I must say that this month had been quite a month – probably the month that has held the most extreme differences on this whole race. I started the month by leaving Asia and traveling to South Africa … where we were told that girls could never go anywhere without a man. It is known to be pretty dangerous, so we had to take a lot of precautions, which was different than Asia. We also had access to just about anything and everything we could want while we were in Asia – internet, food, movies, beds, and just comforts! Being in South Africa for just 2 days was a bit of a change when there were not places for us to go and satisfy our need for comfort.
Then, three days into my trip in South Africa, I flew home to America – stayed with my family and experienced EVERY SINGLE comfort I could ever want, and everything I have missed so much this year. Everything that I chose to give up this year, was back in my life – full fledge and for only 5 days! I slept in my own bed, I woke up and took HOT showers, hot baths, I was able to feel clean all day long, I drove my car, and second to seeing my family and friends – I had access to whatever food I wanted at any hour of the day! I could walk to my refrigerator and eat all the things I like – or just drive over to Chick-fil-a or TCBY, and with how much I wanted these things – I didn’t even care that the price had gone up since I left.
Let’s just say … when I woke up on the 13th of the month in my tent, I was a little shocked. I felt like I went back in time. I seriously had to take an hour or so and pray – pray really hard that God would give me the grace that I needed to deal with the culture shock I was experiencing. That was only the beginning of the culture shock I would deal with this month. We moved from our little cozy place (which I realize now is cozy – I did not see it this way at first), to literally the bush of Mozambique. We lived in our tents, and because we were only going to be at our ministry for about 10 days, I decided to bring as little as possible. I brought with me: 5 pairs of underwear, 3 t-shirts, 1 pair of leggings, 1 skirt, and 1 pair of warm pants, tennis shoes, and flip flops! I brought some shower stuff – but let’s just say that I only got to take 1 ½ showers during those 10 days. We had no toilet, but we did have a hole in the ground or just the field around us; we had no showers, but we did have the river; we had no clean water, but we did have river water that was supposed to be our drinking water; we had no beds, but we did have our lovely little tents and sleeping mats (that actually become quite comfortable after a while); we had no peace & quiet, but we did woken up every morning around 4 am by the African worship services (and roosters)…which included LOUD singing, dancing and beating on the drums; and we had no comfort of eating the food you like, but we did have watery oatmeal every morning for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, and either pasta or potatoes for dinner every night!!! Let’s just say that it was surprising and exciting to find out that I had lost another 2 pounds after the 10 days … even though my body felt like I had gained 15 pounds. I would not recommend eating ONLY carbohydrates 3 meals a day for 20 days! The weather was changing so much that many people got sick during this time. It would literally get up to 120 degrees during the heat of the day, and would drop down to about 60 degrees at night and in the morning. It was also difficult in ministry – every day we were told to prepare for what was ahead of us…and it changed every day. We would literally sit around and wait for the certain time to leave for ministry and all of a sudden that time would come and go – with no sign of us leaving any time soon. It was rare that something was planned that actually happened at the time it was scheduled. There were several people who began to feel useless – or just wonder what our purpose was going to be in Mozambique. It was halfway through our ten days and it still seemed as though we had not done anything yet. It was really our last several days that things began to fall in place.
It was amazing to watch the transition that happened in each of us. As we sought the Lord and prayed for peace and good attitudes, we began to change. We started our time in the bush, feeling extremely uncomfortable and expressing it to each other and ended our time with a level of comfort for where we were and what our life had become over those days. We started saying “laugh or you will die” – which was our way to laugh about all of the things that we were really uncomfortable with, but knew that we couldn’t change – so we might as well get used to it. Even though it has been a crazy month, it has been a fantastic month. I feel like I have fallen more in love with Jesus this month and all the things He has done for me. He is so good and I am so thankful for all the ways He has changed me and drawn me closer to Him this year.
I love you all and thank you for investing in my life this year.
