In the afternoons, we head out into the community visiting both the church members and the non-believers. The locals love inviting us into their home. They’re very grateful to have visitors. Most are believers and are just thirsting for some encouraging words. When I open up my Bible to give them a word, they sit at the edge of their seat. I usually tell a short story about the character of Jesus and apply the teaching to their lives. I mostly read from the Gospels, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, ect., and try and revert everything back to Jesus.
One day we walked a mile or two down a dirt road that lead to a single house in the middle of some farmland. I remember the father of the house being amazed that someone would walk all that way just to pray with him. Just our company was a blessing to him.
But, I’ll tell you, there are times when it gets a bit overwhelming. Sometimes we’ll get to a house where someone is sick, injured, or can’t walk. I’ve never prayed for instant healing like this before. And what adds to the pressure is that everyone believes that I have more healing power than anyone else because I’m a foreigner or something. I try to tell them that God gives each of us the authority to pray for healing over people. But, they still insist that it’s ME who needs to pray for healing over this person or that person. I usually tell a story of when Jesus heals someone and then I remind the person that since God is the same now as he was then, he can heal you too.
As we leave a house, the kids stretch out their arms wanting me to simply shake their hands. Ezekiel says they believe we carry "extra blessings" and they want it to spill over into them. Attempting to satisfy the cultural norm, I try to shake as many hands as I can get a hold of before we get to the next house. Just saying "bless you" means the world to them.
So, this is what we do each afternoon. We're 2 weeks in and we feel like the community knows who we are now. We still get strange looks as we trek through the farms, searching for more people to visit. But, they know why we're here and we've slowly become part of the community. Praying the 2nd half of the month goes just as well as the 1st half!
Things have been moving right along here in Kenya. Out of all the teams on my squad, my team was sent the furthest into the bush of Kenya. And we’re taking a lot of pride in that! This place is a lot different than what we’re used to. And staying healthy has been a challenge for my team. It’s nothing serious, just the side effects of getting used to the food. But we could still use all the prayers we can get for staying healthy!
We spend the mornings teaching various subjects at their local school. I’ve taught on almost every major subject to far: Math, Science, English, Bible Stories... even saying my ABC’s with the little ones. Yesterday, I taught the older ones the different phases of the moon and how to tell if it’s waxing or waning. There are only 5 of us covering 8 classes. So, our Pastor has been asking us to make sure that each class gets taught at least SOMETHING each day. “So that they all feel loved,” he would say.
After each morning of teaching, the kids run up and ask me to sign off on their workbooks. This proves to their parents that they were taught by a “white man” on that day. As soon as I sit down to sign a hundred workbooks, the kids flood the room in an effort to touch my hair. I guess they think it’s good luck. As soon as I finish signing the books, they won’t let me stand up. My arms are covered with their little hands just holding me down. I stay seated for a little bit just embracing what this must mean to them. That “white people would come to visit ME?!” It’s like a kid who just unwrapped his Christmas present and won’t let it go.
I eventually attempt to break free from the kids. And as they lose their grip on my arms, they look at the palms of their hands to see if the “white” had rubbed off of them. I AM NOT KIDDING! It’s so much fun to watch!
Anyway, I hope you guys can see how uniquely beautiful it is here in Africa. And the people are so friendly here, it's hard not to love it.
I just came back from my first African church service. The building was as simple as it gets. Four walls made of sticks, mud, and cow dung. As I prepared to give the sermon, I realized that there IS a plus side to being a foreigner here. Ezekiel told me that because of my physical difference, I already have their full attention. He told me I should take advantage of that. And he was right! As soon as I got up and started speaking, I could see in their faces that they were listening intently.
Kearston told me that I’ve become more confident in speaking in front of congregations since the beginning of the race. But, I think part of that confidence comes when you feel so welcomed by the community you’re visiting. And that’s something I knew about Kenya coming in, that they are incredibly relational and love being with people. For instance, I heard rumors that the services in Africa last for hours. And, sure enough, when we walked out the door, I stopped my watch at 2 hours and 51 minutes! Most of it was dancing and singing! I’ve never sweat during a service like I have here.
Anyway, this blog is way too long, I know. But, everything is going well and I’ll try to send updates as often as I can… or, as often as I’m able to get internet.
I can't upload pictures here, but you can go to my Kenya facebook album to get all my pictures! Here's the link:
Africa is here! I just arrived to begin month 8 of my World Race in Kenya!
Upon landing in Nairobi, our journey had only just begun to get to our ministry site. A couple of days later, we hopped a bus to Bukembe, Kenya. This is a town you won’t find on any map. As our drive toward Bukembe progressed, it became more and more evident that this was going to be a “unique” place. The paved road slowly became worse and worse. Houses became a rare siting as we drove further and further towards the Rift Valley. We started to wonder if there was ANYTHING AT ALL out here!
