Through this event God has speaking to me about His holiness and His character. No matter how hard we try to define Him, no matter how much we study the Bible and study books about the Bible, we will never fully understand Him. Part of what God's holiness encompasses is mystery. He will always remain mysterious to us as we walk on this earth and have only a human capability to think, feel, and understand. Sometimes this thought that we will never fully know God frustrates me, but recently I have been finding comfort in it. I know it's clich to say that "God works in mysterious ways," but it's truth. That is part of God: mysterious. Even though we will never understand and know all there is to know about God doesn't mean we shouldn't try to. Even though there was no possible way to represent the lightening storm in a picture, people still tried. And got some amazing pictures. God can still reveal himself to you in amazing ways, and you can see a new aspect of holiness, if you want it and are searching for it.

Just Call Me Tracey

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Just call me Tracey from now on. This is the name that was given to me by a group of Swazi boys- Manza, Sieboseso, and Mussa (spelling most likely way off on all those names). These three boys were brothers that our group adopted for the two weeks were there. When we first arrived in Swaziland an AIM volunteer named Tracey was getting ready to leave. Because we both have brown hair and glasses these brothers began calling me Tracey after she left. Sometimes I wondered if they actually thought I was Tracey. People would try and correct them, "This is Hannah. Her name is Hannah." They would say "No! It's Tracey!" And anytime I saw them it was "Tracey! Hey Tracey, come here!" It made me laugh so I just stopped trying to correct them. The best part was church the first Sunday we were there. I helped out with the kids. Sunday school These boys came and started calling me Tracey and by the end of church ALL the kids were calling me Tracey too. To Swaziland I am Tracey.

One night one of our guys decided to set up a tent and camp outside with the boys. Erin and myself went to say goodnight to them and it is one of my favorite memories from the race. All the boys were jumping on us and gave us each 100 hugs and kisses and kept saying over and over again "Good night! I love you." They were so excited to have a sleepover in the tent! Watching them that night warmed my heart.

Most nights I we were in Nsoko a couple of us would walk the boys back to their house at night. They would grab our head lamps and charge off, often with us racers trailing behind, stumbling in the dark. One night it had been pouring rain and the path to their house was literally all mud. Mussa fell asleep on me and I was trying to carry him back without falling in the mud! I ended up taking off my flip flops and walking barefoot. The oldest brother, Manza, guided me the whole way and carried my flip flops for me. He wanted to make sure I didn't slip and hurt myself. It was so sweet.

Our last night in Nsoko we took Pastor Gift, his wife, Abigail, and the five boys we fed, out to dinner. The brothers were so excited! They had never been to a restaurant before! When we got there and told them they could order whatever they wanted they said "chicken and rice," because that is all they know. We ended up getting them chicken nuggets, french fries, coke, and ice cream. I have never seen happier kids. It was precious to watch them savor their cokes, and see their faces lite up when we told they could have ice cream. I truly wish I could adopt those boys and provide for them everyday.

Their smiles and excitement for whatever we had to offer them, calling me Tracey, sitting on my lap playing with rocks on the ground, wearing my headlamp at night whenever we walked them home, how they would always hold my hand or jump up and give me hugs- I loved all these things. It's hard to fully explain why I loved these boys so much, they were simply amazing. There was just something in them that made my heart break. Any love that we had to offer they just scooped up and would pour back on us. Their capacity for love truly was awesome- to know their lives and see how openly they loved us- it just touched me in a way I haven't yet felt on the race. Here are some pictures of me and the boys!

Oh My Mamba!

