Thank you to everybody who asked some questions for me to answer looking back on the first half of the race! There is a good mixture of serious and silly questions here. Hope you enjoy! As always if you have more questions feel free to hit me up!
What’s the most amazing thing God has done so far in you during this experience?
Fantastic question, tough thing to answer as I feel like He has done a lot in me that I maybe haven’t even recognized yet. I think what has been sweet has just been Him renewing my perspective on myself and my identity in Christ and the freedom that it carries, who God is (He isn’t just a loving Father, or creator but also a flipping lion ready to battle for hearts), and giving me eyes to see others as His children more and more.
What has been your craziest adventure so far?
Gosh I feel like I don’t actually have a great answer off the top of my head for this considering I’ve been out of the country 5+ months. The two things that come to mind are: “Hut man hike” and Acatenango. The hut man hike I did with I don’t know maybe ten people back in Costa Rica. This was the hike to the largest waterfall in the country, but the directions to get there were super odd. Including turning after we saw an “alligator bridge”, then driving up this road until we reached a little shack where we had to pay the guy 20 bucks to do the hike. This waterfall was super sweet however after we finished the hike we didn’t really have a solid plan to get back to our base. We were probably at least 30+ minutes away driving. We didn’t have service to call an Uber, so we starting walking for a while before some of the ladies picked up a couple bars and called an Uber. But 5 of us still didn’t have a car so we kept walking until we stopped to look at some monkeys climbing around in the trees. Moments after the most random taxi ever drives by and we chase it down to catch a ride back. Thanks God..
In Guatemala our entire squad hiked a volcano. The elevation was 13,500 feet high. We hiked all day the first day to arrive about 45 minutes from the summit to camp for the night. Then got up at 4 to summit the volcano and catch the sunrise. It was sooo cold at the top it was actually brutal. But was so wild being above the clouds on the top of Acatenango overlooking “Fuego” which is a slightly smaller volcano that erupts every like 5-10 minutes.
What’s with the mustache?
Well… why not? I don’t know though I think it just got to that point halfway through the race where I felt the need to do something stupid. But it’s also our man month and is 90+ degrees everyday so I thought that was a good enough excuse to send it with the stache.
What has been your most challenging location physically, mentally, spiritually?
And how did those challenges bring you closer to God?
Love this question. Physically and mentally I would probably place both in Guatemala which is interesting because it was my favorite place. But with getting sick a lot and my back being messed up it made it more difficult to be 100 physically during ministry. Was most of the time feeling a little off.
Mentally I think it was a pain in the butt with being sick and hurting as well, but like I have talked about with past blogs I caught myself not staying in the moment. I was often dreaming/romanticizing the future which then made it hard to stay present all the time. I think it was also just that point early in the race where I was like dang what am I doing? I’m uncomfortable and feel like I could be doing a lot at home where there isn’t a language barrier.
Spiritually I would probably say Jaco, Costa Rica.. but at the same time was probably very easily where I grew the most spiritually. It was easy for me to get caught in comparison with everybody else that’s on this trip and feel discouraged with my relationship with God. This then lead to me questioning Gods faithfulness which is funny looking back on now because I literally gave my testimony a couple days ago to the church we are working with here and introduced it by saying this is a story of Gods faithfulness.. wild.
With Costa Rica a battling through feeling less than or God not being near me I think helped push me into knowing my identity in Christ more, and just longing for more of Him. I also thinking wrestling through those things allowed me to lean on Him for who I am and what our relationship is. To find this awkward balance of being confident in where I am with Christ and what He has done in my life but at the same time always wanting more of Him.
In Guatemala, I had to work hard at choosing in to each day when I wasn’t always feeling one hundred or had my mind elsewhere. Doing that made me go to God especially in the morning to get my mind right and giving my heart and day to Him.
Have you seen some snakes?
Only a couple of dead ones.. ¡Gloria a Dios!
Are you Justin Bieber?
Haha I don’t even know anymore man, last few months getting me confused! I don’t think so though
Best memory so far?
Soooo difficult!!!! I think it comes down to many small moments. There’s been a lot of small moments that have been super sweet I probably have already forgotten many of them..
Some that stick out include:
Being gifted a bunny in GT, kids jumping on their new beds with incredible excitement a few days ago, getting to wave to Jorge daily in Jaco, and driving forever to the super small village way up this mountain with kids that have so much joy and happiness running alongside our van as we pull up. Hopefully more moments like these will keep popping into my head.
Biggest mustache inspiration?
Hmm uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite fo sho
Favorite thing I have eaten? How has the food been?
Food food.. um well Costa Rica we ate pretty much normal being in a tourist town. Was some really good food at a lot of the places but nothing out of the ordinary. And we cooked for ourselves so typical food.
Guatemala was a nice mix of food we were used to eating but also being introduced to many cultural foods. Probably why my stomach got so messed up. Good amount of tacos, chalupas, and my favorite food chicharrones!! Chicharrones are pork grimes that are incredible! Loved them a lot.
In Honduras it has been pretty much fully cultural foods meaning a LOT of beans, eggs, rice, and tortillas. Like nearly every meal, with some chicken here and there. So that’s getting a little old, but was half expecting that would be every day in Central America so can’t complain to much. Plus in CR, and GT we did the majority of the cooking ourselves where here we have been cooked for both months.
What have you missed the most?
Bruh I miss couches.. haha! Sad that is what comes to mind first but I miss the comfort of a couch a lot. I also miss driving a ton, not necessarily because I love driving but the quiet alone time that it creates. I miss the wider variety of wardrobe options that don’t come from living out of a backpack. I miss the freedom of normal life as well as opposed to a really structured every day life even when we have debrief. And being able to easily communicate with anybody anywhere.
Why you got a headband on?
Becauseeee my hair be at that awkward length where I can’t do much with it anymore and it gets all up in my eyes without it.. so here we are..
Alright y’all thank you to those who hit me with a few questions to answer as we reach the half way mark of this wild year! Appreciate you a lot!
On to the second half!
Love you all a lot! Jesus loves you a heck of a lot more!!
Peace
Johnny D
