I really miss Africa, but the Thai people have made me fall in love with this part of the world all over again.  This month we were assigned to a church up north in Thailand.  We worked with a WONDERFUL pastor in his house church all month.  I think this month has for sure been my most fun yet.  Our pastor is an incredible man and he filled our days with tons of great ministry and lots of laughs.
To begin the month, we arrived on the Thai New Year.  Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in Thailand during the New Year, but if you have then you certainly would not have survived it dry.  For the New Year people drive around and proceed to throw water on each other for three days! It is hilarious and SO much fun.  We are already thinking up ways to bring this hilarious adventure to the US.

The first assignment our team had was to run an English camp.  We were told that the students did not know any English, so our first day was filled with teaching “Hello” and “How are you?”.  It actually turns out that the students spoke very good English and were ready for an advanced challenge.  Even though the camp was only three days, we all bonded really quickly.  I was amazed at how hard the students worked and how much they actually wanted to learn.  They were incredible, and I am really proud of th

em.  God really blessed me with the students of that camp.  We were only there three days, but I could really see the impact that we had on the students.  Even though it was only a short time.

The next day our Pastor took us to visit some of the villages up in Northern Thailand.  In these villages, many people have yet to hear the incredible news about Jesus and it was wonderful to be able to pray and share God’s love with them.  In some of my missions classes in College, we studied people groups exactly like these in Thailand.  I felt like I was living out part of my childhood dreams of going into a village and sharing God with people who had never heard it before.  I really loved working with the hill tribe people.

We also got to have many adventures this month.  I learned that “ministry” is just as much spending time with the people, as it is holding Bible studies and preaching.  Our pastor planned lots of fun stuff for us, including swimming in the river with our clothes on, exercise classes with the locals, dancing at a Buddhist monk’s acceptance ceremony, giving gifts to many people in the community, and even playing soccer with the locals.  That’s right, I played soccer…me who hates to exercise and hates to run even more…I played soccer, and you know what? I actually enjoyed it!  (Mostly because my team won and I made an assist on a corner kick.  I still don’t exactly know what that means, but I did it!)  My favorite part of the month, though, was getting to know our wonderful pastor and his amazing family.  We also had an incredible translator, Nat, who I am obsessed with.  She is a college student and an amazing Christian girl.  She has a passion for the Lord and is simply perfect.

All in all, Thailand was the perfect beginning to our 3-month Asian adventure.  We are leaving tomorrow for Vietnam, so I don’t think I will be able to blog much before June.  I bought my plan ticket home today and will officially be back in Atlanta on July 1^st!!  I cannot wait to see all my wonderful friends and family! I am so excited to share with you in person all of the amazing things that God has done this year!

I have also included a video of my Thai students doing a skit about Jesus in English.  Enjoy!

Do you ever have those people in your life who you know God made to be in your life at the perfect time?  My friend Lindsay is that for me.  About 6 months ago, our teams got changed around and Lindsay and I were put together, along with Martha and Ashley – two of my best friends in the whole world (don’t worry, I’ll be writing about them later this week).

So back to Lindsay.  This girl is the most passionate, exciting, powerful woman I have ever met.  She is such an example to me.  My whole life I have dreamed of a life that I wish was possible – a life where people stopped on every street corner to pray for the sick, spend hours talking to God, and genuinely hear His voice when He speaks.  It is a life that I always wanted for myself, but was too afraid to step out and do.  Lindsay, on the other hand, boldly lives her life each day constantly stepping out and going after the big things of God.  The best part is, she is not one of those “crazy out of this world, can’t approach them” type of people.  She is the most hilarious and genuine person that I have ever met (Enter nickname: Witty Nelson).  As I have watched her grow and mature this year, there is no doubt in my mind that this girl is going to do INCREDIBLE things in her life.  And I don’t mean just cool, out-of-the-ordinary things…I mean the type of things that books are written about and that start a revolution.  I have affectionately named Lindsay HBIT, short for Heidi Baker In Training.  If you don’t know much about Heidi Baker, please google her immediately (Let’s just say over 3,000 churches planted and over 60 people raised for the dead for short).

The past few months Lindsay and I have both felt the call to begin laying down our lives for the Lord.  Over the past few months God has called us to place many things on the altar of Abraham.  It has been the things that we hold most dear, and even things that other people might not understand.  A few weeks ago, Lindsay’s favorite shoes broke.  Now I know that may sound trivial, but if you knew what I knew about those shoes, then you might understand.  To Lindsay, these were much more than shoes.  They were the very last bit of herself that she brought on the race, all the way from California.  They were the last tangible thing that connected her to her old life back in America.  A life filled with Coffee Shops, Vintage music and thrift stores.  They were an actual representation of the life that God asked Lindsay to sacrifice and lay down.  Now, when God asks us to lay things down, it is not because he enjoys our pain.  Instead, he asks us to let go of the things we hold most dear so that he can give us the most wonderful things instead.  As I have watched Lindsay lay down her very heart before the Lord, I have seen him give it back and bless her a hundred times over.  Her life is filled with healings, power, prophecy and incredible experiences with the Lord.

