It is nice to have something fresh for a change. I woke up this morning in a small cottage in a valley in Moldova. Moldova is known as "The breadbasket of the USSR" because of its fertile soil. This is evident in the lush landscape around me. I got up and strapped my running shoes on as I do almost everyday. Except this time it was different, instead of running through an impoverished neighborhood or down a run down street of a third world country, as I have so often done this past year, I was running through the beautiful Moldovan countryside. I was breathing in the fresh air, walking over the hand made bridge as I headed toward the hill in front of me. As I climbed the hill my breathing increased, partially from the run, partially from the excitement as I neared the top. The view from the top literally took my breath away. I looked over the trail that I had just run. I looked down to the river I just crossed. I looked to the hills filled with sunflower fields. I looked down to the cottage I just left from and I soaked it in. As I turned around I saw a seemingly endless field of wheat, so peaceful, so natural, the wheat just swaying in the wind. I decided to turn the rest of my run into a walk, a stroll with God.

As I walked through the field I began to pray out loud. Speaking out my conversation with God. I thanked Him for this past year. I thanked Him for all the blessings he has poured out on me this past year. I thanked Him for the new wisdom He has given me. I prayed for the coming year. I prayed for Nine70 the ministry I will be interning with. I prayed for Brandon Ribble the other intern I will be serving with. I prayed for Reza the pastor of Nine70. I prayed for my family. I prayed for my friends present and future. But mostly I thanked Him for the new fresh perspective, in making the little things so apparent, so vibrant, so alive.

When I got to the end of the wheat field I came to a drop off. I looked down to the valley where two large river converged. I was told later that I was looking at the border to Ukraine. There were wild flowers everywhere. I had worship music playing on my ipod so I took one ear bud out and just sang worship at the top of my lungs. It felt so good to scream praise to my King, my Savior, my God. I stood on a rock next to the cliff and just dance and sang for about 30 minutes not caring what anyone would think of me. It felt so free.

I walked back across the wheat field and down the hill I had previously climbed but this time when I came to the hand made bridge I decided to take a different way. I took off my shoes and threw then to the other shore. I inched my way into the stream feeling every rock beneath by bare feet. It was so liberating feeling the fresh, cold river water rushing by. Looking up at the bridge I stopped and wondered, how many people have walked across that bridge every day never getting to experience this feeling. 

What opportunities do you walk by every day that you never take the time to experience?

Man made this bridge so he didn't have to get wet. Man made the windshield of the car so he didn't have to feel the wind. Man made the umbrella so he didn't have to feel the rain. But I challenge you to walk through the river, stick your head out your window, let the umbrella go and experience life, and life to its fullest.

To rub it in a little more, I experienced several other fresh perspectives today. When I got home from my run and dryed off from the stream, I ducked down and ran into the small hen house next to the cottage. I scared the hen and she ran around trying to find the exit. The rooster outside didn't like it either but once the hen was gone I picked up my fresh egg for breakfast. I walked over to the garden on the other side of the cottage and picked a ripe cucumber, tomato and onion. Walked inside for a slice of fresh made bread from the market down the street and made myself a cup of freshly brewed coffee, Turkish style of course... nothing fresher than that. To finish the meal I had a tall cold glass of filtered water from the stream as an old soviet train strolled by.

Sure all these things are literally fresh from the source and new to me coming from where I have been but God can do this with anything around you. Pray for a new perspective. Pray that God will reveal things to you in a new way. 

Pray that God will open your eyes to the small things in life that he has blessed you with anthat you are walking right by.  

So when you are done with the Race, what are you going to do next? 

I get tingles down my spine as I write this reply to that question. We serve an amazing faithful God.

About a month ago now I hit a wall with God. I had been praying for the last 9 months that God would show me what I am supposed to do after the race. With no clear answer I decided that after the race I would go home and join a volunteer fire department and get a waiter job waiting till spring so I could apply to be a career firefighter with Poudre Fire Authority in Fort Collins. I felt like God was with me in this plan and that he was going to bless it. Then one day last month I found out that I had missed the application deadline for one volunteer department and was still going to be out of town when the other department did their written and physical tests excluding me from applying. 

