It’s currently 2:25 am here in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Tonight has been one of those nights where your mind is in a million different places. You think back over the events from the days past and trying to process them is no small task.
I have already mentioned and posted a few pictures from the Children’s Hospital visit, but we have since returned there to minister again, and this time was a little bit more intense than our previous trip to pray with the children and their Mothers. I’m having a little bit harder time swallowing what we seen today…
As we arrived at the hospital, we were split into two groups and sent into two different wings of the facility to talk with the families, hang out with the kids, and pray for healing. Today though the team of 4 guys I worked along side, slowly made our way down the corridor and began in the “outpatient wing.” I’m going to call it that for lack of a better term. These kids mostly have mild injuries, sickness, or needs. It was a rich time and the majority of the children had smiles on their faces. Praise God, we actually had the opportunity to lead one of the women to Christ! It was great!
Once we finished in that wing, we returned to the hallway and after a few minutes of waiting for the others, Pastor Roni called for the 5 of us men to follow him into the double swinging doors. As we approached the doors, the first thing I noticed was the incubator. Immediately my heart sank…
We spent several minutes in the wing praying over the children and asking for the Lord to empty the beds and allow these babies to get better. I’m going to be honest and say it was hard. Very hard. All I know is that we serve a risen Savior who died for each of our sins. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our sins, and the punishment that brought us peace, was upon Him. By His stripes…
WE ARE HEALED.
I believe God will heal those babies. Big and small. Please pray that His will would be done and that He would receive all the glory and honor and praise.
…
The next thing I want to tell you about was also unlike anything I’d seen before. We visited the Puerto Barrios Dump.
Picture this. Thousands of pounds of garbage. Pigs, dogs, and vultures everywhere. The smell was unbearable and here we stood, in the midst of Hell on earth. A place where men, women, and children spend hours on end digging through other peoples garbage just to make ends meet and have something to eat.
We spent sometime here praying with the works, sharing the Gospel, and reaching out to the community. It was eye opening. One of the most humbling experiences I’ve ever had.
I fought back tears as I met one little boy, four years old to be exact, who spends everyday working all day with his Mother. This was his life. The only life he’ll probably ever know.
…
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”
Romans 10:14
I’ve thought about what we seen these past couple days and it really does break my heart. The thing is though…
THERE IS HOPE IN THE MIDST OF OUR HELL.
It’s our responsibility though to tell them about this Hope…
Well, month 9 is in full swing! It’s hot (one of the hottest months on the WR so far), humid, and it’s off to a great start!
This month is a little different than the other months that we’ve had on the World Race. This month is our “MANistry” month. Now, I know most of y’all are thinking, “What is MANistry month?!” Well, simply put, the men are separated from the women this month and we are doing ministry with just the guys. We all are missing our girls, but we know that the break is a good change and it will only bring us all closer together in the end!
For our month in Guatemala, we are in the city of Puerto Barrios. It’s a port city that is situated on the northern coast of Guatemala. Our ministry that we are working with is called, “Casa Verde.” It’s a really cool ministry because there isn’t just one thing it does. Nope, it is actually a ministry with many different outreaches.
The main ministry that Casa Verde is involved in is actually something that is very near and dear to my heart. The ministry contact here run a radio station called “Radio Fe Love.” It’s been really cool for me cause prior to the race, as many of you know, I worked at a radio station. I’m excited about being here this month because I have been asked to participate on the show with one of the radio personalities we are working along side, Kevin.
We are really blessed to be able to spend time with our contact this month and have been able to get to know them a good bit already just within the past week. One of my favorite things though, is that we are working with a local preacher. He’s an incredible man of God and his name is Pastor Roni. Haha, upon our arrival, immediately Pastor Roni had Peter, David, and myself, climbing the fruit trees with him to get some delicious fruit for us to enjoy.
Like I said, Casa Verde has many faces to it. Here are some of the other branches of the ministry we’ve had the opportunity to be involved in since we’ve arrived. There are still a couple more that we haven’t yet started to get involved with, but we are praying and asking the Lord to open up those doors.
A couple nights a week, we have the opportunity to go to the local park and participate in soccer, basketball, and also breakdancing, HAHA. It’s been really cool to go and see how the ministry reaches out to the locals that hang out in the park in the evenings. The very first night we were there, 6 of the students there received Christ! Hallelujah!
