Hello again God!!

So, we're in Ireland...land of the leprechaun's and green clovers!!!  We've just finished with an amazing conference called The Awakening where all the World Racers who are out in the field now plus alumni plus coaches and leadership from our organization come together and worship and have teachings from some incredibly wise men.  My team (which is different AGAIN) was involved in so much of the production of this conference and I'm so proud and honored to be able to serve with people who are so gifted and talented in different areas. 

I know it's been a while since I've blogged so I'm just going to give some highlights of the last few months to get you caught up.

>  Kenya was great and we had one of the best contacts to work with.  I miss that place like crazy!

>  We traveled to Tanzania...NEVER want to experience a bus ride like that again...EVER!!!  Over a three day period we lived on three different buses, one of which was a 19 hour ride through the Serengeti desert on a bus that wasn't completely sealed so we were covered with about a half inch of white dust...miserable!  Then we got to the hotel only to find out that we had two whole hours to shower and rest before we had to get on another bus to travel 8 more hours to our ministry town.  What a life!

>  Our time in Iringa, Tanzania was pretty restful.  Our ministry was about two hours a day (maybe) so we got to do a lot together as a team.  At that point there were five of us girls; Emily Conner, Ashley Huizenga, Alycia Butler and Susie Virzi...and me J

>  We went on a safari to the Ruaha National Park...AMAZING!!!  We saw elephants,  lions (including two who were mating...so awkward and beautiful), a leopard, lots of monkeys, hippos, crocodiles, a creepy looking owl, and hundreds of giraffes.  Such a cool experience to see a beautiful and mysterious environment.

>  Traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on our way back to Nairobi and stopped off in a mall and whose picture did I see up on the wall at the Adidas store...none other than Jeremy Wariner!!!  It was so weird seeing someone I know plastered on the walls of a sports store.  It was comforting seeing someone that is familiar after so many months!

>  Traveled to Uganda to begin our third month of ministry in Africa.  First stop, Jinja, home of the Adrift Adventure Camp.  Our whole squad got to spend three days hanging out by the Nile River and experiencing a place that is spoken of in the bible...it was kind of awe-inspiring to be in the places that you read about in God's word.

>  Within that three day time period was my 31^st birthday...I can honestly say it was the best birthday EVER and I will have to get pretty creative if I ever want to try and top this one.  I got to bungee into the Nile River, then most of our squad went white-water rafting down class 5 rapids!  I was fortunate enough that all of our guys let me go on a raft with them so we could get the most out of our experience...and boy was it fun!!!

***So right now you're probably thinking this all sounds like a bunch of fun stuff and that we aren't really doing ministry...I'm getting to that part right now.

>  We arrived at our ministry sight in Uganda only to be quickly taken to the site of a crusade that our contacts were hosting.  The area was spiritually really heavy and there is a strong cult that thousands of people follow.  My team, which now consists of Emily Conner, Ashley Huizenga, Susie Virzi, Lauren Sims, Caleb Dufresne and Jake Kennedy, went to several different schools to teach the kids about who Jesus is and give them bibles so they can read the truth of the word of God.  Several of the kids wouldn't even take the bibles because their parents were part of the cult and they would be beaten if their parents found them with a bible.

>  Over the next week at the crusade we spoke at three schools and did door to door evangelism and, according to our contacts, 1,181 people accepted Christ that week.  Now, that's a shocking and incredible number of people!  I'm still a little skeptical at the depth of what people understand about the decision they made and my prayer is for a lot of discipleship for those people to really and truly know who Jesus is and the love that He pours out on them.

>  We went to the wedding of the Bishop's son and the Arch Bishop of all of Uganda did the service...and the King of that province was there.  The next day I got to preach three services and one of them had the Arch Bishop attending.  He was there to rest and be fed that day...just a little bit intimidating...and the services were televised so I was apparently on TV!!!

>  That week we put on a youth rally for the youth of the church and the community...in Africa youth can mean anyone from ages 8-35 so it was a broad range that we got to speak to.  It was incredible and the youth were all so attentive and purposeful with their questions.  We really felt a sense that the Lord would continue to work in this community through these youth!

>  Now we've come to Ireland and we've had a chance to get our spirits filled back up at the Awakening.  All the squads who are in the field right now had a dance competition a couple of days ago...guess who dominated!!!  That's right, N Squad (that's my squad)!!!  The level of unity that this process of coming up with a dance for 50 people to perform, teaching everyone how to do it and getting everyone excited about the competition was incredible.  Our squad has never been closer...we REALLY do have a family of 50 young people. 

>  After we performed and WON, everyone asked to see the dance again and, of course, we loved the idea of doing it again.  In one part of it I flip over Caleb's back.  Well, this second time I don't quite know what happened, but I landed bad...really bad...it felt like two knives had been jabbed straight into the front of both of my ankles.  But, I went on and finished.  Two hours later the pain began to really set in...almost instantaneously.  It was really strange because I went from a slight tightness to excruciating pain in my left foot.  I stuck my foot in an ice bucket (hated that) but it just kept getting worse and worse.  I was convinced that something was really wrong...possibly broken...but there was no way that I was going to go get it checked out.  I'm tough, right?  The stubbornness inside of me was screaming for people to stop making such a big deal over this...they wanted me to go to the hospital, they wanted guys to carry me to the car, they wanted me to get in a wheelchair!  Everything in me was resisting letting people help me, but the pain was beginning to overtake my stubbornness.  I was "talked" into going to the hospital to get it checked and now I'm so thankful for all of the prayers and strong words from the squad coaches and AIM staff who got me out of my own stubborn head because in that I got to see God work in the most phenomenal way!!!  Four hour hospital visit later the four other people who were with me prayed over me and asked God to really show up.  Actually I don't really know what they prayed because I was in and out of sleep, but when I woke up there was absolutely NO pain in my foot.  I was shocked!  I was convinced that I didn't need an X-Ray anymore, but I got one and there was nothing wrong...nothing.  They gave me crutches and pain medicine and sent me on my way.  Less than a day later I threw the crutches down and never got the prescription filled because someone greater had already healed me...and a lot of other people through the whole ordeal.  I don't know if I've ever experienced anything quite like the way God worked in my own body and in my own spirit.  I honestly feel a completely different mood has come over me.  I feel alive and excited again in a way I haven't felt in a LONG time.  Wow!