Race Recap: Four Months in

Hey friends, region one of the race is coming to an end. So instead of jumping into all of the firsts this month, we have been facing quite a few lasts. From our last Spanish speaking country, to our last Central/South American country, & even our final country where the time difference isn’t that far off from yours. With all of that being said, today I want to take a look in the rearview mirror & simply reflect on the last four months. 

How has it felt being out of the United States for four months? 

Time on the race is so strange! I remember being in Costa Rica, month one, first week on the mission field & truly feeling like I hadn’t been in the states in ages. This wasn’t in a homesick type of way, but it honestly just felt like this had been my life forever. That first week really drug itself out, but then after that, I seemed to blink my eyes & all of a sudden I was on an 11 hour bus ride to Nicaragua. The race is this weird mixture of feeling like you have been gone forever & also wondering how time is going so quickly. I often ponder how quickly the time feels like it’s going by, but I also can hardly fathom the reality that this is my life for the next seven months. Emotionally there has defiantly been ups & downs, but overall I am still just in this place of awe every-time we land in a new country & make new friends. 

What is the biggest lesson I have learned on the race this far? 

One of my biggest lessons from these past four months has been living in love. Like I mention below, Abba recked me in the best way with His love month one, making it real & breathtaking. I have since been learning how to let that fill me & overflow. His love truly becomes the biggest motivation once you actually start to abide in it. Then you get to let that overflow transform the way you love everyone around. When I am not living as if I was created for His love & relationship, trying to do things on my own it always goes south. This looks like stepping back often & resting in Him, allowing Him to fill my mind with His loving kindness, being reminded of all HE has done & all He is. It takes patience & trust, but the life His love gives truly overflows & changes lives. 

How has the race changed my relationship with Jesus? 

Each month has truly looked so different between the Lord & I. Month one Abba really just slowed me down & made sure I knew His love for me. I, for the first time took His deep love, goodness & kindness from my head to my heart. I began to see the reality of my striving & took time to repent for not just dwelling in His love & righteousness. The love of the Father & the gift of the gospel really care alive month one for me. Then in Nicaragua the character of the Holy Spirit began to really become more apparent to me. I am still learning what it means to partner with the Holy Spirit & actually listen, because Holy Spirit is always speaking. But, instead of just seeing Holy Spirit as a power, I have learned to recognize the person in whom Holy Spirit is. Month three, Colombia, was honestly a month of questions. The Holy Spirit allowed a lot of heaviness, past hurt, & brokenness come to the surface. This opened up some really big questions that I am still asking if I’m honest, but that it teaching me to dig into the character of God & let Him define Himself instead of my past experiences. Then month four, Ecuador, has really been teaching me how to sit in the questions & still practice faithfulness. Though I don’t understand some things right now, which I know is because of my lack, not His, I still get to obey. I am learning the beauty of steadfastness & also how to come to the end of myself & just rely on His word. 

How has the race changed my relationships with people? 

You really are just dropped onto a team of stagers at the beginning of the race, only then to be dropped into a country of strangers. This made me realize both how much I love people & how difficult we as people can be. I realized very quickly that I came onto the race with some unrealistic expectations for my team & community, which I then had to drop right away. A month feels very short when you are making new friends, only to leave three weeks later. This however has taught me how to dive right in & invest in the people around me. I have learned how to build deep friendships really rapidly, which ca produce some of the most fruitful community. The dynamic of the race has also really opened my eyes to the reality of the Kingdom all over the world. We get to go & meet our brother & sister in Christ all over the world, make a deep connection, pouring into them & being poured into ourselves. Goodbyes are hard & deeply hurt me almost every month, but this has taught me the both and of love. We get the beauty of the relationships all around the globe, but we also have the pain of saying goodbye, never knowing if Abba is ever going to call us back. Long story short, I deeply love people & God crafted some really stunning hearts all over the world! I get to live in each moment with the people right infant of me, pressing in, trying my best not to let these relationships pass me by. 