I was so confused and frustrated with God. I decided to take the morning off ministry (which is something I never do) and fast and pray about where God wants me to be. I was planning on waiting till the afternoon then calling my brother in law to call in a favor with his department. But when I opened my Bible to read and pray I opened straight to Psalms 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God." With that verse and several others he just gave me the reassurance that I did not have to seek and try to work for it but that he would provide. That was one of the hardest things for me to grasp, everything in me wanted to figure it all out and call in favors and make my own way. I fasted, read and prayed the rest of the morning. 

That afternoon I went to check my email/facebook and received a message from Reza, the youth pastor at my church back at home (Timberline Church). He used to be my Bible study leader in junior high and now pastors an incredible college and young adults ministry, called Nine70 (very similar to a youth group I went to at CU but in Fort Collins).  I went to it a couple times while I was home before I left. I even went to their retreat 3 days before leaving for the race. I instantly connected with the men in the group and felt a Christian fellowship I hadn't felt since high school. I have had full intention of reconnecting with them upon returning to Fort Collins and wanted to help out with Nine70 in some way but still was not sure what that would look like. 

After spending the whole morning praying for what I was supposed to do in the fall and continually getting "Be still and know that I am God," He showed up. The message from Reza said that he had been thinking about me that morning and how much he had enjoyed seeing me grow over the past year. He asked me if I had thought at all about what I would do after the trip. Then he said they were starting an intense internship and wanted me to be one of their interns. The timing was no coincidence God had it planned out the entire time. I told him I was very interested and would love some more info. 

About a week later I get another email from him giving the details of the internship. It was so much more than I had dreamed or prayed for. Instead of trying to paraphrase it I just copied it below. 

"Josh, 

It excites me to think about serving the Lord with you. Well, I will email you some stuff on the internship. in a nut shell, I am passionate about training up the next generation of leaders. My ministry heart is to communicate the Gospel in simple ways to those that haven't heard the truth. 



I think your role within this internship would be focused on helping us reach the college campus. Nine70 is shifting and growing in some incredible ways. We have a vision from God to reach the campus on department / student group at a time. For example, I want to do a Business School bible study and Greek Bible studies in every Greek house. You would also be involved in helping run the operations of Nine70 and strategize with us in reaching every person in their 20's in Fort Collins. I am confident that we can share the Gospel in creative ways with every person in their 20's in the city. Your internship would also expose you to counseling people that walk in and need to talk to someone and get pastoral counseling. We would train you in that as well. 



We would expose you to leadership development course that we would help train you as a future minister of the Gospel. This training will be beneficial whether you go into full time vocational ministry or you go back into the market place. Some of the classes that you would be involved in would include the following topics: Leadership growth (individual, leading a team), developing preaching skills, counseling training, time management, cultural engagement, how to disciple someone in a one on one setting, essentials of leading a ministry structure, etc... You would be invited to join the Pastoral team in Pastor's meetings to see what it takes to run a local church like Timberline. We are in the process of expanding as a church and this would be a great time to be a part of exciting times of watching God grow a church. You would be trained by people like me, Dary, Dick Foth, Rob Cowles, local business leaders. 



It is something that we have developed for a few years now and are excited to get started in doing. The internships are not paid, but we do provide host homes for our interns. They would house and feed you. You would be able to have a part time job and would be pretty busy around the church. I think this would be a GREAT follow up to your amazing year of ministry. 

What do you think? Like I said, it would be a BLAST to serve with you man. 



Let Love Live, 


Reza"

The internship with Nine70 takes so many of my passions and creates an incredible place for me to grow.  It is the answer to so many of my prayers and is bigger than I could have even imagined!

I have told Reza that if God allows I still plan on applying for the career firefighting job in the spring, but this is one of many great examples of how God's plan for our life is so much better than ours. Days before I was ticked at God because I couldn't be a volunteer firefighter and waiter in the fall and now I am so excited to see what God has for me in this internship. It is not perfect or should I say I would not have planned it this way. I know that even though it will be harder without the volunteer experience, that in the Spring if God still wants me to have the Poudre Fire Fighter job he will make a way. 

After many years of independent living and having a well paying job I will be living with my parents again and have no money. I sold my car, motorcycle, bicycle and pretty much everything I owned to go on this trip and will be coming back with no money and not much income for the next year. I heard God tell me that He will provide me with a car/truck and a bike so I am waiting on Him for those things. This year will be another year of living by faith knowing that if I have a need he will find a way to provide.

