The World Race has been the hardest, best, most challenging, and most amazing year of my life. I started in Mexico with 31 other strangers, who month after month, became my family away from home. Their presence and inspiration spurred me on to become who God was calling me.
My small family, the G:racers, have been the best companions I could have asked for. God taught us to live together, and we have grown together and our bonds have strengthened. I have four new sisters that I couldn't imagine my life without. I look forward to see how God uses these friendships in our lives, as we move across the country from each other. You are beautiful women of God, and I am honored to have spent this year with you. I praise Him for the work He has done, and is continuing to do.
I return to Austin on July 4, after a month of traveling Europe (I am writing this on a boat from Greece to Italy...). Once home, I will be spending time with my family and returning to work at Dell Children's Medical Center on the Hematology/Oncology unit for the time being. Or at least until God tells me to move on. I have some projects and plans that I am going to start working on, and I will tell you more as they solidify.
Thank you for all your prayers and support this year. I am eager
to spend time with you upon my return and share with you the year I
have had. Stay in touch! Thanks again!
I sat at a scenic overlook, on Highway 360 looking out over the Texas Hill Country, pleading for God to give me an answer. Asking desperately for His plan for my life.
I had just learned I had been accepted to the World Race. And I thought I knew my answer.
Until God started speaking.
"Read Jeremiah 1," He said. "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations...Don't say ‘I'm too young' for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don't be afraid of people, for I will be with you and will protect you...Look, I have put my words in your mouth! Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms."
"Really, God?" I said. "You want me to go to the nations?! Now?!?"
After much debate, I acquiesced to His demand, still not thrilled with this thing God was calling me to.
But He promised to do big things.
He promised to show up. To change me.
To change my perspective.
And He did. The God I have met this year doesn't fit in the box I have had Him in my whole life. He goes beyond all my preconceptions. Destroys my idealistic understanding.
Because He DOES move and speak. He IS ALL the things He says He is, even when it doesn't seem logical or normal.
He DOES do big things, and I have seen them. And He's not done doing them. He has not finished leading me out of the wilderness. There is always further to go. I can't wait to see where He takes me.
But just like Jeremiah preaches, sometimes God calls us to go home.
"I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good, and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you. I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land." Jeremiah 29:10-14
I have seen God do the good things He has promised. I have seen Him be faithful. I have found Him in Cambodia and Swaziland. He ended my captivity in Guatemala and Vietnam. He restored my fortunes in Malawi and Ukraine.
And now He is bringing me home again, to Austin. To my own land.
I am so eager to see all that God continues to do, as my spot on the globe changes, but I remain in Him.
Today I sit on a Greek beach thanking God that He is so big that He has brought me out of the desert to bring me into His promise land. That even though I fought him two years ago on the side of a highway in Austin, He is good and let me find the freedom in Him I so desperately .
Posted in 11- Ukraine by Jennifer Crane on 5/26/2009
Coming back to Ukraine after 5 years was like coming home. Remembering and speaking Russian, eating borscht and Ukrainian ice cream, and the wonderful spirit of Ukrainian hospitality.... I think I am part Ukrainian.
My time in Ukraine was different from former visits, although no less wonderful. Our group of 5 was blessed to spend time with two amazing American missionary families.
We spent a week with Vicki and Richard Nelson, who have moved to Ukraine from Washington State to start a dental ministry, Smile Alliance. Richard does consultations and treatments for clinics out of a dental van and Vicki spends time loving children and their families.
After a week of staying with our new Ukrainian parents,
We moved to Pine Branch Camp with Jenny and Andrew Kelly and their 9 month old daughter Abbie.
There we helped to build cabins for the camp that will house orphans and other Ukrainian children for camps every summer
We were also blessed to spend time helping take care of Abbie, and becoming Aunties. We were even there for her first moments of crawling forward! (She had crawling backwards down pretty well but waited for us to get there to go forward.)
Our month in Ukraine was a blessing. We met wonderful families who poured into us, encouraged us, and showed us what it means to be a missionary.
Our month in Ukraine ended with four days with our whole squad. We enjoyed each other's company, worshipped together, and ministered to each other. It was a good time together, full of fun, laughter and bittersweet moments
But as we each go on from here, we know we carry not only our experiences but the love and fellowship of community.
I have been so blessed this year to have a group of supporters like you, who have blessed me and given me such encouragement. It is because of you that I am FULLY FUNDED! I am so thankful for each of you, and the prayer and support you have provided has been priceless, and I could not have done it without you. It is you who moved an orphanage in Mozambique, gave clothes to Guatemalan women, gave shoes to Swazi children and loved on Cambodian HIV orphans. This has been yourrace as much as it has been mine. Thank you again and God bless you.
