Time to Catch Up

So I updated you on what went on in the bush of Africa and told you that I made it out alive, which is true, but I realized shortly after we got back to Morogoro that I wasn’t feeling the best. Well apparently most of my team and the team that was with us was in the same place. So two days after we got back, we were supposed to go to our translators’, Elijah and Edwin, high school to preach a message. I thought I volunteered to speak to some high schoolers, but I had misunderstood, buy since most of our team was sick I ended up preaching to them anyway. 

 God has good timing because when we were walking back, me and one of the three other people well enough to come started feeling nauseous and walked to the clinic instead of home. When we got there we saw seven of our teammates already there. I ended up having typhoid but since I caught it early it wasn’t too bad. Most of my teammates had typhoid, malaria, parasites, or some combination. I felt like it was a rite of passage to make me a “true WR’er.” 

We ended ministry on the 26th and had a nice dinner and ceremony to say goodbye and it hit me that we were finished with African ministry which made me a lot sadder than I thought it would.
We had a couple days to relax so nine of my squad-mates met up at Mikate beach which is a short ferry ride from Dar es Salaam (I really mean short the ferry is about five minutes) and I got to swim in the ocean and see white people from all over the world. I realized how blessed and thankful I am to experience these cultures the way that I have been, because if my only experience of Tanzania was this touristy beach I would really feel that it was lacking. 

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the beach and being able to relax, and my teammates have told me on this journey that I need to allow myself to do that every once in a while, but it was hard for me to lay out on the beach when I know many Tanzanians who live in mud huts. We were warned at our last debrief that WR’ers have a hard time with re-entry and I am praying that the Lord will give me wisdom to share my experiences in love, while holding onto what I have experienced this year and using that passion to help others while not simultaneously alienating those I love. Re-entry is on the horizon and will be an area of growth where I trust I will be stretched. 

So, that leads up to travel “day” – day is always used loosely since with time changes it is difficult to track and it is most often longer than a day. Yesterday (July 31) we left the beach and took a tuk tuk (this is now our third country with this form of transportation: Cambodia, Kenya, and Tanzania – but it is a little different in Cambodia) across the ferry, through Dar es Salaam to the airport where we arrived about five hours before our flight (that’s how WR’ers roll since there are 61 of us) and flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We waited about four to five hours for that flight and left just after midnight on August 1 to New Delhi. It was about a six to seven hour flight and I was able to sleep maybe four of those hours. 

We arrived in New Delhi sometime in the morning and had to figure out our next step. We will be working with Team Frontline this month but there will be another team, Team Cavalry, in Bangalore as well so we needed train tickets for 19 of us – wasn’t going to happen today. It was a blessing that our fatigued leaders were willing and able to figure all this out as I, and a couple other squad-mates pulled out our blankets and sleeping bags to rest on the floor of the airport. I am getting to the point where I believe I cab sleep anywhere. 

We had to book a hostel in New Delhi for tonight, and they have free WiFi which is how I am writing this, and we will be to the train station tomorrow night for our 40 hour train ride to Bangalore! Whoo Hoo! It is month 11 and I am determined to make the most of this month.
I will try to post when I can but it may not be that possible this month, so if you would like feel free to message or email me and I will try my best to respond in a quick manner (be mindful this is still the WR). 

 Month 11: here we are!