Greetings all! 

I have been home for roughly five months and during this time I have enjoyed warm showers, abundant grocery stores, speedy internet, and the opportunity to see many of you! The last five months have been challenging, fun, and exciting. I have spent time in Florida, Atlanta, New Jersey, and New York, but most of my time has been spent in Dayton, Ohio.

My hometown. To me, there's something special about Dayton. Maybe it's the family and friends I have there. Maybe it's the wonderful church community I have there. Maybe it's even the simplicity of getting from point A to point B without the hassles of heavy traffic or cramped vans converted to busses. Whatever it is, Dayton is my home, and I am proud of that. I have enjoyed my time in Dayton these last few months and see so many opportunities there. These things being said, it is time for me to transition into another season.

On May 3rd, I will be moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a year. While in Argentina I will be interning with Band of Coders, a software company with a presence there. My objective is to enhance the sense of community in the workplace. To shift the workplace culture from traditional to relational. Essentially I will be taking the principles I experienced on the World Race and attempting to apply them to a workplace setting.

I am extremely excited about the opportunity and spent a week in Atlanta this month learning about the company and working to create a plan for my time in Argentina. The plan is exciting, scary almost. If this works in Argentina, where else can it work? Where else can we bring faith into the workplace and see businesses run with Kingdom principles?

This blog has been a great place for me to share my journey and experiences on the World Race with you. I have received much encouragement in the form of comments or messages on this blog. As I enter this next season, I am just as excited to share my journey with you, from a new blog.

From here on I will be using: http://jeffreywickham.com as my personal blog, my way to keep in touch. If you visit the site, you can click on "about" or "contact" and sign up to subscribe to email alerts there.

I thank you for your prayers and support for the last year and thank you for your prayers and support for the years to come!

Keep in Touch,

-Jeff

I have been home for two weeks. Two whole weeks, one in Ohio, another in Florida. Siesta Key beach has been a great place to recover from the toll the race takes on one's body and to find places to process my journey of the past year. In one sense I feel I have effectively processed part of my journey. In this sense, I feel I have made progress, that I am closer to understanding and packaging into a concise, recite-able statement, just what happened, just what I saw, did and what about me has changed. In another sense, I feel as though this past year is a giant yarn ball of memories, experiences and thoughts, that will never be completely unwound. The more I think, the more I realize, both of these feelings are accurate and both are good.

When life can be easily compartmentalized and fully understood, it can be boring. Like a sterile hospital supply closet, the compartmentalized life is safe, but boring. Everything has a purpose and everything is understood but there is no mystery, nothing to be discovered later. I think the race doesn't provide participants with these sorts of understandings, but rather that of a second hand book shop. A place that may not be perfectly organized, may not be beautiful, and may not be the most accessible to an outsider, but with exploration and maybe a conversation with the owner, can reveal hidden gems, beauty, and wisdom. I have determined that I will never be able to sit down and provide a comprehensive, all access look into life on the race, this conversation would take years. I have rather discovered that by simply living life the way we are called, to its fullest, many stories and memories surface and when shared, bring life to those around us.

As with any completed task, you finish, and you evaluate. You ask, "what did I do well, what could I have done better?" These questions are healthy and a lot can be gained from them, but at the end of the day, the past unfolded as it was meant to, the past cannot be changed and regrets inhibit your performance in the present. There are moments I look back on and think, in this moment, I gave it my all, I brought heaven to earth and I was intimately acting on the voice of God. There are also moments I look back on and recall hearing clearly the voice of God, and ignoring it. God only sees the moments we listened, and so should we, while learning from the times we didn't listen.

