Several of us have been working at a non-profit, Christian hospital to raise money for children that need heart transplants. The hospital does dozens of heart transplants each year for those who qualify based on financial need. The cost of a pediatric transplant is upwards of 25,000 Ringget (3 RM: 1 USD).

Each morning, our team of six dresses our best, we put on our blue volunteer vests and name tags, grab our donation boxes, and head for the halls of the hospital. We make our rounds, pausing in waiting rooms to ask people for donations to support our cause.

When we started this, I was extremely skeptical about its effectiveness. If I was sick enough to be at the hospital, the last thing I would want is a foreign girl sticking a box in my face and asking me to give her money in a language I don't understand. I just plain was not excited about fundraising.

I was wrong to be skeptical, and I was wrong to not be excited.

At the beginning of the month, our supervisor at the hospital gave us a goal of collecting 1,000 Ringget per day, which is just over $300. Our other goal was to raise more than the total that the last team raised, which was about 6,900 Ringget in 4 weeks.

We are at the halfway point for ministry this month. After 8 days of working at the hospital, we have raised 12,500 Ringget, halfway to the cost of a heart transplant!! The donations greatly exceeded my expectations, and blew our goals out of the water! Our new goal is to raise enough money to save one life. Please be praying that those who come to the hospital have generous hearts and are willing to donate!

I have been blown away by our experience at the hospital. I have to laugh at myself, because I have seen God's faithfulness time and time again, but my humanness still left room for skepticism and lack of passion. He is providing again, and I am both amazed and grateful. 

Pray for that 25,000 Ringget!!  

One of the ways that we are serving our ministry contacts this month is by cooking dinner a few nights a week. Our second night here, Jessica (who is hilarious, by the way) decided that we should cook fajitas, we being her and I. Little did she know, saying I have no experience in cooking is the understatement of the year. I do make a mean bowl of blue box mac n' cheese, but beyond that, I am clueless.

Fajitas automatically means we need tortillas. They do not exist outside of the Americas. So, instead of choosing a different dish, we decide to just make them ourselves...from scratch. We also made refried beans and chocolate chip cookies from scratch. We had 2 ½ hours.

Meet Nichole, our new found 10-year-old friend, who was our assistant. Jessica asked her to chop some tomatoes, and she asked if they should be diced or cubed. When she pulled out the lettuce from the fridge, she said it was so good to see good lettuce again. I have never expected to hear those words come out of the mouth of a ten-year-old; usually they can't even stand the sight of lettuce. She worked the whole 2 ½ hours without one complaint. She didn't want to taste the cookie dough before dinner because it would ruin her appetite. Amazing kid.

Neither Jessica or I had ever created our own tortillas. We looked up a recipe and went to town. After what seemed like forever, we were covered in flour, but we had some fabulous tortillas. We even tried to make chips, but they came out more like elephant ears.

I cooked chicken in a skillet for the first time, crazy I know. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but it turned out to be pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. I also made refried beans. Again, I was guessing about what to do, but somehow they turned out to be edible!

By the time we were done, the kitchen was a disaster, but we had made a great meal that everyone loved!

These are the memories from the Race that I will cherish forever...dancing around the kitchen with Jessica and a 10-year old, and wondering if we were going to have to eat rice for dinner if none of our food turned out. I learned that I love cooking, and I would be decent with a little practice. I hope there will be many more nights like this to come this month!

So what about this month?

I am in Thailand! This month is called Manistry/ Womanistry (cheesy, I know!). By its name, you might have figured out that the men and women are separated for ministry this month. All the guys are up in northern Thailand, surely doing something manly. We ladies have been split into three different groups for ministry.

The girls on my team and the girls from Jessica's team are working together at a place called Eagle's Rest in Phangna. Eagle's Rest is an organization that provides a retreat experience for missionaries that are weary or burnt out from working on the field. Counseling services and personal spiritual days are combined with cave tours and elephant treks to provide rest and refreshment for everyone who comes.

Eagle's Rest is run by Ramel and Janine. Ramel is from the Philippines, and Janine is from Australia. They have four children: Colleen, Stephanie, Jefferson, and Nichole. These kids are amazing. They have gone through a lot of tough times and tragedy throughout their short lives, but are more appreciative, helpful and respectful than any other kids I have ever met.

This month, our ministry will center around that family. The kids are home schooled and have very limited contact with other children. We are basically teaching them what we know, putting on mini workshops for cooking, sewing, music, art, sports, exercise, culture, and body image. We are helping Janine with various jobs in the office, and helping Ramel with preparations for missionaries to come. They are welcoming us into their family for the month. It has already been awesome to work alongside them and learn their stories, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the month will bring.