One day last week we got to visit the children’s hospital. We prayed with the children and their Mothers, as many of them awaited surgery for different injuries, while others were admitted due to sickness mostly caused from malnutrition.
Once a week we do prayer walks through the local neighborhood here where we are living. We walk, pray, and have a time of reading scripture.
My personal favorite thing we’ve done so far, surprisingly, was the nursing home ministry. The folks in the nursing home are INCREDIBLE! Actually, I believe with all my heart they were more of a blessing to us men, than we were to them. We had a great time also because it was the Guatemalan Mothers Day, so that was a blessing spending time with the Mothers.
I was a little hesitant when they first told us that we would be going there, due to the fact that one of the last times I was in a nursing home was the night my Papaw passed on to Heaven. God was so good though and we were so blessed spending time there. One of the little men even played and sang a song or 2 for us.
Probably three or four nights a week we also have the blessing of going to local churches to participate in the services. It’s been great having the opportunity to continue to share our testimonies and lead worship, and my favorite thing about the services, we get to do skits!
This past weekend we did a lot of traveling to the northern area of Guatemala. Our contact needed to have a meeting with the security guard at his radio tower, so he invited us to tag along, and we had the amazing opportunity to visit one of the main attractions in Guatemala, Tikal National Park! Home to the ancient Mayan civilization! David and I were really stoked about it, because it was one of the filming locations for one of my all time favorite shows, you guessed it, SURVIVOR! Season 11 was partially filmed there!
So that’s a little about what we are getting into this month. Continue to cover us men in your prayers as we push each other this month and learn more and more what it means to be a godly man. The Lord has so much to teach each of us, and we are excited about the opportunity! Pray a hedge of protection over each of us as we continue our month here in Guatemala!
The past week has been a blur when I look back over it. So much has happened, and is still happening. It seems like the race just goes by faster and faster and faster…
We finally wrapped up our 3 months in Easter Europe, and what an adventure it was! It had some of the most highs on the whole race, and sadly, probably some of the most lows. Nonetheless, it was a blessing and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have spent my time there. I have friends and family there now and I am so thankful for each one of the folks I came in contact with.
Our squad, after 3 months of being separated, finally had the opportunity to meet back up in Budapest, Hungary for a couple days before we headed into our month 8 debrief and then eventually on into month 9 of the World Race!
It was a great and refreshing time for all of us. A much needed reunion and some much needed rest!
At 9am on Tuesday morning, our squad checked out of our hostels, and began to make our way into another crazy long travel day. Travel days for me are always bittersweet. On one hand, I love meeting up with all our squad and heading into a new culture for another month, but on the other hand, I still (after 10ish flights or so in 8 months), don’t enjoy flying all that much. Normally I wake up and the very thought that I have to get on an airplane, usually goes hand in hand with a few trip to the baño (this is the Spanish word for bathroom…), cause my nerves tend to get the best of me. The Lord is helping me over come this though... Slowly...
So anyways, we took a bus ride to the airport, and eventually boarded our flight to Warsaw, Poland. After a while, our plan left Warsaw at about 4:30pm and we flew to JFK (New York City)! We landed about 9pm, and the jet lag began to set in… Some of us had never had the opportunity though to see New York City, so we hopped a subway and headed into town to help our 8-hour layover pass by.
New York City was INCREDIBLE! I’ve never seen anything like it! Jess and Tim had been there before, but Francis, Britni, and myself had not. The 3 of us though were like kids in a candy store! All the lights, taxis, buildings, etc.… It was so cool! Then we took the subway to Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood towering over the city. It was a humbling experience. I remember that day like it was just yesterday. I was sitting in Coach Josh Brooks’ keyboarding class and Michelle Brooks busted through the door asking if we’d seen the plane that hit the building in NYC. Now, there we stood, on the very US turf where it took place. The ironic thing was, it was after midnight and already May 2nd… Exactly one year to the day of Bin Laden’s death.
After spending some time in the city, we boarded our subway and began our trek back to the airport. I would be lying if I said that being back in the USA wasn’t overwhelming… No, it was very overwhelming actually. I was thankful for the opportunity though and would like to one day explore more of “The Big Apple!”
Once we arrived back at the airport, most the others were asleep, haha. Our squad kinda takes over the place when we go somewhere. Welcome to the World Race, haha. We waited around until around 6am, and then boarded our flight to Miami. It was a quick layover at MIA, and then we headed out on our last leg of the travel day. Eventually we landed in Guatemala City, Guatemala, grabbed our luggage, and took an hour bus ride to our hostel.
