So many moments on the Race need to be shared, but don’t have a blog’s worth of information.  

And that’s what this mini moments blog is for.  :)

On Wednesdays my team spends time reading to children on the outskirts of town and then hands out books to them and other kids we see on the way back to our host’s home until we run out.  On the first day we did that we handed out 180 books and will do that every week! Many of the families we meet don’t leave their community often, so they don’t see people other than their neighbors and they don’t have much access to books because they’re very expensive in Guatemala.   Children would run out of their houses down the street when they saw us handing out books.  Some of the children would tell us they had a brother or sister and ask if they could get them one too.  Seeing the excitement on their faces was so precious and reminded me of the impact that something so simple can make. 

I’m fully funded!!!  Last week my sweet boyfriend asked me how much money I had left to raise for the trip and I didn’t think anything of it because it wasn’t an unusual conversation topic.  I just went about my day with no idea I was fully funded until he started hinting (hints that took me a while to catch on to haha) for me to check my website and I saw his donation.  I was jumping around, tearing up a little bit, cheering with my team, and just celebrating.  I’m fully funded!!!  Tyler may have gotten the last donation, but me being here is thanks to every single person who donated and I am incredibly thankful for all of you!!!! <3

Every Thursday at base we have worship and a message in the morning.  Our first two sessions were very powerful for me and tied together in super cool ways.  Our first week’s message was about identity which always gets me.  One of the staff members came to me during worship and said she was hearing the word ‘daughter’ for me and prayed about what God was saying in that.  I had been sorting through feeling like I was disappointing God and that prayer really hit me.  I was crying before the actual message on identity even started. The message was amazing and it ended with a time set apart to talk to God with the prompt “Who do You say I am?”.  I was sitting in the knowledge that I’m just God’s kid and learning that he’s not disappointed in me when I’m not perfect and he’s not mad that I’m learning slowly. 

The next week’s message was about hearing God’s voice.  Another powerful message and my time with God tied everything together so intricately.  My team has been reading the book Listening Prayer and I had just read a chapter titled, “God wants to relate to us as a father”  Which brought it together with hearing God’s voice as His child.  Then during my quiet time I read Psalm 8 which says God establishes a stronghold to silence the enemy through the praise of children.  Later it says, “what is mankind that you are mindful of them,” that’s a line from the song Pride of a Father which just wrapped everything up in a nice little bow.  It was all around a really cool experience to have with God.