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Within the first week of being in Vilancolus, Mozambique I had two encounters with a black mamba snake. The first happened our the first day or two after we arrived. Daniel and Becky found a snake in the tree above their tent. Our contact Jaco came out but the snake was too fast and it ended up hiding in the bathrooms for an hour or so before it was caught. Jaco then proceeded to whack it repeatedly on the head until it was dead. Encounter number 2 happened a few days later. I was had just gotten up a few minutes before and was beginning my morning prayer walk around the lake. I had taken maybe 10 steps on the pathway when I heard a rustling to my right. I look down and see a snake, exactly like the one that was killed a few days earlier, slither past my feet and disappear into the grass to my left. Now my reaction was one that I believe most people would have- I screamed the loudest I have screamed in long time and ran away. Now, it was approximately 630am and most of my fellow peeps were still sleeping. A couple of the guys were awake and went to investigate but found nothing. I decided to have a "prayer sit" the rest of the morning instead of continuing on my "prayer walk." As I sat I felt God speak to me. "Walking with me is not always easy. When it gets hard, really hard, will you run away screaming or will you continue with me, down the path I have chosen for you?" I knew immediately what God was referring to. The first week or so in Mozambique was probably the hardest time for me on the race so far. I spent some part of almost everyday crying. I was a complete mess. I was aching to be back in Swaziland, my good friend Hailee had just left the race, and another teammate of mine had decided to go home. I felt that my heart could not continue losing people that I loved. I seriously considered leaving the race. But, I knew that God wanted me to stay. I knew that with the black mamba snake He was trying to tell me that He knows my heart is broken right now but don't run away from it. Be broken in front of Him, allow Him to comfort me and be my friend. We sing the song "Shout to the Lord" often in the Christian circle and it says "My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength," but does God really play that role in my life? Well, in Mozambique that day I realized He doesn't and that I need Him to. I can't be my own tower of strength anymore. And I can't just give up when things get hard. I am learning that the more open I am to hearing God the more He speaks to me through various methods, even snakes apparently.

Ode to Swaziland

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Check out this video from Swaziland from my teammate Warren!!!!

Mozy Time

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A Mozambique video from Warren! Enjoy!

ARADdin and the King of Bedouins

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

So I wanted to share with you what happened for the few weeks we were in Israel.....so please check out my teammate Erin's blog: ARADdin and the King of Bedouins. She does a great job giving an overveiw of our time there!!! enjoy!

http://erinneufeld.theworldrace.org/?filename=aradin-and-the-king-of-bedouins

My Favorite Stop is Swaziland

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We arrived in Swaziland on November 1, 2009. And I immediately fell in love it. Seriously, immediately fell in love. As soon as we pulled up in our van from Johannesburg to our location in Nsoko, Swaziland and were greeted with excited hugs and screams from about 50 kids.....and I knew Swaziland was going to be my favorite place on the race thus far. For two weeks team S'more and Bamboo Brigade lived in Nsoko and worked with Pastor Gift, a local pastor who works closely with AIM. He has hosted at least one team from every World Race squad since the beginning! Cool, eh?!

Our main ministry with Pastor Gift involved Care Points. These are different locations set up around the Nsoko area where Gogos (Swazi Grandma's) are given food to cook for the local children. Often this is the only decent meal the children will get each day. Between S'more and Bamboo we were spit up into 3 different care point teams, each with a different translator. Almost every day we would visit a care point in the morning and run a VBS program for the kids before lunch.

In the afternoon we had a few different ministry opportunities. Sometimes Pastor Gift arranged home visits for our care point teams. This is exactly what it sounds like- we would visit different people in the community in their homes. This ministry is really just about making good relationships, so we would share with them about ourselves, ask them questions about their stories, pray for them, sing, whatever. The women of our group were also able to help out with a couple of different Bible studies. On Tuesdays we ran a group for older women and on Friday's we ran a group for the teenage girls in the area. While the girls ran the Bible studies our guys were helping out Pastor Gift with a soccer ministry.

Also, every night our teams cooked dinner and were responsible for feeding 5 boys from the community and 1 teenage girl: Manza, Sieboseso, and Mussa (the brothers), Clive (a 14 year old boy), Siebelo and his sister Abigail (who was 15 and pregnant). Getting to know these kids turned out to be almost everyone's favorite ministry. I guess one reason why the brothers and the others that we fed affected me so much was that their stories are typical of Swaziland. The brothers have no parents, they are living with Siebelo and Abigail's Gogo (grandma). Clive lives with his sister, a prostitute, and was getting kicked out of his house every night for her clients to come. You find stories like this all over Swaziland and it just breaks my heart.

