Probably one of the biggest things that drew me to the World Race was the opportunity to work with kids, especially orphans. This 

month we separated into new teams based on our ministry interests and of course when I found out that working at an orphanage 

was an option, I knew where I would be. Well, at the beginning of the month my orphanage loving team and I set out, excited for our month of ministry, only to arrive to our contacts and find out that the month would mostly consist of construction work and manual labor. And that there was no orphanage. Of course we were all initially disappointed, but I really think that God must 

have subconsciously prepared us for what was coming because we all had great attitudes about it, and we had the opportunity to do so many other great things that we never expected. Such as...

live & work in ridiculously hot weather. (110 degrees at 10:50am!)

do a lot of construction, such as building a saala and a wall. im a pro at mixing concrete now!

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teach lots of english. (which i absolutely loved.)

be apart of the thai new year! which is basically just like a nationwide water fight. we're going to try to bring it back to america.

get really comfortable with going everywhere in the back of a truck. 

encourage the people of the only thai church in the area.

this is the team i got to do it all with...

and this is the amazing family i got to live with...and consequently fall in love with. :)

With all of that being said, God has given me the opportunity to do so much this year, let alone this month! But I'm still in need of $1,500 to finish the race. We have 2 more months left and I know that there is still so much in store for me to do. If you have already supported me, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support. You are the reason I have been able to serve God with my life this year and through your support the lives of so many people have been changed. I'm so thankful for your help! Please prayerfully consider helping me finish this journey and raising the $1,500 more I need! Thank you!

A Miracle in Africa!

While we were in Tanzania we visited and prayed for a man name Nestory several times. Nestory was a member of the church we attended, loved the Lord and spent much of his time serving him. 

The first time we came to his house he needed help getting out of bed. He hadn't eaten anything in weeks or even drank any water in over a week. He was too weak to speak and as we were there he sat with his face looking to the ground, not lifting his head to even acknowledge any of us. When I put my hand on his shoulder I could feel every bone sticking out of this man who had withered away to nothing. We asked our pastor what was wrong with him and he said that he refused to eat and several weeks ago when the pastor asked him why he said it was because God told him to fast. When we heard that we knew he was being spiritually oppressed and hearing lies. All of the joy had been sucked out of his life and he was on the verge of death.

The first time we visited, we all prayed for Nestory and left seeing no improvement but feeling hopeful nonetheless. A few days later we came back to pray again. This time Nestory was in bed and would not get out. We came into his room and prayed for him-for his freedom and for his spirit and for life to come back into him. We left and again there was no apparent change in his condition. One of the last nights we were in Tanzania, we went again to pray for him. This time he walked out of his room on his own, sat down on the couch, looked us all in the eyes as we sat around him and even spoke to the pastor. We prayed for him and upon leaving he shook each of our hands and thanked us for coming. He was still weak, but had began eating again and we left feeling hopeful that God had already freed him and was going to continue until his joy was restored and his life was back to normal.

A few days ago I received an email from Yusuph, our translator while we were in Tanzaina, saying that he went to our church last Sunday and when we arrived he saw Nestory there! In his email he said that Nestory was, "completely healed, jumping and running around the church, crying while giving his testimony of what God had done for him." This is the man who several weeks prior to this refused to eat or drink and was so weak that he couldn't get up out of bed or even speak.

This story gives me even more reason to believe that God's love for us desires for us to be completely healed and to live a full life of abundance and joy. 

God is a God of life, healing, freedom & miracles!

Well, since the last time I've blogged we've experienced our first Christmas away from home in Israel, planted a church in Eldoret, Kenya, and now we're in Soroti, Uganda.