A returning racer faces questions about the future, and being a returning racer, I have faced many questions about my future. What am I doing? Where will I go? In the nature of transparency, I don't know. I entered the race, expecting to be radically moved by one place, one cause, or one person and thus return, passionate about involvement with that thing. This did not happen the way I thought it would. People impacted me, ministries moved me, and places fascinated me, but none left me with the feeling that I had to be involved in the future. Midway through the race, upon realizing that I had not found my passion yet, I felt pressured to find it. I tried to force things, or convince myself that I was passionate about something I wasn't until God reminded me that my future is in his hands. Opportunities will present themselves, the next step will become clear, and in the mean time, I am called to share my journey with those around me. I am called to share the things I did, share the good times and the bad, share the places and people I met.

As I sit on a coffee house patio, serenaded by the distant sound of a Buffet cover artist, I can't help but realize that I am at peace. I am at peace about the race, I feel peace about the uncertainties of my future, and I am at peace with the differences I have found in the America to which I return. This peace, coupled with the sensation a runner feels at the end of a race, is satisfying. This satisfaction won't last forever, but I am called to enjoy it now, and until the next season of my life begins.

Thanks for all of your support and readership this year, it has been a true blessing to know that I have been covered in constant prayer and love! 

Thanks for reading!

So here we are, down to the literal last leg of this journey. In about a week I head to Cambodia for month 11 of the World Race. In a little over a month, I will be returning to the United States. This year has, for the most part, flown by and I find it hard to believe that the journey is nearing its end. I am incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to experience a year where each month has been uniquely and remarkably memorable and am incredibly excited to share with everyone when I return! These things being said, I am still very much on the Race and am excited to be growing and serving this month in Kanchanaburi, Thailand!

This month looks a bit different from previous months. This month is Manistry. Manistry is when all thirteen men on the squad assemble for a month of ministry together. The setting for the month couldn't be more fitting for a group of dudes. We are living in a stilted, open air house, in a valley surrounded by mountains of western Thailand. There is a soccer field nearby and the food has been incredible. The work has been plentiful and physical, we have been mixing a lot of concrete and moving a lot of rocks. It has been the most physically demanding I have experienced on the race, but also one of the most rewarding.

I often feel like it is easy to forget the importance and magnitude of what you are doing when you are doing it. The view from within is sometimes clouded by humility, complacency, and routine. This month we have been going to local construction projects and helping the people with their work. It is safe to say that all of the people we have been helping are Buddhist. With such a tight schedule and such demanding work, it is tough to just get in the grind, arrive, work, leave, rest. It is easy to forget just how much God is using us this month to bless our neighbors and show them his love. Somewhat tired and drained by the monotony of manual labor, I stepped back and looked at it from a fresh perspective.

Imagine you are building a house for your family. You have some workers and family helping, the total crew is about 7 people. Your focus the first half of this week is leveling the ground so you can pour concrete the second half of this week. Suddenly, thirteen foreigners show up and offer to help you level the floor. The floor is leveled in a day. The next day they come to pour concrete for you, the concrete is mixed by hand and poured in a day. You provide them with soda and cookies, they provide you with labor and smiles. When written this way, it sounds like a dream for the one building the house. A wild dream at that! It has been amazing to so tangibly share God's love with others this month by helping them with their projects.

Thanks for Reading!

-Jeff

This month my team was working in Rackoko, Northern Uganda. Rackoko (pronounced rach-koko with an 'h' of unknown origin) is currently a small community about an hour from the nearest semblance of a city. For the years leading up to 2005 however, Rackoko found itself in the midst of a brutal conflict, existing as a displacement camp for those seeking government protection from rebel forces. The community has made great progress since its not so distant refugee camp days, but still struggles to overcome many issues primarily economic and social. The jobs here pay poorly and most income comes from small gardens that grow sweet potatoes, kasave (a root that is like a stringy potato when cooked), and ground nuts (the local term for peanuts). The social issues mainly stem from the war which created high numbers of orphans, many are products of rape, others have been orphaned by HIV, some were child soldiers, forced to kill their relatives. The damages of the war also placed a desire in the hearts of the people to rapidly repopulate the area, this results in even more children being born into this extremely volatile environment, further straining the already maxed-out resource system. Rackoko's two giant cell phone towers provide the town with perfect cell phone coverage, and even reasonable over the air internet. Unfortunately, the town has power blackouts that strike daily at different times and for extended durations. Running water and municipal sewage systems are non-existent in Rackoko. The poor infrastructure can, at times, be maddening.

