The Best Week Yet

Hello everyone! 

I wrote most of this blog on our “mega travel day” – the 5 day transit from Asia to South America.

We flew out of Manila on the 24th and after a 10 hour flight we landed in South Korea for a 20 hour layover. We got some time to sleep in an actual bed and explore the beautiful city of Seoul before heading back to the airport for about 13 more hours of flying as well as layovers in both Australia and New Zealand. We flew out of New Zealand at 6 pm on the 26th for another 10 hour flight, after which we arrived in Chile at 1 pm the same day. On this, the literal longest day of my life so far (something around 36 hours), we found a little hostel to spend the night in before taking a bus through the gorgeous Andes Mountains to Mendoza Argentina. 

That’s where I am now, in the desert of Argentina, and I absolutely love it here. 

More on that soon. But I’m not quite finished telling you about my time in the Philippines. 

While I spent most of the month in Manila (as mentioned in my last blog), I spent the final week of the Philippines a few hours away in Angeles. 

About halfway through the race there is a trip called Parent Vision Trip (PVT) a week where parents can come and visit their racers. Anyone whose parents weren’t coming had a week of ATL. 

God is pretty incredible. 

Because the week that my parents were unable to come and see me ended up being one of my favorite weeks so far on this entire race. 

My team for the week was a group of 8, which we decided to call team Goose after Bella Goose, the coffee shop we were working with. 

Team Goose spent the week sleeping on the floor in what one grab driver referred to as “the abandoned church.” We walked a mile to ministry everyday, and often got rained on, sometimes while locked out of our abandoned church. 

We also got to participate in some of the most amazing worship I have ever been a part of, work with some really incredible people, drink some delicious coffee, sing lots of karaoke, and overall just have an amazing time. 

The Bella Goose shop in Angeles is run by some alumni world racers who are partnering with the local Filipinos to accomplish some really incredible things in the city of Angeles. 

Angeles as you may not know, is home to a vast human trafficking operation. 

The place where we did most of our work was a road called walking street- which consists of bar after bar full of women who are being bought and sold, who dance in the clubs because they need the money and have no other options. 

We were able to go in and talk to them and intercede for them. Bella Goose partners with an organization that provides for these women to get an education so that they can get a job outside of the bars. When we go out for outreach we hand out cards that the bar girls can use to get free coffee and a pastry. The coffee shop provides a safe place for the women to come in and talk/ get to know the staff/ hear more about the organization. 

Even just from a couple of nights doing this, we had some pretty cool stories. One of the women Kim and I talked to told us almost right away that she didn’t like working there and only did it for the money. We were able to talk to her and offer her other options. Just a few days later she met with our ministry partners and has now decided to take up the offer on an education. 

On the race we often plant a lot of seeds and do a lot of things that we don’t necessarily see the results right away. I was blown away by the fact that we were able to see this impact almost immediately. 

I also know that the impact we were able to see is the result of many people and teams who have gone before us in prayer over this street and these bars. 

Even while we were going out to the bars we had certain teammates who felt called to stay back and interceed the entire time we were out. 

Angeles is a place that is full of darkness and evil, but it is also a place where God is working in really big ways. 

One thing team Goose noticed on our very first day there is the worship. Something about the worship in Angeles is noticeably different. We have worshiped in so many places these past 7 months, and God has been present in all of them. But the worship we experienced in Angeles has an intense power to it. It’s clear that the Holy Spirit is moving and there are few words I

can think of that accurately describe it.

Before going into the bars we would always spend time in prayer and worship. 

The last night we were there we got to be a part of the first organized service our hosts had ever held before one of these outreaches (instead of the usual couple people with guitars on the team playing a few songs). We got to hear a beautiful testimony from one of the women who was working with us. She had worked in the bars and had been forced to go with men against her will to pay her debts to the bar owners. Because of Bella Goose she was able to escape the bars, get an education, and now goes back into the bars to help other women. 

If the Lord places it on your heart, keep the city of Angeles and Bella Goose coffee house in your prayers. Pray for the bar girls, that they would find the courage to step out of the bars (many of the bar owners try and scare them into staying), and pray for the people doing outreach there, that they would be sustained and protected and that the Holy Spirit would continue to work in big ways. 

Big thanks to our hosts and all the staff at Bella Goose, you all are incredible; and thanks to team Goose (Liv Moncrief, Kim Keller, Katie Hammond, Marilyn Villagomez, Olivia Ritsema, Jordan Allen, and Jessica Akland), for making this one of the best weeks ever. 

And as always, thank you to my lovely supporters. I couldn’t do it without you. 

Much love and God Bless,

-Hattie