All in all, our travel day involved 5 countries, 3 continents, 4 flights, and about 40+ hours total of travel time. Crazy, huh?!?!
So, now, here I set in Antigua, Guatemala still trying to recover from jet lag. We are wrapping up our month 8 debrief, and getting ready to dive into month 9 of our journey. Which brings on a whole new season in itself… I’ll talk more about that in a minute though…
Debrief, if I'm being honest, has been "so-so" for me. I feel like I left having more questions than I got answers. However, the city here is beautiful! Antigua sits at the base of a HUGE volcano, that’s actually active. It erupted about 2 years ago. Pretty cool if you ask me!
Debrief has also brought on some new changes in our teams and our squad.
After 8 months of team leading, pouring into the folks around me, doing logistics for our team, finding transportation to each country, meeting with our contacts to organize ministry, etc.… I have officially stepped down from team leading. I’m thankful for the season I’ve had to serve on leadership for our squad, but now I’m excited about the opportunity to just be a “normal racer” for the last 3 months of the race. God has so much more to teach me and I’m excited to continue to grow. Team leading was a blessing to me and I grew more in the past 8 months than I think I have in my entire life. As I set here and type this, I look back at the Dusty Dills who began this journey in September… He’s a different man now. I’m excited now to be able to continue to grow and just rest in whom the Lord has developed me into. It’s not been easy by any means, but I’m thankful for it.
My team hasn’t changed, other than our team name :-) I’ll blog about that later though! The biggest difference in me stepping down is that we needed a new team leader… And I am happy to announce that, Jenn Watson, one of my original team members from the very beginning, will now be leading our team. I have nothing but love for her and I am excited about this new season in her life! Hallelujah!
The last thing I want to mention is that tomorrow we will begin month 9 of our WR. It’s gonna be a different month completely! It’s “MANistry” month! This means that we are split up this month, men and women, and so tomorrow we will say our goodbyes for the month, and us men will all head to our ministry site, 7 hours away, on the Gulf Coast of Guatemala in the town of Puerto Barrios! I am so excited about what the Lord has planned, and I just ask that you would continue to cover us all in prayer as we begin month 9, Guatemala!
Love y’all!
P.S...
I forgot to mention... August 5th... I'll be back on U.S turf! Get ready friends and family! I can't wait to see you :-D
I’m currently on a train from Subotica, Serbia to Budapest, Hungary to go meet up with all of our squad. Month 8 has officially come to an end, and now it’s time to head to our 4th and final continent of our World Race journey, Central America.
I want to apologize if it seemed like I didn’t blog much this month. You’re correct, I didn’t blog much at all actually. This was a weird month for me spiritually and also with ministry as well. It was a good month of ministry, but it was also the end of a certain season for me, that I’ll talk about in my next blog. It was a quiet month for me spiritually. A lot of emotions. Good, bad, sad, happy, ugly, beautiful, on and on I could go. You have those months from time to time, and as we call it in the “World Race world”, I guess you could say it was my “bucket month.”
Anyways, I want to share with you about an incredible opportunity my team had last night. It was definitely in the top 10 most coolest, humbling, exciting, overwhelming, moments in my entire life...
Let me start off though by telling you where this all began for me. Back in month 5 of my race, we spent the month serving in Swaziland, Africa. One of my favorite months so far! There was a book that has been getting passed around on our squad called,
“The Heavenly Man.”
It’s about one of the first missionaries from China. Trying to sum up what the book was about in this one blog would almost be like trying to explain the book of Revelation to a 5 year old. It can’t be done. You honestly just need to get the book and read it for yourself. It’ll change your life.
Brother Yun, also known as, “The Heavenly Man”, is a man who took many risks to see that the Gospel reached throughout China. God basically used him to evangelize the majority of that amazing country that is very near and dear to my heart. While in China, we had the incredible opportunity to serve in the Henan Province, which is actually where Brother Yun is from. I didn’t find this out, however, until after our time in China.
God did some incredible miracles in and through the life of this one man. Thousands upon thousands of house churches were started, and thousands of believers began to rise up in China. Yun spent the vast majority of his married life in prison. He was beaten and tortured numerous times for his faith, and also was arrested the very night of his wedding, separating him and his was new bride for many years. They continued to hold strong though to the Lord, knowing that one day, they would be reunited.
