How do I describe a month like this? How can I articulate everything in a way that both tells you about the month and at the same time does this month justice? Maybe like this, have you ever had your breath taken away? Legitimately taken away? As in you witness or experience something that is so beautiful that it makes you feel like you’ve just been hit in the stomach and all words have escaped your thoughts? Yea that was my month.
At the preschool there is a kid named Po. Now when we first arrived Po wouldn’t say a word to us or his classmates. He would have no interaction with anyone by his own will. He would walk around or sit down with the same face, the face of solitude, the face of being alone. Slowly but surely Po started to open up. He went from not saying a word and looking depressed to saying a few words a day to having the biggest smile on his face and playing with each one of his classmates all day long. When I see him run around with the kids I see I change. When I see him I know that what we do here, no matter how big or how small, it makes a huge difference in people lives, both in the people that we meet and in our own lives.
Before I describe our sports ministry I just want to say that before the race, I think I played soccer maybe 5 times in my life. So with that being said, the kids who play soccer every day here now that I am terrible at soccer, I mean awful, no skill at soccer. But even though they know this, I am still one of the first to be picked when we spilt for teams. It might be pity that they have on me, or that they just really want a mazungu on their team. Mazungu is the local word for white person. But not only do they pick us first, they actually pass it to us. They get us involved. They know that all of us, except for the girl who played soccer in college, suck at soccer, but they love having us there. We realized that they look forward to us playing soccer with them every single day. They even wait for us along the road that leads to the soccer field so that they could be with us. I see them and I see kindness. I see them going out of their way to help us. Wait a minute, didn’t we….we are the ones who came to help right? I mean, we are the ones on the mission trip, we should be the ones helping. With them, it doesn’t matter. They help and show kindness to everyone.
Sometimes I forget that God has created more then just me. I tend to forget that His perfect design goes far beyond man. We had the opportunity to go on a safari in Botswana and it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. We saw all kinds of animals, but the one animal that stuck out the most was an elephant. We were riding in the back of a truck going along side a river and this lone elephant was in the water just playing. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone, he wasn’t confined, he was free to do whatever he wanted. And he wanted to play. He was splashing water everywhere with his trunk and making his noises. It was beautiful! But then after playing in the water for a little while he took a break and started to walk towards our truck. Inch by inch he would get closer and closer until he was about 20 feet away from us. All noise from the back of the truck had stopped and it was as if the only things in the world at the moment we’re us in the truck, and this lone elephant. We had a silent stare down for about 10 minutes. I saw God in this elephant because this elephant was a part of God’s creation just like we as man are just a part of His creation.
We were also able to visit Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the world. Grant it the water wasn’t flowing as hard as normal, but that didn’t change the fact that God had created the falls. Just because there hasn’t been enough rain this year for the falls to be in full force doesn’t mean that God didn’t carve the earth perfectly for the water to flow down the side of the cliff. Out side of people, I have never seen something that beautiful before. Perfect design.
You see no matter what I say, no words will come close to describing what I have seen this past month. Nothing I say will do it justice. If we can’t d scribe creation, then how could we ever begin to think about describing the creator? We can’t.
There is no way that I would have been able to experience these things this month or to continue to experience things such as this if it wasn’t for your support. I thank you for all that you have done in supporting me. Lifting me up in prayer, making donations to send me out here, even you just thinking of me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for y’all being open to what God asks of you. I ask that you would continue to do so! I need it! I have one month to raise almost $4,000. So if you could please pray for me and also prayerfully consider donating and allowing me to stay out here.
P.s. All donations are tax-deductible!