9 hours later, we arrived in Bukembe where we were greeted by our contact and his team. The population has to be around 2,000 people. There’s not a lot here… a couple strips of small shops and that’s about it. We were shown to our shelter that’s behind a mechanic’s shop. There were 5 beds set up for us, each with its own mosquito net. No running water or toilet, and very little electricity. The only reason I’m able to post this blog is because our contact just drove us 30 minutes to a place that has good internet.
It’s actually been very rewarding living without all the things we find essential to life back home. It gives me more opportunities to dig into the word, reflect on the day and get immersed in the culture and people. I’ve always believed it’s important to live the way they do. It puts you at their level. And they seem to be more receptive to you when they see that you live like them, with no special treatment.
During the past couple of days, we’ve been going door to door visiting the people of the town. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Door to door evangelism?! Really?” Here in Africa, it’s not unusual for the Pastor to visit everyone in the community. Everyone is very happy to have visitors stay with them for a while, talk with them and see how they’re doing in their walk. Especially if it’s a group of white Americans who have traveled thousands of miles to see them! They feel so loved and honored by the thought.
The people here still stare. But, I guess I don’t blame them. I would stare if I were in their shoes too. Ezekiel, one of my friends I’ve met here, said that most of the children here have never seen a white person before.
He said, “Half of the kids you haven’t even seen yet because they are hiding from you.”
“Why are they hiding?”
“Because they are scared of you.”
“There is nothing to be scared of, Ezekiel.”
“I know that. And they will too. It will just take some getting used too. Soon they will see you are a blessing from God from a faraway land. Just watch, next week, your arms will be hurting because they will be hanging off of you so much!”
Ezekiel has been a great friend to me already. Just this morning, I asked him if he would like to go on a run with me. I told him that I always wanted to run with a Kenyan because they are always the ones who win our Boston Marathons! He said, “Yes, yes, we are CHAMPIONS at running!” We had a good laugh and then hit the road for our Sunday morning run! I love those moments God gives me.
We get back from the run huffing and puffing, joking around, talking about life, God, and living in Bukembe… Thinking about how I just ran through this little community in Kenya… I wonder, “Really, God?! Is this my life?! How in the world did I come to be in this place at this point in my life?” And I realize only God could have brought me to such a place on such a journey. It gives me a great sense of awe in the Lord; that he can put me in a place I never dreamed I would be.
Well, Malaysia is already here and gone! We had a month filled with ministry and adventure! It was a month with "just the guys." A time of fellowship and growth as we lived life together as men of God. I'll never forget this month as it was one of my favorites.
We were able to complete many projects for the Chua family on his estate as well as built brick walls for Pastor Yesudason's new church. Along with church services, English tutorials, bible stories and praise and worship sessions, we had a lot of variety with our ministry. And in between, as Jeremy said, "we hit every corner of this country!" Visiting Singapore, finding waterfalls and beaches, hiking, caving, river swimming...
It's safe to say we are all exhausted! But, it's because we all decided to make the most of our time here in Malaysia. Whenever we had a break or an afternoon off, we would take advantage and go explore the land and see what we could find. We usually didn't have an agenda in mind... just grab our daypacks and GO!
This month, the mixture of work and play, ministry and adventure has been the most rewarding for me. It excites me to turn around and see all the brick I layed that day, or the amount of limbs I cut down, or how much soil I dug. I love looking back and seeing the tangible projects I completely for the Kingdom and hope that someone will be blessed by them.
But, I also desire to experience the place that I'm in. It's thrilling to travel through a country and visit something completely new, something you've never seen before. I've always believed God speaks to me the most when I'm IN his creation. So, if that takes stealing away from the group every now and then to hike down an unknown trail, consider it done. That's when I have my best quiet times!
Anyway, above is a video that can probably sum it all up better than I could writing in this blog! Looking back, it sure felt like it went by in 4 minutes!
Tomorrow, I'm flying to Africa for the last 4 months of my World Race! I'll be arriving in Kenya on April 30th. So, please keep my team and I in your prayers during our travel days coming up! And pray that God really utilizes these last 4 months and continues to reveal himself and his plans for me.
And as always, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your continued prayers and support for my ministry! You have no idea how much easier you guys make it... knowing that yall are back home "holding the rope while I climb down into the well," as a teammate once told me!
A special shout out to Chris Cerrito who's been taking care of Scarlett Jo (my truck) for me while I've been gone!
And also a special thanks to Corinth Reformed Church in Hickory, NC for my adoption and continually delivering in the clutch with prayers and support!
I know I haven't written you guys in a while. But, here's a quick update:
I'm still in Malaysia with my team of 8 guys. We've been living in the jungles of Northwest Malaysia for 3 weeks now (hence why we haven't had internet access). It's been camping-style living for us. But, we're loving it!