I want to share Lindsay’s story with you as an encouragement and a challenge.  I believe that God is always calling us to sacrifice things for him.  Sometimes it is big things that are hard to let go of, sometimes it is our small daily desires that he wants.  I don’t know what is it in your life, but I want to encourage all of us to step up to the altar of Abraham and allow God to burn away any desire that is not of him.  God is passionate about our hearts, and he is terribly in love with us.  Today, may we come to truly understand what it means to be blessed through sacrifice.

Lindsay wrote a great blog about her shoes which you can read HERE.

Our friend Ashley also made a great video about the event.  Enjoy!

lindsay’s shoes. from ashley higgins on Vimeo.

Our African journey started back in December with our longest travel day yet.  Ashley Higgins made this hilarious video about our journey from the Middle East to Kenya.

Life in Africa can be a bit challenging at times to say the least…Team Mosaic made a video about all of the “lessons” we have had to learn since arriving here.

The Life of a World Racer from Nicole Marett on Vimeo.

While ministry in Africa at times can be difficult, more often than not they are the most rewarding experiences of our life. The video below is of a boy named Barak. He was a boy who my friend Birkleigh met on a bus and spoke with and who accepted Jesus!

jesus loves barack. from ashley higgins on Vimeo.

Ashley Higgins, videographer extraordinaire strikes again. She created this beautiful video about the lives of the precious people we have met in Africa.

brighter days. from ashley higgins on Vimeo.

After three successful months we are off to Asia!! Nicole Marett recorded our full day journey to get from Kenya to Thailand! Enjoy!

Travel Daze from Nicole Marett on Vimeo.

The cross of Christ is a beautiful thing.  It not only brings us to fullness in Christ, but it also takes our pasts and brings them new.

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice.

Thank you for saving us.

Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for Redemption.

redemption stories. from ashley higgins on Vimeo.

This is the church we painted, dusted, swept, and pretty much did everything else to.

Meet Bojena.  This wonderful woman is truly the Proverbs 31 woman.  She cooks, cleans, sews, paints and pretty much everything else you could possibly think of.  One day I commented on her beautiful outfit and she told me that she sewed it all herself.

Our whole group for the week.

The Pastor and his wife invited us to a barbecue where we ate roasted lamb and had communion.

The church in Osijeck that the other World Race team partnered with.

After reuniting with our teams we all packed up and traveled to Pula, Croatia – one of the most beautiful coastal cities I have ever seen.  Our week here consisted of pouring into the youth of the area and helping out local foster families in the area.

Dez leading worship with our wonderful friend Matija on the beach.  It was a beautiful moment.

Yes, this icecream was only $3.  Thank you conversation rates.

After cleaning a playroom for a foster organization, our group decided to have a silly hat, stuffed animal team party.

Our group really knows how to relax after a long day’s work.

Meet David, our wonderful new brother from Osijeck.

David has been a missionary in Croatia for a year now.

He has an amazing story and the most wonderful heart we have ever seen.

We were so blessed to get to work with David for the month!

This is Pula, the dock right outside of the church we worked with.  It was absolutely beautiful.

From Pula we learned that our groups would be splitting up yet again and we would be in four small teams for our last week of ministry in a different town.

Meet team BEST (Best Ever Small Team). Lauren was our leader for the week and we had the assignment of packing up, and going into the unknown.  We had no contacts and no place to stay, we just knew God was calling us to minister to Vincovci for the week.  We unloaded at 10am on a Sunday morning and just decided to start walking to a church to see if we could make contact.  Through some amazing God intervention, we had a place to stay less than 2 hours later and had met our wonderful contact, David.

David and his wife leading worship for us.

We met with David and talked about the possibility of other World Race teams working with him in the future.  I really felt like we were tiling the ground.  David also gave us the opportunity to speak in church, so I got to preach twice for the first time on the Race!

It was an awesome month of ministry for us.  We got to make lasting relationships and really poured into the existing churches that were there.  There is a huge need for youth workers in Croatia, so if you or anyone you know has a heart for being a youth pastor, Croatia just might be the perfect fit for them!

We left Croatia and now I find myself heading to Ephesus, Turkey in a few minutes for a month.  I am very excited about the opportunities there!  Please be in prayer for us as we seek out divine appointments.  I hope to update on Turkey soon!

While we were in Croatia, I made a video for the church in Pula to say “Thank You” for everything they did.  Enjoy!

Our Time In Pula from Jennifer Mitchell on Vimeo.

