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Ready to change the world?

Friends + Family: If you know me well, you know that I am passionate about my faith and about business. For most of my life, it seemed that I could not combine these two. When I was younger my favorite pastime was pretending to run a business. I’ve had a job since the age of 16. I love to work. But I often felt unfulfilled. What was missing was a sense of purpose. What was missing was the merging of my deep desire to help others and my passion for business. Within the past two years, as I’ve traveled the world, as I’ve met people and heard stories, my faith has been solidified and my dreams have flourished into realities. This year, with a big push from my community at G42, I fulfilled a deep desire and long-term dream of starting a Kingdom-minded business. It’s with great excitement that I introduce you to, AT THE WELL, a curated global marketplace of consciously made goods by creators that make a social impact. Customers are able to shop by countr...

Spain

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I had a revelation the other day. I walked past the window in our living room and saw the sun shining on the Mediterranean Sea. It was cold outside but I couldn’t resist going out to the patio to stare. I stood there for several minutes and gazed out at the sea. God always brings me back to the sea. I thought about the fact that I’ve dreamt of living in Spain since I was a child. I have bucket lists that I made in elementary school that have “live in Spain” always listed near the top. And here I am. It hasn’t hit me. Except for this moment. I said to myself over and over again “I live in Spain. I live in Spain. I live in Spain.” – in an attempt to believe it. I looked down at the cup of tea I had been holding. The mug I was using had “make dreams happen” painted on it in gold. I smiled. Flashes of dreams after dreams appeared in my mind. Dreams that had become my reality. Answered prayers. God is so good. So so good. And so surprising. And so BIG! Back ...

Full Circle

In the fall of 2016, shortly after announcing that I would be leaving for the World Race, I was at my weekly Rotary meeting at the Waikiki Yacht Club. I remember this night because of instead of sitting with my usual gang of Nicole, Rich, & Paul, I sat next to James Ham. I got to tell him some of my story and about the race. When I listed my route to him he told me that he had a contact in Ghana. He knew a doctor there who worked in a hospital that our Rotary club helped fund in some way, he sent an introductory email right then and there and that's where months of correspondence with Dr. Gavin Apio began. I had no idea at the time how big of an impact this would play in the months to come. As many of you know, our time in Ghana was extended. Instead of spending month 6 in Burkina Faso, we spent both months 5 and 6 in Ghana. Our last two weeks in Ghana were classified as "ATL" which stands for "Ask The Lord". This means we were not assigned a specific loc...

Halfway

"Currently sitting on a blue plastic chair under a mango tree. Heat index is 101. Humidity is over 80%. Every part of my body is dirty. Every part of it is moist with sweat. I'm used to my own smell and the smell of my team by now. Every 5 seconds I am killing an ant on me or swatting a fly away. I can't keep the dirt off of my feet even with shoes on. Even a shower isn't worth looking forward to. When you replace a shower head with only a bucket of water you don't ever feel fully clean. And the second you are done you begin sweating again. And with our $4 per day food budget and lack of options at any "grocery store" or market, the term "meal" is used loosely and I don't imagine feeling full anytime soon. Even sleep is tough to feel excited about. The 7 of us lay on the floor next to each other like sardines packed together in a room with one fan and a tin roof. The Islamic music, chickens, roosters, and children form a soundtrack that...

My Story Matters

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A friend recommended that I ask God for a word for my 30th year of life. The word that keeps coming to me is OWNERSHIP. Owning my life. Owning my relationship with Him. Owning my story. My story matters.  It's mine to share. It's made me who I am today. And I am proud. It may have taken me 30 years, but this is my story. Watch below or use this link!  https://youtu.be/WINODjfWrLM Special thank you to Kelsay Singleton for sharing her passion with me and helping me share my testimony in such a beautiful way. 

I Wouldn't Have Picked Them

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I AM OBSESSED WITH THESE HUMANS!!!   But the truth is, it hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows. You used to be able to cut the tension between us with a knife. In fact, I think the rest of our squad would agree that our team was the most disunited team as we launched onto the race. But we persevered, we fought the good fight, we CHOSE to love each other. And man I'm so glad we did.   I met all of them at training camp (TC) in October 2016. In fact, I met our whole squad then. All 54 of them. 54 people is a lot. Naturally, I spent each day at TC intentionally setting aside time to build relationships. And I built some good ones. At the end of TC when they announced our teams, I looked around at the 6 people I was matched with. One of my first reactions was to burst into tears. (Sounds dramatic but we were also sleep deprived, food deprived, cold, uncomfortable, and emotionally picked apart!) I looked at them and wondered WHY? What did AIM see in them that they th...

Una Sola Fuerza

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As I pressed submit for my last blog post I was interrupted by an American voice. It was a man (Mark) and woman asking for the wifi password (I was sitting at a coffee shop). We started talking and long story short - he's a pastor from Montana here with some of his youth group. They offered to let us use their hotel showers!! After about an hour of conversation, we accepted his offer. We walked for about an hour to his hotel. We had the best showers and could not stop talking about how it was a total gift that we crossed paths. Mark wanted us to meet his friends and invited us to dinner. We ended up at a Peruvian restaurant with around 25 people. Person after person came into the restaurant, each having their own story about how they met Pastor Mark and many of them not knowing each other. So we sat there, all coming from different paths, speaking different languages, but all connected by this crazy, God-loving man, Mark! I was seated across the table from a man who works for the ...