We're working with the Chua family who lives on their 400 acre piece of land. His estate is basically a palm tree farm. Every 2 weeks or so, harvesters come and cut the fruits off the trees and then take it to the factory to produce palm oil. I wish I had pictures for you but I can't upload them right now.
Anyway, what MY team is doing is helping out with the maintenance of the estate. We've completed a lot of construction projects for the Chuas. Our biggest project was pouring concrete on top of "prayer mountain" as he calls it. It was a simple enough project, just a slab-on-grade to make a level surface for people to pray, fellowship, camp, and enjoy the scenery on top of the mountain. Dan and Paul even climbed the trees on top of the mountain and cut down branches that were blocking some of the best views.
We also spent a day cleaning out his pond that was full of vegetation. That made for one messy day! But, other than that, we've just been doing a lot of odd jobs around the estate for the Chua's. Just making his place better with each new project. When you have 8 guys running around your property doing work, you can really get stuff done.
During our stay here, we've been to a Chinese church service, a Malaysian church service, and a Mexican church service. I don't think I've seen as much diversity in a country as I have in Malaysia. It's a lot like America in the sense that it's the melting pot of Southeast Asia. But, this country is still dominated by the Muslim religion. As a Christian, it's strange to feel like the minority here. We get caught up thinking that, in America, everyone believes in Jesus. But, we are seeing how much work still needs to be done here.
But, with all our work, we still try and find time for rest and chances to just be a tourist. Last weekend, we were able to make our way down to Singapore for the weekend. We had an absolute blast! We only had 2 days in Singapore before we had to be back for Monday morning. So, we all decided to make the most of every minute we were there! And by the end of it, we were exhausted!
And as a praise report: I've still been staying very healthy. I thought that surely by now, I would have caught something nasty during this journey around the world. But, thankfully and with your prayers, God's been keeping me safe. But, Africa is still coming up in a week! So, please keep praying for safe travels!
Funny story about the culture here: I've never been to a country that is so shocked to see caucasions. Whenever we take a trip to the market to get our food for the next few days we get stared at like never before. Fathers will literally tap their children on the shoulder and point us out for them to see. The stares will last long after you've past them on the street. Asking one of the locals what the deal is, she replied, "White people are never seen in this part of the country. You are like a Snow Leopard... a very rare siting."
More pictures to come soon!
Again, sorry about the lack of updates! Sometimes it's really hard to get internet. I can't wait to tell you more stories from ministry. Which will come soon!
Well, I’ve arrived safely to begin my 7th month of the World Race in Malaysia! What’s going to make this month different is that my squad has been separated into 2 teams of guys and 4 teams of girls. We call this month MANistry!
I’m leading one of the guy teams into Gua Musang which is on the Western side of Malaysia. From what I can gather, it sounds like we’ll be doing a lot of construction, farming, and manual labor. In fact, at some point this month, we’ll be getting all 16 guys together to work on a big “unknown” project! This has the potential to be an incredibly memorable month for me. We're going to see just how much a group of 16 men can accomplish in one month for Christ!
We went on prayer walks almost every day. Our ministry contact, James, called it spiritual sniping! I love that visual! He said prayer walking is about interceding and asking God to, somehow, impact them. James taught us, “Most of these people have never been prayed for before. God has never heard their names from someone else before.” Wow! What an honor to be able to lift their names up to God for the first time!
So, we walked and we prayed. Some days we’d target only the internationals. Some days we’d sit outside on a bench and watch people on the balconies of their apartments. Each apartment building has at least 25 floors, so we had a lot to watch for. When someone stepped outside on their balcony, we listened for God’s prayer requests for them and then ask for his blessings on them. When someone else steps out, you shoot your prayers at them… Spiritual Sniping! We chose a different location of the city every day to walk.
It was a weird feeling to be walking down a street praying for people in Vietnam. There were guards on every street corner just… watching. It’s kind of like the life guard at the swimming pool. If you try and do anything fun or remotely dangerous, the whistle blows to tell you to stop. You all know what I’m talking about! And you think, “This lifeguard is so LAME! Not wanting us to have any fun.” Well, in Vietnam, it’s kind of like that except they’ll “blow their whistle” if they hear any talks about God, praying, heaven, ect.
So, we usually walked around in pairs so that, as we prayed, it looked like we were just talking quietly to one another. But, it’s weird to know that if one of those guards discovered that I was praying or that I was NOT there as a tourist, or if they even heard the name Jesus, they would have kicked me out of the country! It’s kind of awesome if you think about it. I think the squad was having an informal race to see who could get kicked out of the country for talking about Jesus first. Thankfully, no one did.
The girls on my team were able to prayer walk through the “Backpacker’s District” at night. This was where most of the prostitution was headquartered. I know it impacted them a lot to see what happens in that district at night.