With all of the issues facing the community, it is easy to come in as an outsider and become quickly overwhelmed. Several nights early in my time here, I found myself in my bed, awake and thinking. Thinking that for the first time in my life, I was someplace that was truly hopeless. Thinking that I was in a place that in the foreseeable future, could never overcome it's challenges. The challenges of the community along with the challenges and exhaustion that start to set in after being away from home for 8 months frustrated me. I saw another month, filled with similar duties to the last 7, in a place that needed so much more. We aren't going to be offering anything meaningful, so why care? Why not spend the month resting? And then I was convicted. I could either take my frustration and use it as an excuse for nihilism, an excuse to sit by and waste what may be my only visit to Uganda, or I could take my frustrations and use them as a fuel to make positive change. I decided I needed to find an outlet for that frustration, I needed something different. I needed and desired a month unlike any previous. So I found a way to make a change, a way to jump start an entity working for a brighter tomorrow in Rackoko.

Enter Kingdom Pearl Ministries, the ministry we were blessed to work with this month. The ministry jumps into the community to tackle some of it's most challenging problems...with soccer. Soccer is the cornerstone of the program that provides academic, spiritual, and physical guidance to the town's many children and teenagers. The ministry has a soccer team complete with uniforms and cleats, that travels to tournaments around the area. It opens its doors nightly to the many local students who come to study under its fluorescent lightbulb, an uncommon commodity in the town. Kingdom Pearl provides career guidance and counseling, financial sponsorships for making exceptional academic efforts and progress. 

When we arrived, we learned that the ministry was young, three years old. Growth had been slow, but steady. We found a somewhat sprawling ministry with an identity, that had grown beyond it's understanding. The vision was inline with what was happening, but the visions would never be achieved if there wasn't some organizational clarity brought about. In an organization like this where a single fulfilled request from a community member for food can quickly lead to more requests from others, growth can be rapid and sometimes messy. As the ministry became known as an entity capable of meeting needs, it's own needs began to grow. With a group of primary supporters that could be counted on one hand, and a list of vision-related growth items that could at least be counted on two, it became clear that the organization needed to begin soliciting more sponsorships. To do this, it first needed to get an understanding of what it was. The tool that instantly came to mind as something that could satisfy the marketing, identity, and exposure needs of the organization, was a website.

I remember when I first mentioned the idea to our contact Godwin, the chairman of the ministry. His eyes lit up, "A website? You could do that?" the enthusiasm quickly faded as he paused, "But I don't think we can afford it..." I informed him that we came to work for him and that Peter and I would be happy to spend a portion of the month working on the project for him, we hadn't done anything like it yet on the race and both had previous experience. He agreed and at that point, none of us realized quite what the project would become. 

It started with a survey of what was offered by the ministry. What does a week in the life of Kingdom Pearl look like? What does the ministry offer the community? Then came another idea. Peter thought of the power a short video could have on the site. It could include interviews of community members and a brief background of the town. In the interviews, we would ask how Kingdom Pearl was perceived in the community and begin to understand how the community understood the ministry. The results were powerful. 

As we continued along, spending more and more time with Godwin, we began to get a better understanding of his vision, challenges and accomplishments. We were able to discuss with him which areas of the ministry he could quickly improve right away without any additional financial resources. Ways he could make the team more unified, ways he could make study sessions more useful, ways that he could encourage more community support. These small changes were mainly refinements, ideas that came up in conversation as suggestions which were quickly implemented. They cleaned up the lines between the different programs and made each program clear part of a pretty extensive offering. Then we discussed ways to track progress, ways to evaluate growth of each program to determine which were effective, and which could use some creative adjustments. The work was energizing and enjoyable, the significance noticeable. It was awesome.