Turkish Delight

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hello and welcome back! I know it has been quite awhile since my last blog.....I don't even really know where to begin. I apologize if this blog is a little disjointed and all over the place

I guess the best place would be team changes. Way back at the end of September, during my squad's debrief/ The Awakening conference in Brashov, Romania, we experienced some team changes once more. I am still a part of Team S'MORE, but Scottie and AJ were moved to In.Tent.City. And Warren was moved over to us. So, here is the new Team S'MORE photo and we are eating s'mores!! Yay!!!

After debrief and The Awakening, I-Squad headed back to Bucharest, Romania for one night. From there we would be boarding a bus to Istanbul, Turkey. While in Bucharest my squad mate, Tara Reed, fell off a roof and fractured her pelvis. She spent almost all of October in the hospital in Romania recovering and just recently went back to the states. It's been hard to be without Tara, she is such a joy and an encouragement for the entire squad. Please check her blog to read more about her and her story. She really is an amazing woman of God. http://tarareed.theworldrace.org

Onto Turkey!!!! As a history major I was stoked to be heading to such a historically significant city, but I realized that I really didn't have a clue what modern day Turkey is like. I knew it was a Muslim nation and that was seriously about it. Within the first couple days of being there the people we worked with gave us a run down of Turkish history and present day life in Istanbul. Here a few statistics:

- Per capita Turkey has fewer believers, churches and missionaries then any nation in the world

- There are 72 million people in Turkey, 3600 of which are Christian

- There are only 64 Christian churches in all of Turkey

These facts make Turkey the most lost nation on earth. Although it's not illegal to be a Christian in Turkey, it is not looked highly upon and most people view Christians or missionaries very negatively. This makes it hard to be a Christian openly and freely. To step out as a Christian could mean losing your job, being disowned by your family, and in some extreme cases, even killed for bringing shame to the family.

The people we worked with focus on relationship building and ethnography. What is ethnography you may ask? Well, it is the study of people and their stories in their own words. Basically, they study different people groups in order to better reach them with the Gospel. The main group that our contacts wanted us to study was the gypsy people. We spent 3 days with a translator wandering through the streets of Istanbul looking for gypsy people to talk to and hear their stories. One day we came across an entire gypsy village of over 500 homes! This community had been there for over 200 years! When we first wandered into their community we came across a wedding and a couple of us, myself included, were pulled into the center of everyone and taught how to dance like a gypsy. It was quite the experience! I felt instant love and acceptance from these people. When I look back on the two days we visited this gypsy community this question keeps coming to mind: Can you imagine how much more effective the church would be if everyone felt that same love and acceptance when they walked into a church or Christian community? Unfortunately, when people in America and throughout the world hear about the church or Christianity, they don't think about love and acceptance. Many people probably think of judgment and self-righteousness. Isn't that sad?

Anyways, here are some pictures of Istanbul! Enjoy!!

I Say a Little Prayer For You.......

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

During the two weeks we were in Turkey, God definitely taught me a lot about prayer. One day sticks out in particular when I think about Turkey and would like to share it with you. One morning in Istanbul our squad felt it would be beneficial to start the day off in prayer. My team ended up going to the Blue Mosque, one of the most visited mosques in Istanbul. We had hoped to go into the mosque and pray inside but it was closed for visitors at the time we went. We ended up just sitting outside in the courtyard and praying right there. I have never before felt so compelled to pray before- I wanted to pray for the Muslim people, for the country, for the people visiting the mosque that day. I just didn't want to stop praying. After breaking for lunch we went back out to the mosque and this time we were able to go inside! I can't describe the feeling I had when we walked inside. Much like earlier that day I couldn't stop praying. After praying for awhile we left the mosque and headed to the University.

