This month was amazing. It was more than I could have hoped for. I said in my previous blog that Africa has already stolen my heart and that is more true now than it even was then. These people are precious.
Working with the Sandra Jones Center this month was awesome. It was also incredibly humbling to see how much love these women and children and staff poured out to us even while we were trying to pour into them. They have become family to me and it is extremely hard for me to say goodbye today as this afternoon we travel to Victoria Falls and then on to Zambia.
Ministry this month wasn’t some crazy thing. It was merely living this with those at the center, loving them well, pouring into them, and listening to them. We watched movies with the girls and kids. We did a Galentine’s night for the older girls on Valentines day. We taught dance to 8-10 year olds and sang songs with the 4-8 year olds. We had pillow fights and learned different crafts (like making paper beads, notebooks, bracelets, etc). Myself and three others got our hair braided to help the girls in beauty school practice. We merely did life with them and it was amazing.
I have other blogs coming included with pictures and stories of my time here. I’ve had fun in my process of putting them together and I’ve gained so many stories it’s impossible to put it into one blog.
I will explain the title of my blog though. Htundlah, pronounced Tune-Dlah, means giraffe in Ndebele. This morning every single one of my teammates received a certificate from the Sandra Jones Center for our work here and on it officially given our African name. Mine is Htundlah. Why a giraffe? Because the meaning of a giraffe is compassion, vision and intuition. I was incredibly surprised and overjoyed by their thoughtfulness in putting this together for my team, and I will never look at giraffes the same way again.
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This month has also had it’s hard moments though. My quiet time with God suffered and because of that everything else suffered as well. A huge part of my quiet time is journaling. I use my journal to write down events and stories from the day, I use it to write down prayers and for notes and thoughts from my studies in the Bible and in whatever book I am also reading at the time. I also use it to process things because I am a high external processor. This month I tried not to journal as much. Having already gone through 5 journals on the race, I wanted to try to limit how much I was journaling and didn’t take into account that journaling was a huge way of how I poured into myself and gained my introvert time.
Looking back, I see how drastically that affected me and how it drained me being with people constantly and not getting filled up. It made my perspective skewed and blind to certain things God was doing in my life.
I’m journaling again and it’s amazing how much more I get from the Scripture passages and books I read. I am currently journeying through Ephesians and reading A Sweet and Bitter Providence by John Piper. Both are incredible. One thing that Piper says in this book is that “seeing is a precious gift and [hopelessness] is a powerful blindness.”
Please continue to pray for me as I am on this journey. Pray that my pursuit of God will grow and be even more than it is now. Pray that I am able to be filled up and am able to give 100% to the ministries I am in and to my teammates.
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Something else happened this month. My credit card information was stolen and I lost a good portion of my personal funds for the race. Please be in prayer for the person who did this. Pray that God will put His hand on him, convict him of his sins and draw him to Himself. Pray that he comes to the light and realizes his need for salvation. Pray that people will love him well and show him Christ’s love so this can happen.
In addition, if you could all pray for safe travels for my team and squad that would be greatly appreciated!
Stay tuned for stories, pictures and details on our Zambian ministry!
Till Next Time,
Kara Faber
