11 months ago I was in the Myrtle Beach airport crying and wondering if I could really do this. If I could really leave my family and friends, miss holidays and birthdays. There was never any doubt that this is what God wants me to do. Going was the easy part. I was excited to go. It was what I was leaving behind that was tearing me apart. I can't believe that I will be home next week. This time I will be leaving my new family and stepping into the unknown again. I'm leaving people who have loved me through easy times and the hardest times. Even though I'm ready to go home it's still what I'm leaving behind that will tear me apart. I still don't know what's next for me. I've been praying into some things but God hasn't confirmed anything yet. So I'm transitioning into the unknown again which is scary but exciting! Society tells us we need a plan. A plan for our future - a plan for success. What is success? Success to me is trusting God with ALL of me and living the plans that He has for me - not the plans I have for me. It's trusting Him when I don't understand. Knowing that He is my Dad and has nothing but good things for me - even when it doesn't always feel like it. Knowing that He is in love with me and will NEVER leave me- even when it doesn't always feel like it - I know He is right beside with His arm around me always. Even though I don't know what's next, I do know that I'm in Gods hands and I trust Him to place me where He wants me. I do know that this is just the beginning!!

It's overwhelming when I think about trying to tell people about this past year. So much has happened - the ministries, the relationships, the physical and the spiritual. So many countries have my heart. So many ministries have my heart. The people in this world are beautiful!!!! They have my heart! We have seen God move so much this past year. It's been a personal journey as well. God has done so much in me. When I think about the woman I was and who I am now it overwhelms me. I've experienced FREEDOM. I now have a sweet intimate relationship with my Father. I did before but God had SO MUCH MORE for me to see, so much more love He wanted to rain on me. He keeps reminding me of what He thinks of me, what He says about me, how proud He is of me and how He is so in love with me. This has been an amazing journey - I can look back and honestly say I don't regret any of it. Even though the world race is coming to an end - I know this is just the beginning and that makes me smile.

I want to thank everyone for supporting me. Financially, encouragement and prayers - You will never know how much all this meant to me this year. You are a blessing from God and I can't thank you enough!!

Last month we were in Jinotepe, Nicaragua. Jinotepe is a small beautiful town with perfect weather and beautiful people. Our living conditions were great and we had an amazing roof top view. We visited a Senior Center once a week, went to 2 barrios twice a week, hospital visitation once a week and church services. A local girls softball team challenged us to a game. We played two games back to back and WON both!! Bruce MacDonald, you would have been proud! After 4 weeks in Jinotepe, our team traveled to San Vicente, El Salvador and will be here for 3 weeks. We have been here for 5 days now. On the second day we learned 4 dramas. A Canadian team is here building homes for families in the barrios. They had a ceremony to give the families their keys to their new homes. We performed two dramas at the ceremony and visited families afterwards. We performed dramas at another barrio, at a park during a service and at a churches 29^th anniversary celebration before hundreds and on live TV. What a blessing it is to perform a drama about how amazing our God is on live TV. I have to admit my attitude was not grateful at first. I do not like performing dramas at all and still do not like it!! But God is still moving and using me and blessing me with amazing opportunities to share how awesome He is and Im grateful for that!

First night out for ministry in the bars and the search is on for a red and white polka dot cami. Some of us go out to minister while the rest stay back and pray during these hours. They pray for ministry, divine appointments, protection over us and where the Lord leads to pray. The entire day I felt like I was staying back. I've been broken for a few weeks now and really didn't think I had anything to give. Our team went out to eat and on the way back I felt God say "get ready".  I said - really Lord? My heart really didn't want to. God lovingly said - "Just get ready. Trust Me. I got you." - So I did. We worship together as a team before we go out to the bars. During worship God gave me a vision of a red and white polka dot cami with a bow on it and the area of bars He wanted me in. This was the first time I got a vision like this. I was excited to find this girl. When we got to the red light district we set out in 3 different groups. My teammate and I went in the direction God gave me and looked in every bar for this girl. Finally with only 4 bars left on this street we see her. She was sitting at the bar by herself. We walked up to the bar and sat down and started talking to her. The conversation came naturally, like we had been friends for years. She stole my heart immediately. I just loved her and tried to show her that she was worth so much. She began talking about her life, her past and I just listened. Didn't have any advice or scripture but just listened. I felt her pain. I've been through some of the same things before so I know the hurt, rejection and the hopelessness. All I could do was love her, feel her pain and tell her how valuable she is. As the night went on customers came. She couldn't spend as much time with us because she had to go flirt with the men, but she kept coming back to us and talking and trying to take care of us. She told us why she couldn't sit down and talk anymore but she promised to keep coming back to check on us. Then finally my heart broke. She came over and told me goodbye. She hugged me and kissed my cheeks and said she had to go with her customer to drink at another location - in other words he bought her for the night.  She asked us to come back and said she really enjoyed talking to us. It was two men. The other girl that left with them said she was 24. I met her earlier and I really think she is no more than 18. She had only been working there for 2 months. We saw another young girl there that looked no more than 14 with an older man all over her. She looked so miserable. Every time he touched her, she would always move his hand. She left with him that night. This is hard stuff and its real stuff. It's happening. It's not easy. Brokenness and hopelessness is all around this place. It's not just the women - the men are broken too. Some men are here on vacation, some men are in the bars with their wife and I have met many men that have retired here. These men are looking for fulfillment, love, acceptance, etc... They are looking for the answer in these women. The women make them feel great for a short time but the hurt and brokenness come back and it's just a cycle. A lifestyle of not being fulfilled and searching for hope in darkness. We all need to stand up and pray for this brokenness! For the women and the men!!  Pray for the brokenness in this dark place. Only God can truly fulfill and heal. He loves the women and the men in this situation. We should to.