This was the other part of ministry that we did while in Istanbul- visited the local university campus and just talked to the different students we met. Apparently you need a student ID in order to enter the campus but this first day we went there we just walked right in through security with no problems. When we got back from the university the first day I remember being frustrated. This was because each person that I had gone to the university had ended up having an amazing conversation with someone, except for me. I had spent the afternoon at the university praying on the campus as others engaged in conversations. I was annoyed- I wanted to have a conversation with someone! I wanted to tell a Muslim university student about Jesus and why I believe in Him! But, God kept telling me to sit back and pray. Later that night I realized that God was calling me to pray all day because He was trying to teach me the importance of prayer. I realized that I didn't really view prayer to be that important. In my mind it meant more and was doing more for God if you were out there having conversations, holding a child, doing construction- doing these more tangible things. But, that is so far from the truth! Prayer is so important and vital to any ministry, to your relationship with God! And I didn't even know that was my attitude about prayer until that day. I also see that pride was also involved in my attitude that day. I wanted to be the one with a cool story to share, I wanted to be the one who was bold, I wanted to be the one in the center of things. I was afraid people would judge me because I "only prayed." Isn't that crazy?? I know that God is teaching me even more about prayer and I love it. I used to not be a big fan of praying. I didn't think I was good at it, I didn't think my words had any power, and I didn't think it really mattered all that much. But, God has just turned all of those thoughts upside down. I am finding myself praying more and enjoying it more. And I have been finding myself praying for others. I hate to admit this but I used to be so focused on myself that all I did was pray for myself. It rarely crossed my mind to pray anyone else. But, now I see God growing me in that area. I am excited to see where this new found prayer life takes me!

Side Note: I am still in need of some support! I am currently at about $12,500 which is amazing! But, I need $1,300 more to make the goal! Please consider supporting me in any amount you can give- $5, $10, $17, $33....seriously any amount helps!!! Just click on the Support Me! Link.....God Bless and thanks for reading!!

Came To My Rescue

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek your face
Lord all I am is yours

My whole life
I place in your hands
God of Mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at your throne

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are

In my life be lifted high
In our world be lifted high
In our love be lifted high

- Came to My Rescue, Hillsong

A few days ago during our morning squad worship session we sang this song and for some reason I started crying. Just a little earlier that morning I had received an encouragement/edification/prophecy note that just broke me. The first line of the note was "Jump. Seriously...dive in. What are you waiting for?" Well, naturally, I freaked out (on the inside) and for the first few minutes of worship all I think was "Dive into what? Jump into what? I know that I am still searching for worth in other places and not You. I want my identity, my worth to be with You. I want to experience, to know, to feel, to believe the depth of your love. I want to dive in, what is it you want me to dive into?" And when the above song started I all of sudden found myself crying and saying "God, what do you want from me?"

"Your heart."

My heart? Seriously? That is what all of this is about? I was expecting to hear God say "You are supposed to be stepping out in your gifts. That's what I want." I honestly thought that I must have heard God wrong. Last month in Romania people kept telling me how awesome it was to see me stepping up, to see how I have grown, to see God working in me. It was encouraging and exciting, but I also began to put a lot of pressure on myself. Any time we did ministry or had worship or any squad meeting this past month I felt that if I didn't say something profound, share my thoughts, volunteer for something, then I wasn't living up to my potential. I felt that I was letting down the squad, myself, the leaders, and God. And I think that I finally just broke down when I was given the note. I just couldn't do it any longer.

When God told me all He wanted was my heart, for me to jump into Him, dive into our relationship, I literally felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I didn't even realize until that breaking moment that I had put all this pressure on myself. I even thought I had been doing pretty good- I was believing that God loved me, that I was gifted, that God wants to use me. Those were things I had trouble believing the first month. I felt pretty good about myself, I mean look how far I had come! But, as it turns out, I still have crap to go through! After worship, just make sure I got the message, God gave me two encouraging conversations with my squad buddies. I realize now that I needed God to come and lift me up. I needed Him to rescue me from the pressure I was putting on myself. I needed to be with Him. I wanted to be with God and not worry about anything else. And that is where I am right now. What I want more then anything else right now is God.

I- What? I-Squad!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

This past month of Septemeber I was in Bucharest, Romania living at a former orphanage called Casa Shalom. The entire June squad (I-Squad) was there together. It was really an awesome bonding time for the squad; being able to do ministry all together was something we had not yet experienced. Seeing how God was worked in each member of this body since Guatemala was honestly inspiring. Every single person has grown and is growing closer to God- it rocks!