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all my supporters because I am about a $100 away from the $13,800 that I needed for this year! Praise God! I also have the opportunity to raise up to $1500 more to pay for the health insurance, flights to and from training camp, the flight to launch and the flight home from the trip that I have to pay out of pocket.  So if you feel led by God to donate you can click on the "Support me!" button on the menu at the top left of this page.

After this year, there is no doubt in my mind that God has my life in his hand. No doubt that he will provide. No doubt that he has a perfect plan. No doubt that He is worth living for. 

All it takes is a moment in prayer to change your whole perspective. I was not into worship or the talks today. I know they were powerful and people were being moved to tears all around me but I was just not feeling it. I was not being moved. I was in business mode. I was too worried about making sure that all the things around me were taken care of to truly hear what God was saying through everyone that was talking. I reached into my pocket and realized that I didn't have my cell phone. It had fallen out of my pocket in Amy's bungalow earlier during family time. Weston and Melina were coming in on the train so I needed to have it to ensure that they got in safely. I left worship to go grab it.

During the several hundred meter walk back to the bungalow I just prayed out loud. I didn't care if someone heard me I was just praying. I thanked God for where he had brought each of the team members this year. I thanked him for exposing areas of my life that I had been concealing. Areas that I had worked so hard to hide. Areas that, because they were hidden, were given power and control. I prayed and thanked him for the opportunity to worship him. I thanked him for his Grace. I thanked him that when we worship him, when we sing praise, we are doing it with breath that he gave us. We use the voices he gave us. I thanked him that the energy we use to dance for him is energy that he gave us. I thanked Him that the joy that we give God through our praise is joy He gave us first.

I returned to worship only minutes later but with a whole new perspective. I was so filled with joy. Joy that I didn't create. Joy that I couldn't work for or produce on my own. Rather joy that He gave me. Pure untainted joy.  I felt a release standing there dancing before the Lord. Not caring in the slightest bit what the person next to me thought. Barely even conscious that they were next to me. I didn't know the words to the song they were singing but frankly it didn't matter because I was worshiping God through dancing and praying with the joy that he gave me. A completely new perspective given to me through only  a couple minutes of prayer. I thank God for moments like these.

#10) Mici and fried cheese- Our wonderful contact Paula took us out to "The Strand," a fun carnival type area along the river with a pool, rides, dessert stands and restaurants overlooking the river, to introduce us to some traditional Romanian treats, Mici and fried cheese!! The fried cheese was so good warm. It tasted like string cheese, the only thing it lacked was a side of marinara. Nothing toped the Mici though, it is a delicious sausage mix of pork and beef and as with every meal I ate in Romania whether breakfast lunch or dinner it is served with a side of bread.

#9) Six Trampolines and a Padded Wall- Also at "The Strand" is a activity originally designed for small children but of coarse enjoyable into your later years, six oversided tramp  connected with padding and surrounded by netting. They only allowed 3 people at a time, so the girls went first paying the full price of 5 lei for 5 minutes (that is a whopping $1.50). Afterwards Tim and I felt left out so we asked the guy if we could get a quick 1 minute for 1 lei (about 33 cents), he agreed. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! With trampoline all around and padding and netting where there was not tramp we had no regard for safety, flipping uncontrollably from one tramp to the next occasionally hitting the netted wall and bouncing back. Tim even completed a double flip not on purpose of course.

#8) Trip to Hungary- One of the joys of The World race are our days off. When you have a day off at home you head to the grocery store of maybe a movie, but when you are on The World Race and you have a day off you head to the next closest country. One of the volunteers we worked with, David, was heading to Hungry for the day and asked if we wanted a ride. He didn't have to ask me twice! We headed about 3 hours away from Arad to a city right across the Hungarian border called Szeged (how you pronounce it I still do not know). It was a fun little town with a warm European feel. We checked out the old cathedral, a gorgeous old synagogue, sipped coffee, ate pizza and devoured our Italian gelato. The trip was a great success!