Yun, during one of his times in prison, fasted from food and water for 74 days. He was reduced to about 60 lbs! Also, during one of his times in the Zhengzhou maximum security prison, he was beaten multiple times each day, to the point where his good friend had to carry him to and from his beatings. With both his legs broken severely, one day the Lord told him to get up and walk out of the prison. He got up, walked out all of the maximum prisons doors, and left with no problem. It wasn’t until later that he realized that his legs were miraculously healed!
These are just a few of the things the Lord did in this mans life.
Earlier this week while talking to our contact, our team discovered that Yun would be speaking in a nearby city called, Novi Sad. We immediately knew we had to go and hear him speak! I was humbled at the very thought of being in the same building as Yun. He is such a hero in the faith. After reading the book in Swaziland, I prayed that one day I’d have the opportunity to meet this “Heavenly Man” and I added it to my “100 Dreams List.”
As we pulled into the parking lot in Novi Sad, I prayed that the Lord would allow us to see Yun. HE did just that…
Once we got to our seats in the MASSIVE arena, I noticed a little asian man sitting down in the very front row, all alone. It was Yun. So a couple of our team members walked forward to meet him. Once they got up there, they waved the rest of us over to where they were.
For the next 15 minutes or so, we had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Brother Yun. He shook our hands, gave us hugs, and welcomed us with the BIGGEST and most beautiful smile. He was a very humble and gentle man. He wrote in my journal next to where I had written after reading his book, and also took some photos with us. Then, Jenn set down with him and began to share about her family adopting Zi-Ping. The even more amazing thing is that “Zi” lives just outside the city where Yun is from. We shared a picture with him of little Zi, and as we talked with him, Brother Yun placed his hand over his heart and began to cry. It dawned on me in that moment, Brother Yun was never allowed back in his homeland. If he ever returns, they’ll kill him. Talk about a humbling moment.
We finished up talking, said our “thank you’s and goodbyes” and then went on our way.
Brother Yun currently lives in Germany with his family and travels the world sharing his testimony. His son also travels with him and translates. It was crazy seeing this process. Yun speaks chinese, his son translates to german, another lady translated to Serbian, and then we had an interpreter share in English. It was an emotional and powerful service. The presence of the Lord was so thick in that place.
The best part though was still to come…
After the service, Yun had a time of prayer over folks that were in attendance. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to be prayed over by this man. So our team once again made our way to the front of the arena, and Yun made is way around and as he approached each of us, he placed one hand on my head, and the other on my shoulder and began to pray over me. Talk about an incredible moment. I could just feel the Holy Spirit all over the place as each word rolled off his tongue.
The rest of the evening as we made our way home, I processed. I just met “The Heavenly Man.” I know it probably seems like I’m putting him on a pedestal, but it isn’t that at all. I just realized how truly incredible our God is and that really ANYTHING is possible through Jesus. ANYTHING. I encourage you to go read the book. We serve a God who isn’t dead. Nope, HE’S surely alive!
Love y’all.
Check out this video. It's absolutely incredible. Eight of these languages are from countries that we have spent time in during this year. A very humbling video.
I first of all want to give a quick update and say THANK YOU to everyone who helped participate in “Zi-Day!” Praise God! Because of y’all, they were able to raise over $16,000 to help bring him home to his new Mommy and Daddy, in the states! The incredible thing about that number is… That isn’t doubled yet… So, in one day, you helped raise a total of over $32,000!!! How incredible is that?! I woke up yesterday morning and excitedly jumped onto Facebook to see what the total amount was, and as I seen the final number, I became so overwhelmed by how good the Lord is. It’s one of those things that there is no explanation for except that it was God. I’m still trying to process all that happened to be honest. I’m not sure that I’ll ever reach a point of being able to “pin” a word on it… All I know is that we serve a God who is still VERY MUCH ALIVE! Now… I just can’t wait to see my little buddy finally get home to the states!
So, this month, believe it or not… is month 8 of my World Race journey. That’s right! It’s hard to believe, but I’ll be home in 3.5 months! Bittersweet for sure. This month my team is working in Subotica, Serbia. Most of y’all are like me and probably have never even heard of Serbia, right? Well, don’t feel bad, haha. Prior to becoming Serbia, you may have know this country as Yugoslavia. I know that’ll ring a bell.