This is a short month, but already I'm so in love with it. We're doing a lot of visiting with families and people who live around the church we're helping with, and I somehow always find my way to the kids. I've had the opportunity to work more with kids within the last week than I have the entire race and I'm SO happy about it. This is just what I've been waiting for. The kids here are adorable. Whenever you're around they yell, "mzungo ("white person") how are you?" in their cute little African accents, and run up to you with their hand out ready to shake yours. I love being able to play games with them and teach them English in ways like having them repeat every word I say and drawing pictures in the dirt with a stick. :) 

On Saturday we spent the afternoon working with 200 Compassion International sponsored children. It was a great day and definitely a learning experience since I know that none of us have ever worked with that many non-English speaking kids before. We sang songs with them, put on an improved skit of David and Goliath and taught them duck, duck, goose, which surprisingly kept them entertained for at least 30 minutes. I loved working with Compassion International children because it made the organization seem much more legit to me. I'm always skeptical when I see a commercial about sending a certain amount of money to an organization and trusting them to get the money where you believe it's going. After talking to our pastor about Compassion and what they do, I'm definitely a believer in the organization. It's legit and they do so much for the kids here whose families can't afford to give them the kind of life they deserve. A sponsership gives them an education and a transformed life with so much opportunity that they otherwise would never have. Compassion International sponsors kids until they are 23, which gives them the chance to gain a higher education and thanks to that a career. I keep thinking that it would be amazing to meet a child here who needs sponsored and sponsor them when I get home. We'll see how that goes. :)

In other news, our team had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day-sharing past Valentine's Day disaster and success stories, watching a chick flick and decorating the house with heart shapes. :) The boys were great sports about it. haha And, I'll celebrate my first birthday away from home on Friday. I'm not sure what we'll do, since there isn't too much to do here in this little town, but I'm sure it will be a birthday I'll never forget! :)

That's all the news here. I appreciate the support and prayers from everybody at home more than I can say! :)

Soooo it's hard to believe, but we've finally made it to Israel! This month we're fasting from all technology, so besides one blog a week, you probably won't hear from me much at all. But know that I'm safe and sound and loving life here!

This past week we've been living in Arad, which is basically the middle of the desert, to the south of Jerusalem-about 20 minutes away from the Dead Sea! We've been working with a couple here teaching English to Bedouin children, which I have loved so much. We'll be doing that for the next week or so and then for the rest of the month my team is going to live in Jerusalem with a Jewish Orthodox family. I'm so excited for that and hope we get to celebrate Hanukkah with them and learn more about the Jewish culture. While we're living in Jerusalem we'll be running a soup kitchen, which I'm also so excited for.

So that's about all that's going on here in the Middle East.  I just wanted to give a quick update to say that I'm alive and well. :)

sofia on Thanksgiving! we ate sooo much. it was a great day.

hey jerusalem!

our backyard in the desert.

teaching english in a bedouin village. i love it so much.

joe & grant teaching english.

Soooo it's hard to believe, but we've finally made it to Israel! This month we're fasting from all technology, so besides one blog a week, you probably won't hear from me much at all. But know that I'm safe and sound and loving life here!

This past week we've been living in Arad, which is basically the middle of the desert, to the south of Jerusalem-about 20 minutes away from the Dead Sea! We've been working with a couple here teaching English to Bedouin children, which I have loved so much. We'll be doing that for the next week or so and then for the rest of the month my team is going to live in Jerusalem with a Jewish Orthodox family. I'm so excited for that and hope we get to celebrate Hanukkah with them and learn more about the Jewish culture. While we're living in Jerusalem we'll be running a soup kitchen, which I'm also so excited for.

So that's about all that's going on here in the Middle East.  I just wanted to give a quick update to say that I'm alive and well. :)

sofia on Thanksgiving! we ate sooo much. it was a great day.

hey jerusalem!

our backyard in the desert.

teaching english in a bedouin village. i love it so much.

I realize my lack in blogging, which is actually ironic because I'm a very avid journaler. So I thought I'd fix that problem by posting something I wrote in my journal from my time in Bor, Serbia.