So, what did we do exactly? Well, the first week we were able to host a kid's camp, the kids came and lived at Casa Shalom with us for 3 days. The kids ranged in ages and were from a local gyspy village.We had different activites throughout the day, including skits, songs, crafts, and games. It was alot of fun and also draining. Running around with kids all day long can take alot out of you. Yet, I know that these kids were touched by us and felt God's love through us. That makes every second I was tired worth it. What made the kid's camp the hardest was the fact that we were going through extreme team changes at the same time (as I wrote about in one of my last blogs). Also, 3 members of our squad left the World Race for various reasons. Team changes, squad changes, and running around with kids makes for a very stressful, tiring, hard time. But, God got us through all of it and I think it definitely brought more unity to us as a whole.

The following week we had a one day kid's camp. My favorite part was telling the story of Jesus calming the storm. After we told the story we made up a skit for the kids to perform- it was so much fun. We had kids pretending to be the waves, some were disciples, and we a Jesus. The next day we visited the village that these kids lived in and had a few hours of games, singing, and other fun activities. It was awesome to be able to pour into the same kids more then once. That is something that has been hard for me at times. We do a kid's program, I fall in love with a few little ones and then I never see them again. I felt blessed that God gave me an opportunity to see these kids once more.

Another ministry we were able to participate in was visiting a girl's home. Most of the girls were in their teens or older and had some kind of mental or physical disability. We spent an afternoon with them painting and singing. Former team Abandon members had been to this home a couple times last month (August) and it was heart warming to see how excited the girls were to see them again. It showed me how much the simple things can affect someone and how valuable relational ministry really is.

Probably the most amazing ministry we did this past month was internal. Each person on the squad went through a time of sorrow and grieving because of the all the changes and because God is breaking all of us. We really were able to help one another through all kinds of crap and I believe that each person on I-Squad loves me for me and wants nothing more for them to fall more completely in love with God. And that is what I want for everyone on I-Squad too- falling completely in love with God. He really laid Ephesians 3:14-19 on my heart this past month for the squad: "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may streghten you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." I truly pray for myself and for the entire squad that we believe and experience God's amazing love and that we want nothing more then Him.

Gobble, Gobble

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Gobble, gobble!

So, you may be wondering at the title of this blog. Well, I chose Gobble, Gobble because there has been a change in my race route- we are headed to TURKEY!!! Get the gobble, gobble now??? I am so excited! We arrived in Brashov, Romania on Monday for debrief and The Awakening conference. Not long after our arrival we found out that because of some holiday happening in Israel that we would detour to Istanbul, Turkey for 10 days first and then head to Israel. Seriously, I am so excited for this! I have wanted to go to Istanbul for so long and now the opportunity has arose. We leave tomorrow morning and will be taking a 19-22 hour train from Brahsov to Istanbul.

Now on serious note: From this point on I will not be posting any blogs or communicating through my blog until we leave Israel the end of October. Please do not make any comments on this blog or send me any messages through this post or through my blog in general. Honestly, I may be out of internet contact until the end of October so I apologize in advance for that.

I promise to tell you some good stories when I get internet back! Keep me and my whole squad in your heart and thoughts over the next 1.5 months! love you all and thank you for your continued support!

FYI- I am still in some finanical need! Please consider supporting me- just click on the support me link! Thanks a bunches!

S'more of God!

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hello everyone! Long time no hear right?! So, as many of you know, this past month I have been in Bucharest, Romania with all of I-Squad. We have living at and doing ministry with Casa Shalom. Much has happened this month and God has been teaching every person something. It has been really challenging and encouraging to be around the whole squad. Probably the biggest change of all is that I am no longer a part of team Azariah. At the beginning of the month the squad leaders felt that it would be benefical for our squad to do some team changes and among those changes was that Azariah was dissolved Honestly, I can't remember the last time I cried so much and felt so sad. I spent the first 24 hours after the decision was made to break us apart crying, confused, angry, broken, and sad. But, God used that time to really teach me about TRUST. I couldn't wrap my mind around why put a team together just for 3 months? Why did God even bother with Azariah to begin with? Why bring these connections and relationships into my life just to break it apart? These thoughts just kept running through my head, over and over and over. And after each of those thoughts God would say "Trust Me." And finally after 2 days I began to listen to Him. It's crazy how hard it is to TRUST Him sometimes. We think we have it all figured out and that our plans are just so perfect. I love when I finally do put my trust in Him and I realize how stupid my own plans were! And God definitely has revealed to me these past couple of weeks just how amazing my new team is going to be and how much more growth He has in store for me. I know that I have reached the point I am at because of Azariah. But, I also know now that in order to continue moving forward where God wants me to go that this new team is where I need to be. So, with that being said- Meet my new team!!!!

