In all honesty, I haven’t given blogging much thought this month. Normally I like to write blogs in advance, but the more time I spend in rural Africa, the less time I want to spend on my computer. Usually I spend too much time thinking of what to write, so I’ll try to write on the spot and see what happens. (I’ve been encouraged to write more outside of structure too, like a stream of consciousness with unprocessed ideas, so this will probably start happening more.)
Today is our day off, so we decided to go to the mall and get some good food and internet time. The problem is, there aren’t too many malls in Swaziland and we’re living in the bush this month. Solution: we spent the last two hours in the back of a truck, riding through half the country. Long story short, it involved hopping a barbed wire fence, hitchhiking, and getting pulled over by the police. (Nothing sketch though. Hitchhiking can be pretty safe and ironically we were pulled over because the driver wasn’t wearing his own seatbelt.)
For the past week, we’ve been in Buhleni, Swaziland, which is very (very) rural. But even though we’re so far away from everything, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. We’re living in mud huts on a field with lots of mango and papaya trees, and the nearest “grocery store” is about a mile away. There is no power and we have camping-style, hole in the ground toilets, which makes me feel like I’m in the real Africa. Everyone is so friendly here and wants to get to know us, but unfortunately the mosquitoes feel the same way.
For ministry, we’ve been spending time at the local school and hospital. I’m going to start working with the students more next week, but most of them already know me from telling the teabag story to the whole school at an assembly. We’ve also been getting to know the community through conversations and spending time with the neighbors. (Our comical acronym for this ministry is DIRTY: developing intentional relationships, today and yesterday.)
World Race life is awesome, especially through living in close community and having a simpler lifestyle in places like this. The worry free way of life provides an amazing opportunity to grow deeper in intimacy with God and others. Without first-world distractions, you can get to know people on a real level and I’ve enjoyed this way of spending time with my new team. At first it was hard learning to mesh with a new group, but things are going well. A new team dynamic is coming together and I’m excited to join Fierce Pursuit in their vision for growth.
The hardest thing so far is that I’ve been feeling somewhat numb and out of it for the past week. This is almost like I’m sleepwalking through the day, which I sometimes felt back home. God is teaching me what focus means and how to develop it in a sustainable way. I am learning to focus more on God when I lose focus on life, and ironically He is helping me lose more focus on life to gain a greater focus.
I’m not sure what will come out of this, but I know He has a great plan for teaching me what I need to learn. Coming into this month, I strongly felt that brokenness would start soon, specifically a brokenness that I am ready for and will grow from. I worked on stretching myself spiritually last month, and now that my muscles are warm, God is ready to start pushing to give me a better stretch.
In rural Swaziland, God will direct my focus toward areas He wants me to work on. Physical focus is teaching me about spiritual focus, which is beginning a process of self-awareness and discovery of my emotions and other foundations of my life. I don’t know what the rest of this month will bring, but I know it will be a good one. I am excited to see God continue to move and work as the brokenness prayer fits together in ways I don’t expect.