It is Month Ten.

Month Ten. I am amazed that I have made it this far. There were definitely times that I wanted to throw in the towel on this whole Race thing, and it is definitely not by my own strength that I am sitting in Thailand today.

Month Ten. I cannot believe I have been away from home for so many months. Part of me wants to come back and never leave while another part of me is planning my next trip to another faraway country.

Month Ten. Have I really survived being around the same 5 people for so long? But what will I do without them?

Month Ten. The line between what makes the difference between a good day and a bad day has finally been blurred beyond recognition. “Bad days” are those that bring growth and wisdom, and that's what I signed up for, while “good days” might not include the challenges that refine people.

Month Ten. I am about to reenter the real world, where people have jobs, where people are allowed to go places by themselves and eat from a budget that's more than $4 a day. It is going to take a while to remember what that's like.

Month Ten. I am weeks away from seeing so many people that I love; I am weeks away from leaving so many people that I love.

Those are just a few of the many thoughts that those two words bring into my head. Let the countdown begin, there are less than 2 months left of my World Race!

Pray for all of the racers on my squad to remain fully present to experience these last two countries while we try to figure out what life is going to look like at home!

Now, back to that first location from last month! We were only there for about a week, but we got to be a part of a couple of ministries going on in that city.

One night, we went down to the Red Light District. In this particular city, there are women from several Asian countries that work in bars and clubs. Some have been trafficked to the city while others are there by choice, usually to provide for their families back home (interestingly enough, in certain Asian countries, men do not work, so it is in the shoulders of women and children to provide for the family). It was disturbing to watch older white men jumping into cabs with girls who look younger than me. It makes me sick that so many places around the world look the other way while millions are trafficked into this industry.

We were sent out in pairs to talk to the women, to tell them that they are valuable and worth more than the cost that comes along with selling their bodies. Unfortunately, the girls are often being watched by madams, who are older women that used to sell themselves but are now too old. The madams would not allow us to talk to the girls.

Our trip to the Red Light District was eye opening to say the least. At first, it was difficult to see the men there as anything but pigs, coming to Asia to take advantage of those women. As the night went on, I took a step back, and I realized that those men are people too, people that are struggling with sins just like everyone else in the world. They need just as much love as those women do.

The other ministry that we were able to help with was a sports ministry. We played volleyball, soccer, and basketball with high school age kids, and related different aspects of the sports to our relationships with God and with other Christian communities. We were able to connect teamwork to community living and practice to spending time reading the Bible and praying. The kids had a great time, and some of them really opened up about the struggles that typical kids their age are going through, which was radically different from something I might expect to hear from an American teenager.

We also were able to be a part of a feeding program for a day. Many of the homeless people in this country are actually people from other Asian countries. We got to sit with them and learn their stories, sing, pray, share testimonies, and eat with them.

This month made me more thankful than I have ever been about the opportunity that we have at home to serve others. In this particular country, it is barely acceptable, let alone encouraged to help marginalized people. The ability to freely serve others in the name of God is a blessing.

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since you heard from me. We were in a closed country last month, which meant no internet for us. It also means that I cannot post much online about the specifics of my experiences there. I can tell you that I have a renewed appreciation for the freedom we have in America. I cannot imagine what it would be like to spend my whole life in a place where I could not speak freely about something that is such a big part of my identity.

Last month, we spent time in two different locations. For the first week, we had all kinds of different opportunities for ministry, which I will talk about in a different blog.

One 40-hour train ride later, we arrived at our other location. Let me just tell you about these trains. Oh my goodness. That much time spent on a train is crazy enough, but get this: they sell standing tickets. Our train car was full. Obnoxiously full. Smoking was allowed on the train, and the windows don't open, so there was a cloud of smoke in the air the whole time. It. Was. Crazy.

Back to the story. At our second location, we worked with a handful of Canadian and American long-term missionaries. We were blessed to be living in an apartment where we were able to worship daily, which was something none of us expected going into last month. We did a lot of prayer walking through the city. Friendship evangelism was supposed to be our primary ministry, but it was difficult to do so because it was extremely rare to meet someone who spoke English. I did meet a few girls from the teaching college, but we did not get to have any life changing conversations.

One of my favorite nights of last month was when a couple of us girls got to babysit for one of the missionary families so they could have a much needed night out. It was awesome to be with children who spoke English again; that night reminded me of why I love kids so much. The two kids we were with have very different personalities, but they were not afraid to be who they are. I think that's exactly why God calls us to be like little children �" they walk in their God given identities without caring what anybody else thinks.