Team S'more!!! Because we want s'more of God!!! Beep beep!!!

My new team members (left to right): Scottie Langston, Me, AJ Peters, Jessica Philips, Luke Cantrell, Cori Smith (team leader), Erin Neufeld, Kimi Cantrell

This is just another fun photo of team S'more!! Now, there are a few different reasons why we chose the name S'more, but that is for another blog!

That's all for now, s'more later!

Gypsy Time

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Here are a few videos from my teammate Scottie of our Gypsy village ministry last month. I thought you all enjoy them!

Confessions of a Verbal Processor

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I Talk Too Much

This is one lesson that God has been teaching me continually this month. I actually think God wanted me to learn this lesson a long time ago but I fought Him on it for awhile. I have to come to realize that I am a verbal processor to the extreme. No matter if I am frustrated, happy, sad, excited, angry, confused- I need to talk about it with someone. Even if talking brings no solutions I still have this intense need to share what is running through my head. I know that in some ways this is a positive attribute. But, the past couple of months I have also seen the negative side of "verbal processing." I realized that often my "processing" or "venting" would turn into gossip, even if I didn't intend for that. I also found that by being a verbal processor I was turning to the people around me more then I was turning to God. I need to continually be finding comfort, affirmation, peace, solution, etc in God, not in people. God has showed me that words can be very powerful and I need to watch what I am saying and who I am saying it to, especially when it comes to community living. Turning to Him first is always the best choice.

Controlling my verbal processor tendencies was not the only thing that God wanted me to learn about my words this month. Another challenge came in the form of a sermon by Francis Chan, entitled "You Talk Too Much." Honestly, this sermon was amazing- I think every person could benefit from listening to it. I could write 10 pages on it (well, at least a few more paragraphs) but I really just wanted to focus on one verse he used: "For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks," Matthew 12: 34b. Out of the heart the mouth speaks! Wow. That hit me pretty hard. The reason we need to tame the tongue, to watch what we say, to speak truth and encouragement over one another, etc. is because our mouth is a reflection of our heart. When I am processing, saying whatever it is I want to say to whoever, what is my heart really saying? We need to constantly be checking our hearts and our motives when we speak. This is hard work, to seriously think about what we are saying and why all the time. As I mentioned above, our words have power. We should not be using them to hurt one another, to spread negativity, to cast judgement, whether it's on purpose or not. We need to be using them to uplift one another, to edify, to inspire each other. And this is because it all comes back to love. Are we truly loving one another as God has loved us? As He has called us to love? This has definitely been a lesson all of us here in Romania are learning this month, and probably will be lesson we all continually be learning for the rest of our lives. If you are interested in reading more thoughts on this topic check my teammate Hailee Gibson's blog, http://haileegibson.theworldrace.org/?filename=verbal-vomit.

Please enjoy this picutre of me in a tree in Romania. It doesn't really have anything to do with this blog but I didn't want this blog to go without a picture....pictures make things so much more fun.

Roaming Around Romania

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I can't believe my first month is Romania has already come to a close! I am currently in Bucharest, having been reunited with the rest of the squad just this morning. We're all gearing up for 3 weeks of squad ministry and bonding time! I'm sure God will teach us some good stuff this month! I wanted to share a little bit about the ministry we were able to do while in Targu Mures and Stererjis (the village we lived in) the last 2 weeks.....