#7) Breaking down walls- Each month we have a different ministry that we work with. This month it was Casa Oaza (House of Oasis) a childrens home, or orphanage. They take in street kids, most often gypsies, that would otherwise not have a home. They have three houses and have, at its largest point, housed 21 children. They are now down to six children. They use one of the homes to house the children. One home to house their afterschool program and are currently in the process of completely redoing the third home. That is where we come in. Our job was to do demolition work to prepare for a team of skilled construction missionaries that are coming in August. It worked out well because breaking stuff is my specialty :) I was able to be a part of destroying 3 walls, ripping tile out of 2 bathrooms and kitchen, ripping out radiators pipes and much much more.

#6) Italian Ice cream shop- One of the volunteers at the home is a Sicilian name Elisao (sp?). He along with his wife Eli, a Romanian Australian, took us on many fieldtrips to fun places around Arad. My favorite, and thank God it was at the end of the month, was an Italian ice cream shop about 1km from the house. It had some of the most extravagant ice cream dishes I have ever seen. My favorite was called 4 seasons and had 4 different types of ice cream and a different fruit sliced on top of each. Topped with whipped cream and drizzled with syrup it could have fed a family of four... or just me! The gigantic dish cost 13 lei or about $4. In a matter of 5 days we went back there 4 times :)

#5) Downtown Arad- Arad is my favorite city that we have lived in during the trip. It is a really neat small Eastern European town with a lot of history and culture. Our contact Paula gave us the tour the first day taking us into the Orthodox churches, through the cheese, meat and bread market, by the old theatre, the symphony hall, park, river and town hall. It is really pretty with several fun walking streets and you can get anywhere by trolly.

#4) The mud fight!- To get from the house we stayed at to the other two houses where we worked each day was a 2 km walk winding through the old neighborhood. There is MAJOR construction going on with the roads to the point where pretty much every road is ripped up leaving nothing but huge holes in dirt roads. After a particularly rainy day of work we headed home in the mud. We playfully threw the equivalent of crab apples at each other the whole way back. When we were nearing home Jory threw a crab apple at Catie Fadness who while trying to get out of the way slipped and got mud on herself. Jory, being the gentlemen that he is, felt bad so he started running down the street jumping in every puddle getting mud all over himself to make Catie feel better. This quickly turned into all of us jumping in the puddles and throwing mud at eachother! Honestly one of my favorite times on the trip. The Romanians came out of their houses and just stared at the "Crazy Americans" playing in the mud. We returned to being responsible adults upon arriving back at the house hosing eachother off before heading inside :)

#3) My teammate Chelsea's 4^th sobriety birthday- It was such a neat experience to be able to celebrate my teammate Chelsea's 4^th sobriety birthday. We went out for mici and dessert and had her tell us her courageous story of how she fought and won her battle against alcohol and how God brought her through it all. Bringing her to this point 4 years later in Romania on a year long mission trip around the world. We serve an awesome God!

#2) Our Contacts- The ministry contacts we have in a country can truly make or break a month. This month they made it! The main contacts Scott, Paula and her family were incredibly kind to us. As I mentioned above Paula picked us up from the train station and gave us the grand tour of the city. She took us out to pizza with her family. She introduced us to meche, fried cheese and The Strand. Scott preached a wonderful sermon to us the first sunday about the great commission IN ENGLISH, a rarity on the race :)  We got to meet their kids while we helped move them out of their home. The Dunns are moving back to America after serving many years in Romania. They are taking a year off to fund raise before returning back to Arad next year. They were only with us for a week but it felt like much longer than that. We love you guys! Praying that you enjoy your time in Ohio!

#1) The kids!- This is what is all comes down to. This is the purpose of Casa Oaza. The kids! We had the wonderful opportunity to spend the month with the kids living in the house with them. We took them to the park, worked with them tearing up the house and even took them bowling, which is something none of them had ever experienced! I signed a contract saying I won't use their names or post any pictures but I figured this one would be allowed :) We fell in love with the kids and it was hard to say goodbye. I will miss them greatly.

Whats next?- A quick rundown of what the rest of the trip will look like. I am writing this as I travel to Brasov, Romania for our 5 day debrief. Then my team is off to Serbia for 10 days of ministry, Moldova for 3 weeks of ministry, Ukraine for 3 weeks of ministry then finally to Ireland for the last week of debrief and The Awakening before heading back to Colorado Sept 3^rd! I am praying that all is well with you all! I love you guys and thank you so much for supporting me in this journey! I couldn't have done it without you!