This month we are working with “FOKUS MINISTRIES.” It’s an incredible ministry that has many different branches to it. We are blessed to be able to participate in each of the branches during our time here to help get a better feel for what they do. The ministry here is actually a very well know ministry back home. Many of you have heard of “Campus Crusade for Christ?” That is who we are working with this month, but because of the restrictions in the country, they’re not allowed to call it that for certain reasons.
The ministry here is run by a couple by the name of Pedja & Angela (pictured above). They are wonderful people and have been so good to us so far! We have been blessed once again with an incredible ministry for the third month in a row in Eastern Europe. I’m telling you, if you’ve never visited this area, you’re missing out. It sometimes feels like being back home in the South. They feed us ALL THE TIME and are so hospitable.
So far this month we have had the privilege of doing several different things. We have been able to lead church services here at the base we are staying at for the month (which might I add, are some of the best accommodations we’ve had on the entire race)! We have been able to play “Football” aka to us Americans as soccer, with the local youth in the neighborhood. Several days we have also had the blessing of traveling over an hour away to lead worship services in different villages. Its been great! Some of my personal favorite times so far this month, have been when we have gotten to perform dramas and skits that I was able to teach my team. It’s been great cause that’s what I did back home with the youth group! And starting this week, we will be going into town doing “outreach” with local young adults and college students at coffee shops, attempting to build relationships, and eventually be able to share Christ with them.
The country of Serbia is currently not part of the “European Union”, so things here are a little different than in our past two countries (Bulgaria & Romania). Because of this, the area is VERY MUCH Orthodox. So people are not as open to the Gospel, and because of that reason, we must first get to know the students before attempting to share Jesus with them. A lot of folks are not open to hearing about Jesus.
Please be in prayer for our team as we minister this month to the locals. Pray for doors to be open and walls to be torn down. Pray that in the midst of such a post-communist country, the love of Jesus would flip this place upside down. Also, this month our squad is basically spread ALL OVER Eastern Europe. We have one team in Czech Republic, one in Ukraine, two in Bulgaria, one in Croatia, and then also our team here in Serbia. Pray that we finish strong and that God would continue to protect us during our last couple of weeks in Europe.
In China, my team and I worked at an orphanage for children with special needs.
While serving there, we met a precious little boy named Zi-Ping, who has Down's Syndrome, that stole our hearts.
By God's grace, Josh & Katie Edwards, who is my teammate Jenn's, Sister and Brother-in-law,are adopting Zi-Ping! He will now be a part of their family forever!
They need to raise a total of $35,000 to cover all
the adoption fees.
They are raising money and today, every dollar raised will be matched by an anonymous company, with no limit to the amount that can be matched.
I'm believing that they can raise the entire amount today, because I believe that our God is great and has a heart for the orphans of this world.
If you want to hear more of the story, or would like to donate to the cause go here
Ok, ok… So maybe we weren’t completely held at gun point, but in my book, it’s close enough! Let me tell you about our exciting travel day from Sofia, Bulgaria to Subotica, Serbia. One that I wouldn’t care to experience again.
After spending a couple days in Sofia, Bulgaria and having a 4 day break, it was time to move onto month 8 of our World Race journey in Serbia. Let me point out that this is NOT the same as SIBERIA. Praise the Lord. It was cold enough spending one month with snow in Romania, I can’t begin to imagine going to Siberia! So, anyways… Yes, month 8, Serbia.
We left our hostel at 7pm, and immediately we were off to a rough start. When our 2 cabs arrived, half of our group loaded up and heading out in the first one, while the other half of us attempted to get into the second one. Here we are, 4 of us, ALL of our luggage, and the trunk won’t open. LOL. So we wait, hoping and praying that our cab will arrive before our train departs at 8:15pm on the other side of Sofia!
Eventually it arrives and we’re off! We get to the train station, unload all our packs and begin to search for our platform. We’re not sure where the platform is (cause we don’t read/ speak the language) so these two men who work at the station lead us to our platform and help us find our seats. Ok. Well, we head to our cabins (4 in 1 cabin, 3 in the other) and soon find that there are people in our seats. Normally this isn’t a big deal, except for the fact that all the other seats are taken. So for the next 15 minutes or so, the two men who helped us find our platform, have a “throw down” with the folks who are in our seats. After 10 minutes of refusing to move to another cabin, the station worker rips the luggage, of the folks in our seats, down from the storage area and beings to sling it out into the hallway. All the while they are still screaming and hollering very loudly at each other.