The last week and a half we were in Stejeris (the village we actually lived in) we connected with the local church, the pastor is actually the woman who owns the house we were staying in. She has two daughters our age, Zuzi and Emoke. I know that one reason we were in Stejeris was to minister to these women. It was such a blessing to get to know them and it made leaving much harder then it would have been. Zuzi and Emoke are both so hungry for God and desire to follow His will for their lives, and to encourage them was just really amazing. Their knowledge of the Bible is simply incredible and truly inspired me to become more initmate with God's word. I wish we had been able to meet these ladies earlier! I love them!

Me, Emoke, and Zuzi

Because of our friendship with Emoke and Zuzi we were able to have a VBS for the kids of Sterejis. This was one of my favoirte planned ministries we did this month. We played games and focused on the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den. One thing I have been learning this month is to "step up," to take an active role in whatever ministry we are doing, to be a part of the planning process, to lead something if I feel that God is calling me to. In the past taking charge of anything freaked me out, mainly because I was afraid of something going wrong and being labeled a failure. God is definitely breaking this fear off of me and has given me the confidence to just do what He has called me to do. With the VBS I found myself in charge of the story and the skit; God placed it on my heart to give my all to this kids and so thats what I tried to do. And I had such fun doing it. At the end of VBS we had face paints for the kids; we painted them like lions and they loved it! I have really fallenl in love all the kids of Romania we have come in contact with. Also, after the VBS I can't deny that God has given a me gift and passion for kids.

Some of the kids from the VBS!

One last thing I wanted to talk briefly about was the group of teenage boys we met in the park in Targu Mures. One of our first days in Romania we met 7 guys ranging from 15 to 21 just hanging out in a local park: Sake, Vlad, Raul, Christian, Paul, Vlad, and Eddie. One interesting thing about most of the youth in this area is that they speak 3 languages: Hungarian, Romanian, and English. Because these guys speak excellent English we were able to hang out with them without having to worry about language barriers or a translator. Almost every time we went into the city some of us would see some of them and we were even able to have a few of them over for dinner. They are not Christians and most of them openly admit to hating religion. Yet, they still wanted to hang out with us. They just enjoyed talking to us about movies, music and life in Romania. Sometimes we would play soccer with them. Sake was the one who was particularly drawn to us. He was the main guy that we talked to and one week he even came to church with us. He is a smart guy who thinks about life and what he wants from it. I 100% trust that God is used us to plant seeds in these boys lives and whether it weeks, months, or even years from now He will cause those seeds to grow.

Sake and Eddie in the park!

This month God continued the lesson I learned in Nicaragua about ministry- just hanging out with people, showing in interest in their lives, and loving them for they are, is ministry and can have a deep impact. We need to learn to trust God that the people He is placing in your path our the people He wants you to minister to and that He will continue a work in their hearts, even if you aren't there to see it come to completion. It was hard to leave Sterejis/Targu Mures mainly because I felt that I needed to do more for these people, but thats not what God wanted of me. I will probably never see Emoke, Zuzi, the village kids, or any of the teenagers again, but God still placed us, placed me, in Romania, for a reason, to love and to listen.

The Best Movie Ever

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hello! During our first week in Romania a few of us made this movie and my teammate Scottie put it together.....its a World Race style remake of The Blair Witch Project....enjoy!

The 2nd Best Movie Ever

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

And because we just love making movies over here in Romania, here is another remake- this time we give Braveheart a World Race Romanian twist.

A Computer Lesson

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A few blogs ago I mentioned that my computer had died.. I believe it was the 2^nd day in Romania, when it officially croaked.. Okay folks, brace yourself. I am writing this blog on my new computer. It's a PC. Hold up, hold up, hold up. Did Hannah Olsen, avid Mac lover, say she bought a PC??? For those of you who don't know me very well, I LOVE Macs. LOVE LOVE LOVE them. I would always talk about my Macbook and how much I love it and I would always tell my friends to buy Macs. Always. Whenever they would be using their PC I would be like "Shoulda bought a Mac...." It was probably really annoying of me. I even once joked that one of the characteristics I wanted in my future husband was Mac User. Basically, I was the biggest Mac snob ever.