What do I miss most about home/ the United States? 

If I could just pack up all of the people I love & place them on the mission field with me, I truly think I could do this forever. But as far as physical things go, I don’t miss much yet, just a few weird little comforts that I didn’t expect to miss. I miss little cozy things like candles & sofas, but God occasionally blesses us with those things. We all get way to excited for a hot shower & we haven’t even had to bucket shower yet, so that will be an interesting time. I also miss things like hosting people for dinner, or decorating a house, or meal planning & grocery shopping, or just making a loaf of sourdough bread. But even in the moments that I miss those little things, I can’t help but sitting back & just being amazed that this is where God would have my little 23 year old self! 

What is one thing I wish to take with me, into the rest of my life, that I have learned in the past four months? 

Wow, I should have given myself easier questions! There are so many thing I want to take with me, so I’m actually going to give you two. The first thing I never want let go go is how dependent I am on the Holy Spirit. I never want to be in the place of placing roasting in Him to the side because I think I can handle it, because it docent matter what it is I can’t do it alone. I don’t need to strive or let my woks try to defend me, I truly just need to abide. The second thing I never want to set to the side is intentionality with people. When you only have a month to get to know someone, you have to be incredibly intentional. But chances are this won’t be the dynamic of my life forever, & I never want to take my relationships with those around me for granted. Ever moment is a moment to press in & say yes. Sometimes that’s incredibly overwhelming & even painful, but that’s the actual love of Jesus here on earth. Choosing in is the way we get to practically be a light to the world. Filling the needs, wether that’s physically, emotionally, or spiritually of those around you in Christ’s strength is how we get to be set apart. We get the honor of being living sacrifices, brining Abba’s holiness to those he places in front of us & I never want to water down the importance of that. 

What is my favorite memory from the past four months? 

Wow, so many memories have been made! From our adventures paragliding, zip lining through the jungle, riding in the back of trailers & cramps cars singing at the top of our lungs, worship nights, deep conversations, & laughter, its almost to much to narrow down.I deeply loved our dance parties in the pouring rain in Costa Rica, my birthday celebration in Nicaragua, our day figuring out the metro system & cable cars in Colombia, & meeting a new friend who gave us a full tour of everything in Ecuador are all some of my forever favorites. 

Our first big memory on the race was week one. We arrived in Costa Rica & he asked if we could help him load a trailer before heading to the farm to begin ministry. This task was explained as being simple & only taking a few hours, so you can only imagine our surprise when began to clean out a massive church building of the most random things & five days later made our way to the farm. This is when we learned that nothing is ever what you think its going to be, so just hold on for the ride & make it fun! 

What has been my favorite food & least favorite food on the race? 

Food on the race is usually a fun time, however every once in a while you find yourself sneaking the plate around the table really relying on teamwork to clean the plate that was so kindly given to you. We really haven’t had a super hard time with food this far. We have eaten more rice & beans than I ever would in the states, but somehow I’m still not tired of it, so thanks God! Meat can be a weird time in other counties, so if I’m honest with you I just try not to ask a ton of questions, because sometimes when they tell you its chicken, it most defiantly is not. We defiantly ate some cow skin soup & pork skin in Costa Rica, & we have had a few opportunities to try guinea pig here in Ecuador, but so far I haven’t taken that offer up. Each month you find a little treat that you gravitate towards, for example in Costa Rica we ate cookies & peanut butter almost everyday, in Nicaragua a love for Coca-cola was ignited in all of us, Colombia we lived in a bakery, & in Ecuador we have had a random assortment of goodies. We love our ice cream runs, lollipops, peanut butter when its available & popcorn! 

Wow, that was much longer than I was expecting, but here is an overview of all the things from the first quarter of the race. I’m sure there are about a hundred more stories I could hav included, but I’ll save those for another time. Thank you guys so much for your love & support, I count have gotten this far without my community! 

Love you all tons, 

                     KEN