Side note… I HATE CONFRONTATION.
So by about 5 minutes into this dispute, my nerves are shot. I’m ready to just find another way to Serbia, haha… Eventually though, the folks move and we are able to take our seats. Then we find out that the “station workers” were only doing this so that they could get money out of us… Because people constantly think; Americans (or when it comes to our team specifically), Brits, & Canadians = Money! Maybe so, normally, but when you’re a WR’er you usually tend to stay broke.
Our train ends up being delayed 30 minutes, so we finally pull out around 8:45pm. Francis, Amanda, Ann & some other random people are in one cabin… Jenn, Raquel, Michelle, myself, and an older eruopean brother and sister who are traveling together, are in the next cabin over. We were having a great time in ours! The brother and sister were able to speak enough english to where we could have some small conversations, we shared snacks with each other, and exchanged pictures. It was great and finally seemed like we were on our way, problems behind us! For a little while…
Not long after we pulled away from the station, there were 2 young men who were walking back and forth through the hallway in the train. After passing by several times, they opened our door and attempted to make us move seats. Drackon and the young men exchanged a few words, and they finally gave up and left. After shutting the door, Drackon turns to me and says, “In Serbia, some very bad people. Some no safe people,” and I understood enough of his broken english to get the point. Drackon told Michelle to tell the rest of our team in the other car, to always have one person awake. It wasn’t safe for everyone to sleep, so she told the others and came back.
At around 11 pm, Drackon decided that he was going to stand guard for both our cabins, so we could all rest. We didn’t object, and next thing I know, we’re all out.
I’m not sure exactly what time it was, but it registers to me that there are people “exchanging words” again inside our cabin. I open my eyes and realize that there is a 6.5 foot man standing over top of me, staring at me, telling me to move. I’m sitting between Raquel and Drackon, and quickly both of them rise to their feet. All this is happening so fast, it takes me a second to realize it’s the same young men from earlier. Before I can get to my feet, the man reaches across me, rips Raquel’s seat up and starts to dig for something. Eventually he removes some of the flooring/ garbage from under the seat, and then his other friend starts to dig under Drackon’s seat also. So, here I am stuck between the two men, unable to move because the one is reaching across me. Next thing we know, the taller man slides something under my seat to the small guy, and as he pulls it out from under the seat, I make eye contact with Jenn, just in time to see her eyes get big…
Out of the corner of my eye, the men pull a shot gun from under the seat. My heart stops, and all I can do at this point is pray.
It was the scariest and most helpless feeling in the world. I don’t know if you’ve ever been scared enough that you thought you were gonna throw up…? Well, that’s exactly what I was feeling. Fighting back the urge to protect the others, we all just set there in silence.
The men have smuggled weapons from Bulgaria to Serbia, hidden them throughout the train, and I just happen to be the lucky one sitting over one of them… So now, standing in the hallway, he begins to unwrap the gun, and all I could do was continue to pray. Next, they head into the cabin where Francis, Amanda, and Ann are sitting and retrieve a package as well. Not sure what the men are planning to do, we are all sitting ducks at this point. Talk about scary stuff! I guess though they finally retrieved their packages and they take off to another train cart.
The first words out of my mouth are, “Welp, I reckon I just got my next blog entry…” HAHAHA…
Needless to say, we didn’t sleep much the remainder of the night… I’m so thankful to Drackon though, because after this, he literally stood watch for us the rest of the train ride. So there you have it… Our exciting, but not so exciting travel day to Serbia… Welcome to the World Race, friends… You never know what the day might hold :-)
Thank you so much for y’alls continued prayers and support over us while we take this journey! I’m thankful for folks who go to battle for us in prayer 24/7… I’m forever grateful!
I’ll let you know about our month 8 ministry soon… For now, it’s time to get some rest!
I actually wrote this blog on September 30th, 2011 while I was in my first month of the race in The Philippines. After this month though in Bulgaria, month 7, I think it’s the right time to post it. God taught me about freedom this month.Freedom that i’ve never understood before now. Freedom to not allow my past to determine my future. I hope this story blesses you.