Well, the day after my computer died was one of the most stressful days ever. I really didn't know what to do. I talked to my mom and she really wanted me to get a replacement computer. She knew without one I would probably hardly ever post a blog and rarely make contact through email or skype. I had pressure to make the decision that day because Dan and Becky from Aagpe8 were flying back to the US for a wedding and offered to bring me back a new computer. But I needed to order it that day to ensure it would arrive on time. These thoughts ran through my head the next few hours: Should I get a new computer? Could I live without one for the next 9 months? If I get a new computer, what should I get? A PC? Heck no! Why would I want one of those? A new Mac? Oh, the new Macs are so pretty. Hum, they cost $900......well, I could put it on a credit card right? How much was the mini HP again? $350.....But, ugh!, it's a PC....Why would I want to spend $350 on a PC when I could put that money towards a Mac? I knew that the most practical thing would be to by the mini HP computer, but I could not get over the fact that I would no longer be a Mac owner.

I talked it about with EVERYONE around me. I think my teammates probably wanted to punch me in the face at some point. But it was in one of these conversations I had a revelation: Does owning a Mac give me a better a relationship with God? No. Or does owning a PC hurt my relationship with God? No. Then what does it really matter? If someone gave me $1,000 right now would I put into my World Race support account? No, I would spend it on a Mac. I realized in that moment that I cared about what computer I owned way too much. It's just stuff. What I use to type my blogs on or store my pictures on does not matter at all. Not in the least. I honestly thought I really wasn't that materialistic. After all, I am on the World Race living out of backpack, I don't have attachment to things. Yet, deciding to buy an HP mini netbook was seriously one of the hardest decisions of my life. And that's not right. I was such a Mac person that it had even become part of my identity. Part me felt like if I got a PC I would losing a piece of myself. And how crazy is that? Its just a thing. I shouldn't define myself by what I own, I need to be defining myself in Christ. Its just so unbelievable the things we stake our identity in. As you know from other blogs God is continually breaking me of EVERYTHING I used to define myself as, including Mac lover. I'm not going to lie, I still miss my Mac. But when I finally got my baby HP computer I was excited. And I am enjoying getting know this little guy.

So there you go. That is how Hannah J. Olsen become a PC user and owner.

Me and my new PC, Franklin. Yes, I named him Franklin.

Debriefing Debrief

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For I-Squad's debrief this past month we were fortunate enough to go to Galway, Ireland. While most of the squad camped at Salthill, Team Azariah was able to spend the five days at the Poth's house. Kaleb's parents are missionaries in Ireland, in the Galway area, and they opened up their home to Team Azariah. The best night sleep I have experienced on the race thus far was that first night in Ireland- I slept for 12 hours and it was amazing. Mr. and Mrs. Poth were a true blessing for our team. We definitely benefited from being away from the rest of the squad and being able to get to know Kaleb's parents. One of my favorite memories of Ireland was Sunday. We all went to the Poth's church in the morning and then they invited us all back to their for lunch and dinner. It was such a fun time for the whole squad to relax. We watched movies, used the internet, some took naps, ate delicious food, and even had birthday celebrations. Mrs. Poth wanted to make sure every person on the squad had a chance to have a birthday cake and blow out candles; she baked a cake and some brownies and sang Happy Birthday for each month we are on the World Race. Let's give a special shout out right now to the Poths: Thank you so much for opening your home to us!!!!

Our squad coaches, Tom and Cindy Sipling, were able to meet us in Galway. Tom and Cindy have a way of challenging and encouraging me that keeps pushing me towards God and who I am in Him. This was something I have been learning about the past 2.5 months and being in Ireland just confirmed that God will continue to teach me about identity in Him. I have spent almost all of my life finding my identity in those around me and not in who God says I am. I need to continually be releasing the lies about who I am and replacing them the truth of who I am in Christ.

Another fun thing about Ireland was that I was able to go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince!!!

I definitely hope to return to Ireland someday! It is a beautiful country, with much to explore. I kinda wish we were in Ireland for a month doing ministry, but I did get a green stamp in my passport so I can't really complain!

Here are a few more pictures from my time in Ireland:

Top: Azariah with the Poths

Middle: Will, Myself, and Matt

Bottom: One of the squares in Galway