To give you a little background information:

Bor is a very small copper mining town. The people who live there consider themselves a forgotten people and their town a forgotten place. Most of the people are trapped in a life of unemployment with no way out because of the extremely corrupt Serbian government.  I was blessed to spend about a week there with Drea, Hollis and Kristen. Hollis and Kristen lived with an amazing couple named Roger and Sue who have given up living a normal retired life in England to meet the needs of the people in Bor by loving them in practical ways. Drea and I lived with Jiffco and Zoritza, a Serbian Christian couple who have lived in Bor their entire lives and started the ministry that they now have. We got to spend the week learning from them and serving with them by visiting people stuck in poverty and providing them with food and love. We sat with people, listened to their stories, built relationships with them and showed them the love of Jesus. Their ministry isn't anything flashy or big, but it's what is needed, and most times the most unglamorous, unnoticed things are the ones that make the biggest impact and are closest to the heart of God. They are a picture of Jesus to everyone in Bor-just the 4 of them. It was my favorite week on the race yet because it's a ministry I believe in-doing very practical things to meet the needs of people and loving them through it all.

So here is a journal entry from one night in Bor. Try to excuse any grammatical errors/fragmented sentences. It's just straight from my heart, into my journal, and now for your eyes to see. :)

10.24.09

This evening we drove to a gypsy village to have a bible study. We drove through mountains and then down several pot-holed dirt roads until we came to a crowd of people waiting and singing "hallelujah" as we pulled up. As soon as we got out of the car it was like we were celebrities. Each person, children and adults alike, stuck their hands out to shake ours and young girls brought each of us girls a bouquet of wild flowers all tied in a bundle. There were probably about 5 families there, so many children just running around. We all spilled into one of the small houses and found in the living room a long table set up with a table cloth, 3 bowls of fruit, and plates of pastries and chips, all for us. We found out that they each put money towards buying it for us, as if they have any extra money to spare. It was amazing to me that the people who have nothing to give are the ones so quick to give everything they have, while the people with enough for everyone are the ones who horde it all to themselves. Why is that? We sat at the table as everyone poured in the room, the children all piling on top of and next to one another on the bed/couch, facing us with wide eyes and smiling faces. Next to me sat a teenage boy and at the head of the table a man with a homemade drum to use for worshiping. A broken symbol was attached to the side of the drum and his wife came in with a meat flattener and a screw driver for him to use to play his instrument. Jiffco played his guitar and song books were passed out and shared. We all sang in Serbian and it was beautiful. Most of the time I just watched the kids in front of me, singing and swaying and poking each other and laughing. I particularly watched one of the smallest boys as he held a song book and concentrated on it as he was singing. I don't even know if he was old enough to read. But he held it high for the others to read as well. At the end of every song everyone yelled a hearty "hallelujah!" After a few songs, Roger, Hollis, Kristen and I went outside with all the kids. We taught them some songs and laughed a lot at Roger's attempt to translate. At one point, he was giving directions and a 13 year old girl, practicing her English awkwardly said, "how are you?" and he stopped in the middle of his explaining and in his British accent replied, "oh, well I'm quite fine, thank you." We played a rendition of duck, duck, goose and it was fun to just run and run and have that be the most important thing in the world for a while. Later the little boy I had my eye on during worship explained a game called "don/noche" to the rest of the group and we played it. We communicated through laughter, games and light hearts...and that was really all we needed. A little girl kept holding my hand and resting her head on my arm. At one point she pointed to the moon that glowed orange over the little village. I looked at it and at least for a second we could communicate and know exactly what the other person was thinking. It made me realize how strange it is that our lives are so very different and yet we share the same sky. We took tons and tons of pictures because for every one you would take, a kid would come up, grab your arm and motion that they wanted a picture just with you. When we finally said goodbye there were hugs and kisses and "ciaos" and "i love you's" exchanged. It was a beautiful and surreal night. It's so strange to me that I get to keep hopping in and out of lives all over the world. Most people are lucky if they get to experience one life different than their own. Throughout this year I'm going to experience more lives than I knew I existed. Already I have, I guess. My eyes are being opened to so much. What will I do will all of this new knowledge?

*Jiffco, the man I lived with, has recently become unemployed. He worked at a grocery store for several years and for 7 months did not receive a paycheck. He is now being compensated for pay through food from the store that is past it's expiration date. He spends his time pouring into and satisfying the needs of the people of Bor, although he has barely anything to give. If you are interested in supporting him and his wife and their ministry, email me: aprillynnewright@gmail.com

photo borrowed from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pumkinlittle/1277027637/