We’ve been in Kenya since about 3am on the 31st
of December. It is so awesome to finally be here in Africa, although we have
been told that it is supposed to rain a bit this month. (It seems that rain
follows the J Squad around…) We are staying with the K Squad at a hostel in
Nairobi awaiting our ministry assignments and we’ll be leaving early on the 4th.
My team will now be working alone in a town called Kitale; ministry is yet to
be determined but we’ll be working with a church there. There were supposed to
be two other teams working at another location in Kitale, but this is the World
Race and things change all the time! 🙂
We celebrated New Year’s here and our New Year’s celebration
included games, hanging out, worship, sparklers, communion and prayer. During
the celebrations I ended up having a conversation that made me think about the
way that God has been working in my life both recently and in the past few
years. I was sharing with this person how I have had to change my attitude over
the last few years in regard to relationships. I told her that even in
preparing to come on the Race I had to consciously decide to enter this time
with my heart wide open. I have to be vulnerable and allow people inside,
rather than holding back and not building solid relationships. It’s not easy
for me to do that and I am really trying to find a balance between being an
open book (because that’s not who I am) and not being open at all, as both of
them are extremes that I want to avoid. I am done hiding who I am just because
I am afraid of what people will think.
I was sharing with some of my teammates later that night how
relationships take a lot of risk. When someone gives their all in building a
relationship they will either end up greatly rewarded or deeply hurt. It is
this fear of hurt that has kept me from developing many relationships in the
past, and something I still have to consciously deal with at times. I do not
want to go through the rest of my life not being able to have a deep
relationship with someone and I have chosen that fear has no place in my
relationship-building anymore. I want these next six months here on this Race,
and then even after the Race, to be a time of relationship-building and
learning to love people how I want to be loved.
During our tour time of worship on the 1st my
team leader, Austin, prayed over me that I will continue to step out in
boldness as the woman of God that I am. I accept that challenge and by the
grace of God I really want to live that out in every area of my life, especially
in my current relationships. I need to be honest and bold in speaking the truth
in love. My challenge for this new year is to be the woman that God has created
me to be – confident and full of grace – and not the “girl” that I used to be. Please pray that I will continue to allow God
to work in my life and that I will embrace the changes He is making.
