At training camp, day 3, my squad mate Cabe randomly looks at me and says, "Beth, every single time I look at you all I can picture is you holding a child in Africa."
For as long as I began dreaming the outcome of my life, and probably as long as all of you reading this have ever known me, I've always been overly passionate about "changing the world, restoring Africa, saving orphans," and doing WAY more than I could ever possibly do. I want to join every club, organization, or mass group of people that has ANYTHING to do with social justice or helping the poor. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a text or an email saying, "saw this and thought of you!" Each of these encounters have something to do with someone striving to save the world….. always. Often times when people think of Bethany Fristad, they immediately think of the girl who wants to move to Africa and live with the orphans…. am I right?
As I've said before, training camp for the World Race completely turned my world upside down. Everything that I've believed my entire life was shaken and stirred, and forced me to start looking at everything…. completely different.
This next thing I heard changed everything…..
There is a mother and a father with a 3 year old daughter. The father is not the best with children, let alone finding fun things to do to keep his daughter entertained. One day, his wife got on his case and said, "honey you need to go find something to do with your daughter. I don't care what you do, but you NEED to go spend time with her. She's only going to be 3 for so long!"
Not knowing what to do, the father thought for a while, and finally went up to his 3 year old daughter and said, "honey, would you like to go help daddy change the oil on my car?"
"sure dad!"
While the father began to change the oil on his car, he had his daughter right next to him to keep him company and give her little tasks like handing him different tools. While the daughter really didn't do much, the father and daughter had time just the two of them to talk and hang out. It was a cherished time between the both of them.
So here's the raw truth…the truth that hit me like a ton of bricks, pierced my side, and crushed my dreams…
God doesn't need our help changing the world. He doesn't need us to feed the hungry, heal the sick, or save all the orphans. God just wants us to go and do something with him, so that our daddy can get to know his daughter, and his daughter can get to know her daddy.
Sure, giving up everything and going to the nations for 11 months is a great sacrifice. The unknown is scary, leaving everything you've ever known and stepping into a world completely different from what you're used too. I'll spend everyday for the next 11 months restoring broken homes, planting churches, loving orphans, and lifting up families living in extreme poverty. Yes, I will make some sort of a difference each day I assume…. something God DOES still call us to do.
But the truth is……God doesn't need my help. He's called me to simply just go…… so that he can spend time with me. I've decided to go, so that my daddy can get to know his daughter, and I can get to know my daddy…..