My friend Sara needs a bit more funding to finish the Race, and I ask that you consider transferring your monthly or one-time donations to her. She is a beautiful woman of God, and I don't know what I would have done without her this year. She has been a blessing in my life, please be a blessing in hers.
Hi! I'm Sara, a Chicago native who has fallen more in love with Jesus and the nations over the course of the past 11 months. Since leaving on the World Race in July 2008, I have been preaching, teaching, praying and serving around the globe. The amount of financial and prayer support I have received up until this point has been incredible. However, with just two weeks left on my adventure, I am still $2800 short of my total financial goal. This is where, I hope, you come in.
Would you prayerfully consider joining my financial support team and helping complete my journey?
Please visit my blog http://saraellis.theworldrace.org/ to read more about my World Race experience or please click here to join my support team. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me. Thank you for your prayers and I look forward to having you as a member of my support team.
Posted in 10- Romania by Jennifer Crane on 4/20/2009
This month I have been with my team in Targu Mures, Romania. We are living at a YWAM base and are doing a lot of prayer ministry, street evangelism, and a coffee house on Fridays. We have also been able to go to a gypsy village, and spend time praying for people, and hanging out with children. The Roma people are wonderfully hospitable, and lots of fun to be around. Here and here are some blogs from squad-mates living in a gypsy village just north of Targu Mures.
Here's a glimpse of a gypsy village...
The gypsy kids that stole our hearts....
We took a day trip to another town, Sibiu and Hunedora to visit a castle. Sibiu was a beautiful European city, full of old buildings and great resturants.
Our lunch, salami, cheese and bread!
The castle in Hunedora.
Romanian Easter eggs. The tradition is to hit each other's eggs and see whose lasts withouth breaking. I lost.... but they were fun to dye! We used grass, leaves and panty hose.
On the Eve of Easter, people gather around the orthodox church in the city center with candles and circle the church three times while the church bells ring.
After 58 hours in a van, 3 stolen packs and 1 stolen guitar, countless traffic tickets, 3 border crossings, and an attempted assassination on the Zimbabwean Prime Minister, we arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi. (read more about that journey here, and here )
We were greeted by Pastor Harvey, the Central Malawi Coordinator for HIM (Harvesters International Ministries). Our team was to travel around Central Malawi and plant churches over the next 10 days.
We drove around Central Malawi in the "Love Bug" (praying the door didn't fall off again) to the villages where pastors were awaiting our arrival to start planting new churches.
Each day we would put on at least one "program" during which there was LOTS of songs and dancing. Someone from our team shared a testimony and another person would preach each time, sharing about Jesus' love.
We then split into small groups by ages and spent time praying with people, answering questions, and encouraging new believers. We were also able to spend time with the children singing, acting out Bible stories, and playing games.
Every day in Malawi I woke up and was ready to leave. Every day I was finished trying so hard, becauseMalawi was hard.
We were stuck in the mud for 5 hours in the middle of the night, in the rain. We moved a lot, spent a lot of time in the van and met countless obstacles.
But every day, through God's strength, we all got out of our tents, drank our instant coffee and experienced what happens when we reach the end of ourselves. That where we end, Jesus is only beginning. That in our inadequacies we find His strength and in our moments of weakenss He still uses us to call people to Him. He still works in us and through us.
We all returned from Malawi tired. Drained. But confident that the work we started is going to be completed, that we lived and worked in the faithfulness of Christ, and that we impacted the Kingdom through the strength of God.
What did we do in Malawi? Dance. The Joy of the Malawian people is contagious and is manifested in their desire to move for the Lord. It was a beautiful time of worship and lots of fun.
essed this year to have a group of supporters like you, who have blessed me and given me such encouragement. It is because of you that I am FULLY FUNDED! I am so thankful for each of you, and the prayer and support you have provided has been priceless, and I could not have done it without you. It is you who moved an orphanage in Mozambique, gave clothes to Guatemalan women, gave shoes to Swazi children and loved on Cambodian HIV orphans. This has been your race as much as it has been mine. Thank you again and God bless you.
over the course of the past 11 months. Since leaving on the World Race in July 2008, I have been preaching, teaching, praying and serving around the globe. The amount of financial and prayer support I have received up until this point has been incredible. However, with just two weeks left on my adventure, I am still $2800 short of my total financial goal. This is where, I hope, you come in. 