Have you ever felt like somewhere along the road of life, some part of you went missing or maybe something happened and a part of you life was altered? Do you ever look at your life and wonder, “who am I and how did I get here?” I think from time to time we all have been there and asked that question.
I want to tell you a story about a little boy. He was a normal little boy who loved to run, jump, play in the mud, climb trees, and do all those things that all little boys love to do. He was the happiest kid in the whole wide world. Somewhere along his life though, a few things happened and the little boy slowly began to take a road he didn’t even realize he was on. Maybe somethings took place that he had control of, maybe somethings that were completely out of his control, but never the less, they happened and before he knew it, the path that God had intended for him to be on, was in a completely different direction from the one he was trekking. It was not something done on purpose. No, it was a very subtle thing that happened.
As the little boy grew up, he would lay in bed at night and wonder, “who am I and how did I get here?” The older he got, the more questions he asked himself. Before he knew it, the little boy who he had started out as, disappeared from his memory and faded into what seemed like was only a dream at one point in time. So he continued to move forward, almost blind and oblivious to what was going on and to who he was becoming.
Fast forward. The boy started to become a man. He went to college, graduated, got a job, and started to pursue the life of the “American dream.” He even knew the Lord and had a very strong relationship with Him. The young man was happy for the most part, at least that’s what people saw on the outside. On the inside however, he fought a battle. A battle that said, “you’re not good enough. You will never amount to anything. God doesn’t love you. You’re not worth Jesus dying for you. Nobody likes you. You might as well give up and quit trying, because you will never get anywhere or reach anybody in life. You’re scared and always will be and should be, because failure will follow you everywhere you go. Anything you try and do will not amount to anything. You want to help others, but you cannot even help yourself.” These are the voices that the young man heard. The voice of the enemy. The enemy who was out to destroy him and hold him back.
One day, he finally realized that somewhere along his life, he lost sight of the little boy he started out as, and he grew into somebody God never intended for him to be. There needed to be a change. He knew it had to happen, because if it didn’t, there was no telling where he might end up or what might happen. He had reached the point where he just didn’t know what to do anymore. So he did the only thing he knew to do. He completely abandoned everything he had ever known in life. Said “see you later” to his friends and family and left his normal, everyday life behind.
The young man embarked on a journey. A journey to help others and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost a dying world. A journey of self-discovery. A journey to find out who exactly he was in the Lord. To gain confidence in who Jesus had called him to be. To become someone who had an impact on many peoples lives. Who led by influence. To walk into the destiny that God had for him. To truly discover who he really was. To figure out what happened to that little boy so long ago. The little boy who God had fully intended on him to be.
That young man is me. I fully believe, part of this adventure for this 11 months, is to not only help the lost, the dying, and the hurting, but to also find out what happened to the little boy who God originally created me to be. The little boy who would one day grow up to be a strong, confident, man of God. This is my story.
I knew this race wouldn’t be easy, but I also didn’t know it would be so difficult. Hands down, the hardest thing i’ve ever done in my entire life. With that being said though… The journey is good, God’s love is amazing, and learning to live in the freedom that Christ offers… Well i’m not sure how to put that into words. It’s more precious than silver or gold.
I will always remember month 7 of my World Race journey as a month of freedom for me. God changed my life this past month and i’m forever grateful.
Love y’all.
P.S… To our ministry contacts in Vidin… Thank you so much for loving on us this month and blessing us. It’s not often on the World Race that you experience a month like we have had with y’all. Climbing onto that bus, tears rolling down our faces, and waving goodbye as we drove away was one of the hardest things i’ve done on the race so far. You are an amazing light in an area that’s desperate for Jesus… You bring hope and freedom. Keep shining bright and teaching others how to do that as well. Y’all are truly incredible.
Sometimes when I try to describe the things that the Lord is doing, words fail me. God is so good. I am learning that more and more each day.
This past two weeks we had the opportunity of traveling to 5 different Roma villages to share Jesus with the locals. Most of the services were very similar in the way we did them. Somebody always introduces the team, and we give a brief explanation of what the WR is. We would have a time of worship. A couple songs in the native tongue, and a few songs in English. After that, we normally have two people from the team, share what the Lord is doing in their lives in and through the WR. How it’s changing them and what they are learning. Then we have somebody bring the message. I love getting to be part of this! God has given me a passion for these people and I love to share with them about Jesus and give them hope! It’s so great!