Each month on the World Race has seemed to have a theme for me. And the theme of this month was “My prayer life.” Before entering Vietnam, my prayer life was not where it needed to be. And it wasn’t growing. But, this month, I was discovering, all over again, that a relationship with the Father requires a 2-way conversation. And I wasn’t holding up my end of the deal.
But, after logging over 50 hours of prayer walking through Vietnam, my conversations with God have come back to life! You know, kind of like the way it is when you first become a believer and you just start spilling out any and all things from your life on the table for God. It was an amazing month of prayer for me!
What was that?...... You want to see more pictures?..... Sure......
On our day off, we were able to see the War Remnants Museum. Major points for whoever can tell me the name of this chopper.
What was cool about this museum was that you could touch EVERYTHING!
We were also able to take a tour of the Mekong Delta by canoe. This was our guide.
It feels good to be able to blog again! I’m sorry it’s been a while since I posted about Vietnam. I’ve gone a whole month wanting to tell everyone what’s been going on here. But, because of government restrictions, I wasn’t able to do so… But, over the next few days, I’ll try and give yall a glimpse on what the past month has been like for me.
The Vietnam government is very “sensitive” about speaking to people about our faith. We were never allowed to bring God into a conversation with a Vietnamese citizen. Now, if THEY asked us about it, about Jesus, about what we believe, then we were allowed to answer their question. But, this rarely happened.
Because the work that we were allowed to do in Vietnam was so limited, we did the one thing that no one could stop us from doing: We prayed. My team and I walked the streets, praying for Ho Chi Minh City and the country.
Some of the locations of our prayer walks.
I asked my contact if the other ministries in the city do this same thing. He replied, “This is the only thing you CAN do. Until the country changes there laws on freedom of religion, this is all there is.”
This was a tough month for me, ministry-wise. Because, it fulfills me when I leave a country feeling like I left them with SOMETHING, you know? I like to look back and SEE the house we built for them, or the well we drilled, or stories about Jesus, testimonies, better hygiene and health, ect. Or even if I’m just leaving them with my friendship, I’m leaving them with SOMETHING that they will remember and stick with them.
So, it was tough to ONLY be prayer walking around the city. Because, my selfish desires didn’t feel like I was leaving them with something. We walked around and prayed for people who don’t know you’re praying for them! Where’s the glory in that, right?
It wasn’t until the 2nd week that I realized how important this work is. I had to learn that prayer is important; that when God hears our voice, he listens. And when we ask for the Holy Spirit to enter a place, a person or to change a circumstance, he does it! Jesus gives us the authority to do that.
We were tilling the land for seeds to be planted. We were doing the behind the scenes work that won’t be noticed. So, the question for me was, “Can you put aside your desires to reap the harvest? And are you willing to do something that you don’t WANT to do, but needs to be done in order the pave the way for the workers who come behind you?”
It was work that wasn’t glamorous by any means. But, one of the things I learned this month was to never underestimate the power of prayer. And to submit to the specific needs of an area. And 1 Thess. 5:16-18 says to
Be joyful always, pray continually, and give thanks under all circumstances.
Part 2 coming soon…
As always, here are some pictures from Nam. Again, I wasn't as "camera crazy" this month because of what we were doing.
We arrived during the annual cyclo races they host in Ho Chi Minh City. Apparently this is tougher than it looks because it's very hard to keep the cyclos upright when you're going at a high speed.
On our day off, we went to the beach!
Me in the waves!
Ok, notice the Jesus statue on top of the hill. After the beach, we hiked up to see it...
And here it is up close...
And even closer! They have stairs that run up the interior and come out on his shoulders.
It was an amazing view of the city (Not Ho Chi Minh).
I wonder who bought this island and built a mansion on it?!
One of my highlights from Cambodia was the chance to portray the story of Jesus' death and resurrection to the local villagers. Some had heard the story before, some had not. The goal of my talk was for them to grasp how much pain and suffering Jesus went through that day. And he did it all for you! But, the story doesn't end with his death. The victory over sin comes 3 days later when he rises from the dead! Proving that the price of sin has been paid in full. It's the greatest love story of all time! And I was honored to be able to tell it. It was an experience I'll never forget!
As you'll see, the theme that I wanted get across was that Jesus was NOT a victim, he was a VOLUNTEER! I was told that once in Young Life and it has always stuck with me. I also tried to be as visual as I could with the resources that I had. It's no Mel Gibson, but it'll work!
If you're feeling led to give to my ministry, please check out my support tab! I'm halfway through my journey now, but I'm still in need of more support before I'm fully funded. Thanks for everyone's prayers and support!
After church, Paul and I took a celebratory ride home on our Pastor's motorbike! When ministry and adventure clash together, it makes for an incredible day!
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