Here is a video my friend Lauren made of some fun times we had on the trip.  Just being kids. 

It is time to say Goodbye. We leave tomorrow to travel back to the states as a group. Most of us will be staying the night in Florida due to how late we will be arriving there. On May 1^st I will be officially home in Texas. It has been the best, worst, most exhausting, most amazing, funniest, most adventurous, and most life changing year of my life. As this chapter in my life closes I am excited to start the next one. I made a slide show of my year below. Enjoy!!!!

Before we arrived here to "San Pablo" my team and I had no idea where we were going to live or do.  We were told we would probably be doing construction but besides that we were unknowing.  When we arrived here our contact who is the pastor in town came to pick us up.  Due to no hostels in this town or no where for us to pitch our tents we were invited to stay in his house.  The pastor speaks 4 languages one of which is not English, plus not one of us here in San Pablo speaks fluent Spanish.  We can get by with hand gestures and my Spanish/ English dictionary but deep converstions are very difficult.  We assumed we were here to do reconstruction on the church or a house in need in the community.  The church needs to have all the windows cleaned but the pastor stated that we can not do that right now due to wet window cells.  Or at least that is what we understood him saying through our broken communication.  For the first 5 hours we just sat around wondering "ok so now what!"  Soon after that statement the pastor came to our room to tell us we were going to go to someone's house in the community who has a sick child.  We all followed the pastor to this house and when we arrived we prayed to God for healing upon this child.  The next day we continued our path of following the pastor around.  We visited a house where a child had just committed suicide the night before.  About 60 people were crammed into a room with a coffin in the middle and many of the people were crying around the coffin.  Inside of this room full of people we all prayed for this 18 year old boy who hung himself the night before.  Our day continued as we went from one house to the next.  Praying and anointing the sick, comforting a 15 year old pregnant girl, and praying over a family with 4 generations of women that live in one house.  Today we walked to a restaurant that the pastor's friend cooks at.  The walk took a long time but the view was amazing.   The restaurant was right next to the lake and we were able to get many beautiful pictures.  As of right now our ministry is still up in the air.  Our communication will always be difficult but just following the pastor seems to be the way to go.  You never know what will happen next. 

So this is our last move until final debrief.  We are leaving tomorow to travel to Lake Panajachel in Guatemala.  For the next 11 days we will be mainly doing construction.  We are all going to work with our original teams that we were given at the beginning of the race.  On April 24^th final debrief will begin.  We will have a week of spending time with God, with each other, having worship, and processing the last year and the fact that we are now going home.  It is so weird to think that I will be

home exactly 3 weeks from today. 

Lake Panajachel

Journal entry June 5th, 2007

The day I left for the World Race.

     Well this is it, I am about to start the journey of a lifetime.  I said all my goodbyes with many tears, from surprise parties to birthday celebrations.  This year I will dedicate all to God.  I don't want to feel life pulling me away from him.  I vow to remain free from any men for a year and have my mind only on God my Savior.  Father I want a deep and passionate relationship with you.  My journey starts in Atlanta and then I travel to London and finally arrive in South Africa.  Wow how blessed am I! 

April 3, 2008

     I left for the World Race because God had placed it on my heart to do missionary work for longer than my normal 2 week trip.  When I imagined my year on June 5^th I imagined adventure and hard core ministry to be abundant.  What I received was something completely different.  This year I have experienced and seen Gods grace more than I ever have in my entire life.  When I slipped and fell he forgave me, dusted me off, and continued to use me in ministry.  When I was lonely he surrounded me with people who loved me as Christ loves me.  When I thought I was worthless and that I didn't belong here he told me how much he loved me.  This year God has revealed to me who I am.  My identity is no longer wrapped up in my job or my friends or what I do or do not have.  In the end what I truly got out of this year was discovering who I am in Christ.  

     I wanted to give everyone an update on our past couple of rough days.  Lauren my teammate had been sick for about one week.  Her temperature would come and go and continued to rise.  My other teammate Sarah started to have severe gastrointestinal problems.  A couple days ago all 3 of us went to the clinic.  Lauren was diagnosed with Typhoid and Sarah was admitted to the hospital with a bacterial infection in her stomach.  Lauren has gone back home to America.  She is going to recover there.  Sarah will be discharged from the hospital today.  Both of my teammates are recovering but prayer is definitely needed.  My heart is sad because Lauren went home unexpectedly and fast.  She will definitely be missed as we finish this last month without her here.  Team Concrete will not be the same. 

Taken almost one year ago.  The original crew of team concrete. 

Within the park here in Antigua young boys around 8 years old will walk around asking people if they need their shoes shined.  This is their life.  They donīt go to school, and the money they make usually goes to their parents.  I struggle with this concept.  On one hand if you let them shine your shoes they will make the money they need to live.  My mind tends to go the other way.  These boys that shine your shoes are kids.  They should be in school and have the opportunity to just be kids.  Day after day they walk around the park looking for work.  Asking most people they walk by if they need their shoes shined.  Each time they get to work they make about .40 cents.  What I have been struggling with most is the fact that this is normal here.  It breaks my heart to look at these kids who work so hard just to live day by day. 

       We have arrived in Antigua.  I must say this is the most beautiful country I have seen so far on the race.  There are flowers brightly colored everywhere with huge volcanoes in the background.  The streets in town are made out of cobblestone, with little shops lining the road.  Ice cream is a very popular desert here and you will hear no complaining from me about that.  Antigua is a very popular tourist spot.  People come here from all over the world.  In the center of town is this huge beautiful park.  Trees covered in flowers surround the park.  The park is a popular place for many people to go to.  
    On Monday my teammates and I were sitting in the park and met a woman named Juliana.  She was selling bracelets and had a baby on her back with 2 small children by her side.  Her middle child was about 3 years old and was very cranky.  Juliana stated that he was sick.  He had been running a fever and had a visible infection on the side of his ear.  God had laid it on my heart to pray for the little boy but due to distractions I had forgotten.  Latter that day as Lauren and I were walking away from town we ran into her again.  At that moment I knew that God placed her in front of us for a reason.  We sat next to her and asked if it was ok if we prayed over her child for healing.  She said yes right away with no hesitation.  After we prayed we left but she and her family remained heavy in my heart all night.  The next day Sarah, Courtney and I decided to atl in the park.  Atl stands for "ask the lord".  We basically sit in the park and pray that God will place people in our path that need prayer, encouragement, love or to hear the gospel message.  Our atl day in the park was amazing.  We had so many divine interventions that God provided for us.  One of them was running into Juliana and her children again.  She came and sat next to us on the bench to talk for a while.  Her son who was sick yesterday was running around and playing.  God had healed him.  He looked so good and his fever was gone.  With my Spanish to English dictionary and my Spanglish I have picked up, our conversation flowed well.  Juliana is a widow of eight months.  Her husband died due to illness.  She has no family members who are living and she is now the sole provider of her 3 children.  She is concerned everyday about not being able to feed her kids.  Lauren gave her some food that day and Juliana gave the food directly to the children to eat.  After our conversation with Juliana Sarah bent down to pray for her.  Juliana began to weep.  We pray every time before we atl that God will place people in our path that need love.  He provided us with a widow named Juliana.  She states that she is in the park everyday trying to sell the bracelets she makes.  God has given me a heavy burden for her and her family.  So everyday that God allows I plan to be in the park waiting for her and the many others God will place in our path.