After much work and rework, I am proud to present kingdompearl.org. It is my prayer that this webpage can be used by the ministry to gain exposure and effectively share with others the awesome work that is happening in Rackoko, Uganda!

Thanks for Reading!

-Jeff

Kenya has been awesome so far. One of my favorite countries yet. Last week we spent time in the community of Kiti, spending time talking with members of the community where our church is located. The more we talked, the more I was able to get an understanding of the issues facing the people of the community. Africa is a giant continent and I have guarded myself against generalizing to state that the things I see in Nakuru, or even Kenya as the issues facing Africa as a whole, this is challenging as the now 54 countries of Africa are often lumped together to comprise a single entity in everyday conversation. Every time I slip up and say the issues of one small area of this giant continent are representative of the whole, I am corrected by a native and reassured that my political correctness is unwarranted. The continent shares many of the same issues, geography simply determines the severity.

Health is, unsurprisingly, one of the main issues facing the people here. I had always been aware of the prevalence of issues such as HIV/AIDs, malaria, malnutrition, and hunger in Africa. I was, however, not ready to see a room full of orphans, born with HIV. To me, this illustrated the magnitude of the health issues facing Africa. The generational obstacles that real progress faces. As we visit homes, people are sick. It is eye opening to be in a place where such serious health issues have become normal. The government provides money to parents of HIV positive children to buy them nutritious foods and medicine they need to keep their immune systems strong, unfortunately, the medicines they are purchasing aren't always legitimate. Counterfeit medicine is a large problem and many of the neighborhood "Chemist's" are responsible for the sale of these fake products. Many of the health and other issues relate to money, the flow of which has been difficult for me to wrap my mind around.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Kenya yesterday to announce a German aid package aimed at aiding the millions of Somalian refugees in overcrowded refugee camps near the Somalian border. The refugees have been coming across the border to the tune of 15,000 a day for years now, according to my contact here in Nakuru. One of the main camps has grown so overcrowded that 40,000 refugees are currently waiting outside until more facilities are created, this number grows daily. Refugee camps are yet another drain on the already limited resources of Kenya. While foreign aid will help create more facilities, it won't stop the flow and more aid will be required. More often than not, the solutions here feel like bandages for wounds that need stitches. It is difficult to envision a Kenya operating relatively independent of foreign aid in the next two generations. One bright spot relating to the future of Kenya is education.

I have had the opportunity to visit four education centers during my time here. It has been refreshing to see the opportunities being provided to the youth of this nation. There are many schools of varying qualities here. Regardless of the physical quality of the schools, it has been refreshing to see that many opportunities are being provided. The majority of the schools we have visited are less than 10 years old and it is encouraging to hear stories of growth from year to year. Each site has had a story starting with, "when we started, it was just that building over there." Each site also has a story ending with, "our growth is the reason we need your financial support." The facilities and opportunities that are being provided here are, like most other enterprises, coming from foreign support. This isn't a bad thing, the impact that foreign aid has had over the past twenty plus years has been incredible, but now you can't help but wonder how a shift to sustainability could occur?

How do you untie a marionette and convince it to walk on it's own? What is the first step? This is the question I feel Africa is ready to answer. From political upheavals in the north to improved education and political awareness in the sub-saharan regions, you can't help but feel like parts of Africa are on the eve of a shift towards increased independence and enterprise. When we are young, we are pulled by our parents in wagons. Our parents teach us the value of movement and seeing new things, but they take us on the path of their choosing, we are just along for the ride. As we grow older, we get a bike, with training wheels of course. Our parents allow us to ride around an area of their choosing with the training wheels and their supervision. We are driving, but we are limited by their parameters and rules. After the training wheels are removed, we are free to ride around the neighborhood, as long as we are back by dinner, if we aren't back by dinner, our bike will be locked up for a week. The consequences of disobedience are clear and there is a distinct authority guiding our actions. When we are old enough we get a car, and the training process begins again, now with a faster machine with a better range. The process ends when we are licensed adults, free to travel where we please, still within the broader parameters of legal systems, but exponentially more free than our wagon and bicycle days. I feel that parts of Africa are at the training wheel stage and there are opportunities for a shift towards increased independence. Other parts are closer to the driver's-ed stage with a readiness for reduced foreign influence. Regardless of which stage a given region is currently occupying, it is essential that it's leaders and providers of foreign aid are discussing how to move to the next stage. When the residents of areas begin asking, how can we solve our problems, lasting change will come.

