Hoping everyone at home had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our team was blessed to have a few days off and have not one, but two Turkey Day celebrations, albeit neither one with turkey. Our amazing contacts helped us cook an amazing feast on Wednesday night, complete with roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and even pumpkin pie! Last night the majority of our squad was able to get together to celebrate, and it was beautiful to hear everyone say what they were thankful for: the opportunities we’ve had this year, the ways we know God will continue to weave our lives together in the future, and of course, the fact that we will be HOME in 10 short days!
This year we dressed up as Indians instead of pilgrims, and plenty of other cheesy jokes abounded last night.
I am most thankful for all of YOU. Thanks for faithfully following along on my blog this year, for encouraging me on the tough days, and most of all for making donations to make all of this possible. I can’t wait to celebrate with all of you in the coming weeks!
Today my team heads out to one final village in India. One more fence to build, one more set of girls to minister to and one more round of hot, sticky days and long, sleepless nights. Our last 48 hours of ministry on the World Race.
In the past couple of days I’ve been working on a document I’ve been keeping throughout the Race highlighting my highs and lows. For most of the monthly entries, the good far exceeds the bad. The favorite memories list is almost always significantly longer than the challenges list. But as I made the list for India, my fingers flew while typing my challenges list. Mostly things tied to having our worst accommodations of the trip and the culture I find strange instead of fascinating. When I moved on to the favorite memories list, I found myself just staring at a blank screen. I haven’t been shy about this being my least favorite country on the Race, but come on, there had to be a few things that I will always remember fondly from India. I slowly typed that I enjoyed our contacts and I adored little Samuel from the first home.
And then I remembered that it was my turn to write a blog to be featured on the CCH website, highlighting my experience at our latest home. My ‘Negative Nancy’ blog theme of the month was not going to cut it. So as I racked my brain, I realized that so many of the things I initially thought of as annoying, were actually some pretty special moments.
1. I had to sit through four hours of church, two and a half of that being loud, obnoxious, nasally Indian singing. I got to experience an authentic Indian Christian church service. I watched our 10 beautiful girls praise the Lord with their whole hearts. I was able to preach about the stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to a room full of people who had never heard the stories of the lions’ den or the fiery furnace before. I had the opportunity to share about the importance of honoring the One True God to a congregation made up of former Hindus who worshipped cows. After church there was literally a line of people in front of me wanting me to pray over them.
2. I was exhausted and wanted to go to bed but got stuck painting henna on the girls’ hands and ended up with smudges of it all over my own hands. These sweet girls didn’t care that I am the least artistic person in the world, they let me draw sill swirls all over their hands. And it must not have been that bad, because they came back, begging me to paint all the way up their arms. I thought it looked ridiculous, but they thought it was beautiful. And for the next two days every time I saw them they would stick their arm out to show me, exclaiming, “Sister, super!”
3. While I was taking a bucket shower in the dark because the power was out, a whole group of people gathered just on the other side of my door-less shower to watch baby chicks hatch from the eggs from the chicken that lives under one of the bunk-beds. I couldn’t make that stuff up if I tried. I only have one more week left for crazy things like this happen to me on a regular basis. Plus the baby chicks were pretty darn cute, except for when one pooped on Kathryn’s hand.
Yet another funny chicken story: several chickens actually live inside the house and they roam freely, much to my displeasure, especially while I’m attempting to eat chicken. At one point all the children were chasing the chickens and once they caught them all, Kathryn videotaped and yelled “On the count of three, throw the chickens into the air!” You can imagine the chaos that ensued. The worst part was running screaming from the couch as a live chicken flew towards my head. The best part was when the Pastor’s wife ran into the room and scolded the children and Kathryn says “Sorry, I didn’t know.” Really, you didn’t know throwing chickens inside the house was a bad idea? Really?
We have the power to decide how we want to look at situations. We can dwell on the bad or we can focus on the good. We can get frustrated or bitter or we can give thanks for what we do have. Instead of being jealous of others (i.e. me last night when I heard countless stories of India being the favorite month for many squadmates), we can trust God that His will is perfect and He has us right where we are for a reason. Instead of feeling entitled, we should see everything as a gift from God. When we walk around aware of the blessings around us, we see life through a different lense.
So even though Thanksgiving is over, I hope that we remember every day that living as thankful people can actually change the condition of our souls.
Give thanks in all circumstances. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
