Here I am on my third bus in the last week. I decided to just “sit down at the typewriter and bleed” as a great writer once said. And by typewriter I mean iPod.
What’s better to do on a 24 hour bus ride than write? Nothing that I can think of.
I want to sum up month 6, Botswana, for you. Most of the time I post pictures on social media because it’s easier than taking the time to write a whole blog but due to how far away from civilization we were last month it just wasn’t possible.
Seronga was the village. It was about 3 hours from the nearest grocery store. It was on the delta. There were a whole lot of snakes. There was a hippo and crocodile and elephants. There were bugs so big that we called them spaceships and helicopters. We slept in tents all month and fell asleep to a frog orchestra every night and woke up to the worst noises you could ever imagine a bird to make in the mornings. In between that we watched the greatest sunsets every single night.
It was beautiful. A beautifully, incredible, hard to leave month. So we went and walked around the village everyday, bibles in hand while wearing skirts, and found people to talk to and after we talked for a little bit we would share the gospel with them. A gospel that we learned to make simple without all the theological debating and what not. A gospel whose cross is powerful without my words. A gospel that just pointed straight to Jesus and that eternal gift he brought to all of us.
Everyday we met people and everyday I fell more and more in love with the Lord. Everyday we met people who we intended to share the gospel with and everyday the Lord brought more people to us that He intended to share it with. We would be speaking with one person and before we knew it there would be a whole group. The people were beautiful. Sometimes there were language barriers with the older folks but then something really cool would happen. Their grandchildren or children would translate for us. They would listen intently to the gospel and in turn they would tell their parents or grandparents about this Jesus.
I remember one moment and I don’t know that I will ever forget it. We were sitting in a circle and my teammate, Jen, was sharing about Jesus and she read a verse. The kid then read the verse in their language. I immediately got tears in my eyes and I was so utterly speechless at hearing the bible being read in a language I didn’t know.
I’ve been hearing the word in languages I don’t understand for 6 months now. You would think I would be used to it. Then I heard the Lord say “don’t ever stop being moved by hearing my word spoken in a language you don’t understand.” Speechless. Language barriers are nothing. I literally heard the bible being read and it moved me to tears when I couldn’t understand a word. Y’all it’s sharper than any two edged sword. It cuts through flesh and marrow. It cut through me that day and I will never forget it. Ever.
So my team and I met a man by the name of Ice Cube. We ended up just going to his area of the village almost everyday and sitting under a big shade tree in the sand and we waited on people to come listen to what we had to say and every single day the Lord brought people. We told a lot of Ice Cube’s family about the Lord and man were they interested. We gave them bibles and our contact is planning to be at Ice Cube’s every Wednesday to study the bible with whoever wants to be there. Prayers that these people decide that Jesus is worth the cost. Ice Cube even came to church on our last day in Seronga and I am in awe at how excited my spirit was to see him there.
Another day while sitting under that shade tree we met a man by the name of John. We later learned that this man was Ice Cube’s uncle and we had already talked to this man’s wife earlier in the week and gave her a bible. John didn’t speak a word of English. You should have seen him trying to find someone to translate for him. He was so hungry to hear from the Lord. We were about to walk away when he finally found someone that agreed to translate. We told him about the Lord and at the end he asked for a bible. Never in my life will I forget the moment when I pulled a bible out of my backpack in his language. The look on his face and the gratefulness in his heart brings tears to my eyes even now. He held it tight, like it was his most prized possession. His wife, the lady we talked to earlier in the week, was crying. Then we prayed and he cried through the whole thing.
Why am I not moved by the word of God like a man by the name of John in a village in Africa?
On our last day in Seronga we had church. Hannah, a squad mate, and I hopped in the van to go drive and pick up people from the village. We were getting discouraged waiting because no one had shown up to the big tree we told them we would be waiting under. Then, all of the sudden when we were thinking about driving away a group of people came walking up. Kids, adults, teenagers. Ones that we had shared the gospel with earlier in the month and some we didn’t really know. So we packed the van full of people and we went to church. The African people worshipped in the language I didn’t know and at this point I was trying to process leaving a village and people I had come to love. Therefore, the tears started again. Once again I heard the Lord say, “don’t ever stop being moved by hearing praises from my people in a language that you don’t understand.”
I am absolutely blown away by all the Lord did in Seronga, Botswana. It wasn’t just the wildlife and the lack of Internet that won my heart. It was the people who welcomed my friends and I along with Jesus into their homes. It was sitting in the sandy dirt and sharing with people who had never heard of Jesus before. It was sitting in that same dirt and sharing with people who may have heard before but who had some skewed reasons of why they thought they were going to heaven. It was the family of Willie and Estelle who we lived with for the month and who made their home our home. They made a birthday away from home a little more bearable and they loved that we cut down a Christmas tree from the African bush. They taught us how to be snake slayers and left side of the road drivers but more importantly they taught us how to take the gospel to the nations. Without fancy words and speech. With a cross that is powerful all by itself.
The Lord showed up in a small village in a country I didn’t even know on a map before deciding to do this world race. He showed up in my life and He showed up in the lives of people my team and I befriended. That’s it. I can now say that I have friends in Seronga because that’s what they are. I have people there that I miss terribly and that I hope to one day visit again. The Lord is so cool. He is so personal. He is so patient with us and He is so worthy of our trust.
Here’s what I’m learning: life is about relationships. I’m getting to go to some pretty cool places but the people I am with, the people that have made this possible and the people I’m meeting along the way are what make it so stinkin’ special. Relationship. Community. People worth missing. I can now say that I have people worth missing all over the world. It hurts to have those people. It’s never fun to just want to talk to someone and not be able to or to want to share some experiences with certain people and not be able to. But these people are worth it. My people at home. My people in all the countries I’ve been. The people on the race that I don’t get to spend the months with. All worth it. Relationships are worth the tough things.
Current update on life: I am now passed the halfway point of my race. There are more cards from home in my “already read” stack than there are in my “read when…” stack. The time has absolutely flown by and stood still all at the same time. There are days when I want to be home so bad that it hurts and then there are times when I want time to slow down so bad that it hurts in a whole different way. I am currently on my way to Durban, South Africa. I am looking at some of the most beautiful mountains that I have ever seen. The team and I spent a few days camping in Cape Town and it was everything. We will be doing a month of Unsung Heroes. That means we are on our own to find lodging and new contacts for future world racers. It’s a month of absolute trust in the Lord and His provision and He has already blown us away so far.
Also, New Year’s Eve in a foreign country is something everyone should experience. I loved ringing in 2016 with people that I didn’t know but that became friends by the end of the night! Shared hugs with complete strangers, all older adults who looked out for us throughout the night, had to do for now and I will never forget it. 2016 is looking good so far.