These are the things I am thinking about. Thanks for reading!

Just how big is Africa? Check this out: http://flowingdata.com/2010/10/18/true-size-of-africa/

Bourbon Street without the French influence and American refinement. A crude Gatlinburg of sorts. This is my ministry location for the month and it is awesome. As you walk through the Patong Beach bar strip you are first overcome by the diversity. There are families, tourists, locals, burnt-out beach bums, travelers, wanderers, wackos, and everything in between. The variety is endless and everyone is in a focused pursuit of something. Whether it is relaxation, freedom, sex or drugs, everyone wants something and they are eager and able to find it here. This striving is visible. Everyone is dressed in the way they feel will most help them reach their pursuit. Families with Polo wearing, camera toting parents and eager toddlers seeking a relaxing vacation wander the streets snapping photos and eating exciting foods. Backpackers with their long hair, European style, and laid-back attitudes walk around (beer in hand) taking in the sights, eager at the opportunity to experience another culture. The most common sight in the area is the pair of middle aged men. They wander with their "youthful clothing" (often an ill-fitting tank top and Crocs sandals), cheeky grin, and an affinity for the Thai bar girls who are constantly bombarding them with offers to see shows and experience everything else. This last group is the most difficult to understand and the most painful to see. Their striving is the most visible and the satisfactions they seek are the most physical. One of the biggest challenges of the month has been to set aside the preconception that all men fitting this description are here in pursuit of prostitutes because sadly, many are.

We sit down at a bar. A group of Americans ordering non-alcoholic beverages, uncommon in this place. Red Bull is a great choice, it makes our motives a little more unclear, which is exactly what we want. If we say we are here to encourage the prostitutes to seek work outside of the bars, the managers will not let us return. We have to be careful. The conversation starts simply. Have you lived in Phuket your whole life? Often the answer is no, families and friends left behind for the promise of higher wages and a better life. This promise is empty and the girls who arrive here quickly find themselves trapped in a nightly cycle of intoxication, sex, and money. Our conversation continues over a game of Connect Four. The girls are surprisingly good at this game, I guess they should be, they play it often. Do you like your work? Many are incredibly honest in their neutral assessment of their work. "Its okay." They can't say what they really feel, what they really want. We continue the conversation. We laugh often with the girls, they have a sense of humor and laugh genuinely with us. We have found that if we bring joy to this dark place, it is contagious. Others notice the group of Americans sitting at the bar, playing games and drinking non-alcoholic beverages, having a great time.

For our first week here, my group of four has had the strategy of building relationships with the bar managers. We have about four bars we are working on and have had positive experiences with both the prostitutes and managers at these bars. If the manager is happy, everyone is happy, if they aren't, we won't be given the time of day. The work we are doing is very sensitive to many variables, length of stay, depth of conversation, forwardness about our motives. We find ourselves in a delicate balancing act that I find quite energizing. As we move into week two, I am eager to take some of our surface level relationships in these four bars to the next level. There are several girls we are praying about introducing to our ministry's English class. Once in the English class, away from the bars and managers in their time off, the girls are presented with other opportunities: Hospitality Management Training, work at the ministry, etc. The key to freedom is getting them to the English class and we are excited to propose the idea of attending the class to several of our new friends next week.

This month is truly unique, and I love it.

Thanks for reading!

-Jeff