Anyways, here are some photos that we took this past week while on the road visiting church and neighborhoods. I hope they are a blessing to you and the Lord uses them to speak to you.
Our time here in Vidin, Bulgaria is coming to an end. Our team will pack up onto a bus this Saturday, March 31st, to head to the capitol of Bulgaria, Sofia, for a few days before diving into Month 8 of the World Race in Subotica, Serbia. Please keep us and our ministry contact in your prayers as we prepare to leave here. We are all not looking foward to it and are sad to leave, but we know God has so much more in store! It's been an incredlibly fruitful month and the Lord has drawn so many people to Himself! Thanks for your continued prayers and support!
If you asked me, “Dusty, what skill do you think you got honest from your Mama?” I would no doubt have to say that Mama has taught me how to make friends with everybody… I don’t meet a stranger, haha…
Since we've been in Bulgaria, I have made some solid friendships, that I believe will be life long. Our ministry this month, like i’ve said before, is incredible. Our contacts are solid folks who love Jesus and know how to have fun, and I am so appreciative for them and what they have done for us since being here!
One of our first nights here, we had the opportunity to do a youth night with the kids from church. So we sent out the invites, made a plan for the night filled with games, food, and fun… and got ready to entertain! I could hardly wait!
So the night came, and the place was fairly packed out! We had such a great time!
While everybody was playing a big group game, I noticed one of the guys, sitting off to himself just observing. The Lord told me to go over and try and talk to him. So, I did the only thing I knew to do (other than the Lord giving me the gift of tongues, lol)… I hopped on the computer and headed to google translator!
Here I set… Myself, google translator, and some guy named Ventsi. I’m sure he thought I was nuts, but I did what I could to correspond with him. Eventually, I enlisted the assistance of our contact’s 16 year old daughter, Sara.
I want to share Ventsi’s story with you. It’s incredible. It paints a beautiful picture of how good our God is and how much He loves us.
I believe one of the first things that caught my attention about Ventsi, is the fact that he reminds me of one of my best friends in the whole wide world… Casey Jennings! Haha… I knew this guy had to be legit as soon as I made that connection.
Ventsi is 30 years old. He works at a tire factory here in Vidin. He has a beautiful wife named Rosie. And best of all, Ventsi loves the Lord… His story hasn’t always been this nice though.
Ventsi was raised in an orphanage his whole life. From a young age he said he remembers having to hide from the older kids at the orphanage. Often times, the children there were molested sexually by the other children whom were older… as well as some of the staff. He talked about how terrible it was growing up there. Living in fear of what might happen.
He had a couple friends growing up, but one of his best friends in the orphanage was a girl who lived there.
Fast forward to more recent…
A few years back, Ventsi was falling apart. He had moved out of the orphanage. He didn’t have anything to live for and sure wasn’t living for Jesus. He had fallen in love with a girl named Rosie and was trying his best to get her attention and hoping she felt the same.
Ventsi would lay outside of Rosie’s apartment day and night, trying to get her to let him in. She wasn’t having it though. She told him that she wouldn’t marry a non-believer. Eventually he realized that if there was ever a chance this would work out, he was going to have to make some changes and find out who this Jesus guy, whom Rosie talked about, was. So one day, severely depressed and desperate, he made contact with our ministry contact and Pastor, Yavor. He knew him previously because of the work our ministry here, did in the orphanage he grew up in. Ventsi knew he needed the Lord in his life and anyways, what was there to lose? His life wasn’t much anyways he thought. So after talking to Yavor, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior! He realized that either way, from now on, it didn’t matter if Rosie accepted him or not. He had a loving Father above who cared for him and loved him and things were gonna be different.
Rosie was praying all during this time that she would be so in love with Jesus, that whomever the guy was that was pursuing after her, would have to go to God first to find her.
Fast forward again… Almost a year later… Ventsi and Rosie are happily married and all is going great! Jesus has completely changed Ventsi’s life around for the better and they are faithfully serving the Lord…
And you wanna know one of my favorite parts about the whole story…?
That girl at the orphanage who was Ventsi’s best friend all those years… That was Rosie.
God is so good. He is so faithful. He loves us so much.
Love y’all.
P.S… Rosie is currently in the hospital and will be in there for a total of 2 months, due to contracting tuberculosis at her job. Please keep her in your prayers as she recovers and also for Ventsi, that he will stay encouraged and know the Lord is in control.