Our ministry is working with Teen Challenge Cambodia. We were teaching English, Bible study and just hanging out with the guys. About a week ago a team of Australian men came to build a pig pen for Teen Challenge so now we just go hang out with the guys and help build whenever we can. Teen Challenge has men from 14 to 45. We really think the 3 youngest are around 9 or 10 yrs. old. These boys/men are coming out of addictions. They come to Teen Challenge for 12 months for counseling, learning and Bible classes. They learn about Jesus here and many have accepted Christ. These boys/men all have a story. Some have signs of past abuse and some never felt love. I can't imagine what they have been through but God is working in them. All the boys here are amazing and so full of love. It's going to be hard leaving them. Cambodia does not have many Christians at all so it will be hard for them when they get out of the program. Some of them don't have family to go home to. They don't have anybody to love them and care about them. Please be praying for these precious boys. That God will provide community for them when they finish Teen Challenge. We love these precious boys.

We also teach English classes at the church every night at 6pm. Cambodian people are just so beautiful. We love our students. They are so excited and want to learn English so bad. Our class is full of students from 6yrs old to adults. They all know different levels of English so it's hard to teach, but we all have fun in class and enjoy every minute of it. This past Saturday we shared our testimony with the class and surprised them with snacks. They loved hearing our story and loved the surprise party. Some students always hang around after class talking to us and just asking questions. They love asking us questions! They tell us they love us and don't want us to leave. God is moving here. I love the ministry this month and I love Cambodia! The people of Cambodia have my heart. 

I want to share with you my experience trying to find a doctor in Cambodia. So a few hours after crossing the border into Cambodia my body started aching. I thought I just needed a good night sleep to let my body rest. Well that wasn't the case and it wasn't just me. My teammate was sick also. The next day the fever starts and we are heading to the bush with our contacts. Two days in the bush, no peace and quiet, sleeping on the floor and fever does not equal fun. Cambodia is not the place you want to be sick or get medical treatment but we had to give it a shot. The fever wasn't leaving and we felt horrible. My team and translator pile into the van to go to the nearest town to see the doctor on New Year's Day. As we are entering the town our translator turns around to ask us if we want public or private hospital. Cambodia is rated among the 10 worse hospitals in the world so I immediately made the smart decision and said private hospital. Ten minutes later we discover that private hospital means- private residence. Immediately we were uneasy. The doctors family was still in their pajamas hanging outside the house. We asked to leave and go the public hospital but we were informed that we couldn't because the doctor had been contacted and was on the way back to the house to see us. So we nervously wait. Finally we could leave because it had been ten minutes and the doctor still wasn't back. Next stop, public hospital, found out when we got there that the doctor doesn't work on Saturdays. Plan C- go to a clinic to get blood work done. There is a clinic on every corner. This shouldn't be too hard right? Well, the first few clinics we went to turned us away. One clinic found out we had fevers and said they couldn't help. So after several failed clinic attempts we went to another private doctor. This one looked nice, but he was too busy and wanted us to come back after lunch. On the way to lunch we stopped at another clinic. This one helped us! Took our blood and said to come back after lunch for results. Went back after lunch for results - not really any results. Found out we were sick but didn't know what we had. So he wanted us to go to see the doctor. Took the paperwork back to the doctor's office. He was closed. His wife said he went to the hospital and we would have to go there to see him. Last stop, public hospital, which was worse than the hospitals I saw in Africa. After 30 min of looking for the doctor we were lead into a room with a young boy and girl in white coats. They looked like they were in high school. The young man asked to see my paperwork and then informed me I would need to check myself into the hospital to run more test. I almost immediately burst out into tears! I would never want to be in this hospital. So our translator finally finds the real doctor. He isn't wearing a white coat so we still aren't convinced he was real. While the doctor is looking at our paperwork and talking to us, a random woman and her child find their way into the room where we were. The little girl climbs up on the desk and is jumping up and down and acting like a precious child and has a bad cough while the doctor is taking our temps and discussing medical treatments. So finally the treatment is decided on. We are off to the bush to ride out the fever for a few more days. Still don't really know what was wrong with us. I think maybe Typhoid but God is really the only one who knows. Moral of the story - don't get sick in Cambodia!!

