Last Saturday was our first day "off". It was our first free day that we have had, and the first opportunity to hit the town, go to the market, use the internet and wander around. I had originally wanted to leave the Iris compound at 6am and get to the Internet center in Dondo early before heading to the larger town of Beira to do some grocery shopping etc. My team wasn't so ecstatic about that one and decided we'd leave closer to 7:30-8:00am. At 7am that morning I was asked to leave the compound with a few squad mates and head a few hundred yards down the road to get our morning bread for the squad. As soon as we left the compound I was then told we were heading 20 minutes to the market to get some food for that evening and would hopefully be back by 8. Great I thought, I better be back by 8…I need to get this errand out of the way so I can get on with my planned day.
Well we got back from the market run around 8 and I thought it was time to leave for my free day, time to get on the internet and get some real food etc. Nope. The team wasn't ready to leave yet. Girls. Well no worries, I'll just read some Bible before we head out or the day, God has a funny sense of humor, this is what I read and should have known it was going to be my theme for the day:
"…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."
Philippians 4:11
Okay God, I can learn that, not a problem. But God seriously, can we leave this compound already and get some freedom, internet, and explore this place?! Close to 10am after arguing back and forth about things, and being told we had to take a local, our group of 6 of my teammates that were originally going to leave somehow turned into 18 people and a local….Really?! How did this even happen?! I just wanted to get away from as many people as possible and get some errands done, post a blog and update my Facebook status or whatever. And now I'm stuck with 17 other people, their opinions, and desires to do whatever they want on our free day. The 19 of us loaded a choppa(taxi bus that seats 12 comfortably) and headed the 30 minutes down the road to Beira.
I should have known. It was a cluster. Like a bunch of cattle wandering the streets of a foreign land trying not to get more than 1 arms distance from each other and wanting to go in every direction, every direction minus the same that anyone else wanted to go. One of the "rules" of The World Race is that you can't go anywhere alone…. This is the absolute hardest thing for me. I just finished a 39 state road trip 2 months ago, I drove over 10,000 miles by myself, and I LOVED IT. And now I can't walk around a small town in Mozambique alone!?! Get out.
To make a long story short there were a series of events that unfolded on this day that completely ticked me off. Here is a handful of some of the things that went down: we had limited time and couldn't find the internet ANYWHERE, then after we did I was only able to use it for 5 minutes before it quit working and after an hour of arguing with the waiter they thankfully gave me my money back. Meanwhile everyone else's internet worked great, they were skyping with family, creeping on Facebook, etc. To make things worse my bank card wasn't working and I couldn't get money out to pay for anything and had to rely on my teammates to help me out. I also ran into 3 white men in the grocery store that afternoon, I knew instantly they were military and thought specifically security contractors. Nope, Israeli commandos, and one was an American from Arizona! As soon as I started talking to them it was like being back with the boys, my Marines. They were a bunch of type A males that immediately welcomed me into their group. One of them opened a Monster energy drink and handed it to me first, "here ya go mate", we immediately connected. My heart hurt. A huge part of me wanted to leave my group of world racers, hop on that Israeli ship, grab a gun and dawn a uniform and get back in the fight. Thanks God for opening up that wound, I thought I was over all of that.
The entire day was a mess, I was ticked off, and complaining which is something I don't usually do and something that made me even more mad, especially at myself. On the choppa ride back to Dondo I had a talk with God. Father what the heck am I doing on the world race? Why did you just expose some old war wounds that I thought I'd healed from? How could such a good day be such a sour experience? What am I even doing here? I was crying and arguing with Him, no one else on the choppa knew it but I was a mess. Who's brilliant idea was this anyway?
We got back to the Iris compound and it was time for me to really get some answers from God. I begin to write in my prayer journal all the junk that happened to me that day, all the stuff that didn't go my way. Me, me, me, me…..me! Nothing went my way!! Then I looked over at the water well and saw a kid pulling up a bucket of dirty well water. I watched as he lifted it up to his mouth and drank smiling with satisfaction of having liquid on a hot day. It was picture perfect. The poor kid was drinking this warm, dirty and unfiltered water, yet seemed to be so content. It was a chance to get "me" out of the picture and be love. I hobbled over to the well(my foot is cut up and covered in blisters from stuff the last few days). I pulled out my phone to get a picture of the kid and more kids came running. I decided to get pictures with them all and showed them they're beautiful smiling faces on my little iPhone screen. We laughed and I shared as much love as I could in a few short minutes, even through this messed up day didn't go my way God still poured out his love through me. I was amazed how quickly my day changed, no longer was it all about me, but it was all about Him and extending love to His children.
As the kids walked away I smiled for what I think was the first time that day, and then God spoke up, "Andy, love is what you are doing in Africa." It's amazing what happens when you get me out of the picture. It's not about me, it's about Him and it's my privalege to give everyone I see a dose of Him everywhere I go.
I've been reading the book of Philippians everyday since Saturday and feel it's my theme book for this year. This year I'm striving to learn how to live my life as Paul describes in Philippians and it starts with being content. Even as I write this today there are more "let downs" that I've experienced. I'm editing this blog again for the 3rd time instead of leaving the compound and heading over to post it on the internet. It seems that every time there is something I want to do, doing something for the squad comes up and stops me from doing what I want to do. In fact I've tried to post this blog for the last 3 days but something has always come up. But I am grateful because I know that I have these opportunities to learn how to be content with little, much, or nothing. Pauls says in Philippians to "count others as more important than yourselves". Jesus is the greatest example of that, and the selfless model we should emulate. I'm learning that with God and The World Race, the lessons never end, and neither will the growing. Content.