Alex has reminded me of the beauty of innocence.  Her family has had a few World Race teams stay with them over the past few years, so she has learned English very well.  At nights, her favorite thing to do is sit outside and talk with me.  We talk about everything, boys, family, school, her worries, her burdens, everything.  These conversations are so precious to me.  Normal 13 year olds in America would talk about the latest fashion trends or Hannah Montana movie.  Alex, however, is concerned about her family and where their next meal will come from.  She worries about how her little brother Ade will grow up and if they will have enough money for school.  It breaks my heart, but she is so mature and strong.  I love just sitting and talking with her.  These conversations have shown me the importance of listening to people.  Everyone just wants to be heard.  They want to know that someone cares about them and that they are loved.  I can see how much talking with Alex and spending time with her means.  My encouragement for you is to look for opportunities to listen to someone today.  Everyone has a story and they just want to share it.  We can be those listening ears and tender heart that Christ would offer if he were here in the flesh.

Even a small conversation can change a life.

Who can you be Christ to today?

I also have some exciting news! Our original race route had us going to Egypt next, however that is not going to work out.  So as of right now we are Asking the Lord for our next month of ministry.  Each team is spending the next two weeks searching after the Lord’s will and listening for his voice.  AIM has a few contacts that we may meet up with, but many of us will be praying and following the Lord’s leading completely.  I am very excited about this next step!  All we know is that we will be in Eastern Europe somewhere.  From there we were supposed to go to Jordan in November, but it’s looking we will be headed to Turkey instead!  From there we will hopefully still be heading to Israel in December! I hope that this is the case!!  Please be in prayer for us this month as we learn in to God’s voice.

Also a quick update about support, I still have about $4,000 left to raise.  My next deadline is November 1st, for which I need $1000 more and then the finial deadline is January 1st for the rest of the amount.  I thank you all so much for all of your wonderful help and sacrifices in getting me on the field.  I am SOOO excited about the ministry God is doing here and through all of your gifts.  Be blessed knowing that He is up to great things.  Ok, without any further delay, I present a snapshot of my life in Romania so far:

Well, this has been quite a week to be sure. I still can’t quite wrap my mind around everything that has happened. To begin this week, we did a children’s ministry at the Causeway Coast Vineyard. The ministry was wonderful! The children’s pastor, Dave, is a great man of faith. He challenged us to look at this week’s ministry, not as a babysitting opportunity, but as a divine appointment for these children. He taught us that there is no Junior Holy Spirit and that God wants to touch each of these kids just like he is touching us. So we went into this week expecting great things. Every game that we played, every hug that we gave with filled with our prayers for the children. I am excited to tell ya’ll that bout 8 children stood up and asked Jesus into their heart this week! Praise the Lord!! Then about 10 more asked the Holy Spirit to filled them and be dynamic in their life. I guess I have always seen children’s ministry as a means to watch the kids while the parents spent time with the Lord, however, this week completely changed my perspective.

During the afternoons we have also been doing acts of service in the community in Coleraine. We go into businesses and wash their windows, scrub their toilets, and show them the love of Christ in a practical way. We are also doing surveys on the street, and through that another person came to know the Lord! It really is amazing to see what happens when we step out in faith. I must be honest, I was a big skeptic of just talking to people in businesses or on the street, I thought that they would reject us because we were interrupting their daily life. However, people can’t deny love in a practical way. When we first show them the love of Christ, they want to hear more. It’s about acting first then talking. On Saturday we showed God’s love in a way that I have never experienced before.

Every Saturday the Vineyard goes out to the town square and sets up chairs and a banner that says “Healing”, they pray, and then they wait. We watched as person after person in the community came and sat down in those chairs and were miraculously healed. I’m not kidding ya’ll, I watched people healed this week! It was absolutely crazy, people in the streets, non-Christians, experiencing the love and power of Christ for the first time in their life! What I love about the Vineyard is that their goal is never the miracle, it’s God and his love. So they always go back to how much God loves that person and wants to be in relationship with them. I also loved that it wasn’t a huge ordeal, literally the people of the church talked about Gods love to the community and shared how much they are loved and then just said “Be healed” and commanded the sicknesses to leave. There was no big show or anything, and I loved that! God is a God of peace, and every person who sat down felt God’s peace. I am seriously so excited to share everything I have learned about healing with ya’ll this week! One of the main leaders of the ministry, Mark Marcs offered his time to us and came to teach us what he has learned in 20 years of ministry. His talks were awesome, and I can’t wait to share with you what happened at the end! But I’ll save that for later this week Until then, I want each of you to be encouraged that God’s power is inside each of us. Don’t be afraid to ask for the miraculous and expect it in our lives. We don’t need “more” of God, or a special anointing, we are all filled with God’s Spirit, the same Spirit that filled Christ, and we are ready – Just respond in faith at the Lord’s leading.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of this week (It’s ok to doubt, I’ll be the first to admit that I was a Thomas for sure until I saw it with my own eyes). I took the pictures below myself on my iphone camera. The first is of my friend Mike’s legs begin shorter than the other, look at the heals and you can really see it. The second is a few seconds later after Mike experienced God’s love. My friend Daina video taped this amazing moment, and the video is real and unedited I promise, be sure to watch the arms be realigned too

I love you all and miss you tons. I can’t wait to hear the stories of what you are doing in America!

Healing on the Streets from Daina Norusis on Vimeo.