Back on the road!

UPDATE for anyone that’s wondering... I’m back on the road. It’s been an interesting few weeks. Traveling around the world has its risks I guess but I sure never imagined that I’d be forceibly mugged by multiple men in broad day light on a busy street in South African just a day after arriving. Being stripped of my main backpack, phone, and wallet along with being in great pain and shock I had to head back to States. The day that the mugging happened I wrote a very quick post explaining a bit of what happened and asking for prayer. I’m going to rewrite all that happened but I’ll save posting that until some other time but I do want to share just a bit more of the story.
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Right after I got up off the ground on that bustling street in Joburg I told myself “this is it, I’m done, I’m so done!” Nothing in me wanted to keep going, thoughts of giving up on traveling even entered my mind as I tried to find my way back to the nearby train station. But just seconds later as I stood at a traffic light at the end of the street, Christ put those thoughts to rest as I looked down to find that I still had most of cash then even realized I had my back pack with my most valuable things in it. Right there I went from mad about want just happened to almost smiling at how awesome God is! As I crossed the street I also thought of how I was even walking as just a minute before I thought that for sure I would die! My thoughts of completely giving up on this trip quickly left as I realized that God had other plans. I knew that I just temporary had to return home and that for some reason it wasn’t yet time travel around Africa. 

I waited the longest hour of my life for money exchange places to open before being able to head to airport. I couldn’t stop feeling like I was being watched but used this time waiting to pray for the guys who stole my stuff. After almost two hours I was on the train heading towards the airport and everything just felt so surreal yet I found myself singing this line over and over in my head “I’ll praise you in the storm, I will lift your name.” On that train ride to the airport I felt so thankful for all that Christ has done for me time and time again. Sure, I wasn’t smiling and I still kept on wondering why this happened but nonetheless I was finding peace in Christ. After what seemed like the slowest wifi connection I was able to call my dad online using my laptop that wasn’t stolen. It was only 4am back in the states when I called and my dad answered concerned and even more concerned when I told him what happened. After 7 hours of trying to figure out the best way to get home I got a ticket booked for 7pm. I went through security with just myself and my small backpack and sat at the gate until boarding. 27 hours later I landed back in the states

Being back in the states again so soon felt so odd. I got my throat checked out and they said everything was fine. Well I ended up in hospital a week later with concerns about my throat and swallowing. After 5 days of eating nothing solid it felt a bit better but even as of now it’s still not quite right. Being back in states I was glad to be with my awesome family but I also spent a lot of time trying to get everything back together. I decided to book a ticket to Taiwan then back to China for my 7th time. My time in Tawain has been nothing but refreshing. Now I just arrived in Beijing. I’m set to fly out of China on the 9th to Maylasia which is meant to just be a transit onto my next countries. I’m still praying about my exact next plans that could take through some middle eastern countries and onto Africa from there. I always deeply appreciate prayer as I’m on this journey! Prayer for my time in China is always really appreciated as it’s seemingly becoming harder and harder for many brothers and sisters here. 

So yeah that’s a little update. I’m not sure if anyone really wants updates but Incase there are a few that do I’ll see if can do better keeping y’all updated. PEACE OUT!!! ✌️ Praise God Alway