We aren't in Africa anymore. It was culture shock at first but I'm falling more and more in love with Thailand and the people here! The amazing food and Thai Tea helps a lot! I make myself sick from drinking too much Thai Tea. I just can't control myself; I've been in Africa for 3 months... don't judge me! God is teaching us a lot here and showing us how much He loves us. My team was told in Nairobi that we would be working with The Well in Bangkok. We were so excited. This was our dream. We all have a huge heart for ministry in the red light district. We were on fire and ready to shake things up in human trafficking! The next day our squad headed to Bangkok and stayed there for a few days before we got final info on contacts and travel information. The day we knew we were traveling to the other side of Bangkok was the day we found out that in a few hours we would be on a 13 hour bus ride to Phuket, we would be working with another team for the month, not doing anything that we thought we would be doing. With this information came shock & heartbreak. The world race motto is to never expect anything. This takes it to an entire new level of not expecting anything. We have to live going with the flow. We had to get past the shock and hurt and realize that this was no surprise to God. He never had us ministering in Bangkok- He wanted us in Phuket all along. Yes I wanted to do red light district ministry - but it's not about me. I'm not here for me. I'm here to spread the gospel, His love and I trust Him to place me where He wants me and I don't want to be anywhere else but in His perfect will. I can either stay so focused on what was taken away from us (when really it wasn't ours at all) or choose to grieve it, get past it and focus on seeing thing through Gods eyes. Choosing to realize my Daddy doesn't make mistakes and He has a purpose for me here and I'm honored He is using me.

Fast forward to now. God is loving on us like crazy. We are living in a duplex right beside our contacts. We have free wi-fi, great food, perfect weather & we are a short walking distance from a beautiful beach. I feel like seeing Gods beautiful creation is a gift from Him to me. I feel Him loving on me here. We had a chance to take a boat to James Bond Island. The beauty on the way there and the beauty of the island is absolutely breathtaking. All I can think about is how God is so in love with me. Who am I to be this blessed?

Yes, ministry looks completely different from what we had planned but it's perfect. We are working with American missionaries. They stay busy here trying to spread the gospel and share the love of Christ. It's hard being the only American in another culture and Christians are very, very, very few. They are staying strong and I can see God moving in hearts here. God is using them to change this small fishing village and I'm honored to be a part of it.  Our ministry is helping Cindy with English classes, helping Dana with street landscaping, handing out tracks and Bibles, prayer walking the streets, giving our testimony on the local radio station. Yes, I gave my testimony on a radio station in Thailand! How amazing is my life? I can't get over how blessed I am. How blessed I am that God loves me so much. I am so overwhelmed by Him.

• Tonight 20,000 - 30,000 street children are impoverished, hungry and in danger of being exploited on the streets of Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

• Tonight girls, age 13-15, who were sold to pimps by their parents for 5,000 - 10,000 baht ($160- $325), are working in bars and brothels of Chang Mai.

• Tonight a rural family will eat thanks to the 300 million dollars transferred yearly by women engaged in prostitution in urban areas.

• Tonight 18-20% of all Thai women aged 18-30 are in sexual slavery

• Tonight the streets are walked by men who sell sex because it is the only work they know, the work they have been doing since they were children.

• Tonight the industry is booming and 2.8 million sex workers, including 800,000 minors under the age of 18 are available for purchase in Thailand.

So as you know God provided the amount I needed to stay and finish ministry here in Africa. The next deadline is Dec. 15. At this time I will need $3,300 to complete the total amount of $14,300 I need to complete this mission trip. Once I have the total amount of $14,300 I will no longer be in danger of going home. I will be able to stay and finish the last five months of ministry before going home next year. If you would like to donate any amount and help me stay in ministry please click support me on the left side of this page. Thanks again for all the support and encouragement you have given me since the beginning of the world race. If it wasn't for you this wouldn't be possible. I pray blessing over you for being such a blessing to me!

So as you know God provided the amount I needed to stay and finish ministry here in Africa. The next deadline is Dec. 15. At this time I will need $3,300 to complete the total amount of $14,300 I need to complete this mission trip. Once I have the total amount of $14,300 I will no longer be in danger of going home. I will be able to stay and finish the last five months of ministry before going home next year. If you would like to donate any amount and help me stay in ministry please click support me on the left side of this page. Thanks again for all the support and encouragement you have given me since the beginning of the world race. If it wasn't for you this wouldn't be possible. I pray blessing over you for being such a blessing to me!