When was the last time you had to completely rely on the Lord to meet your most basic needs? A place to sleep, food to eat, protection from harm. Have you ever been completely helpless to secure these things for yourself, leaving you no choice but to trust that there is a God and that He can provide for you?
Welcome to my month here in Botswana.
This month was different from other months on the Race, starting with the moment my team and I arrived here. There was no host waiting for us when we got off the bus. No church was expecting us, there was no ministry schedule set. We didn’t even have a place to stay within our tight budget.
As the World Race grows, AIM wants more to connect with more ministry contacts all over the world in order to send more teams and impact more lives. In October I was on a team that was asked to seek out potential future ministry partners in Romania. Now, on my first month with my new team, we are taking on the same role only this time in Botswana.
It’s an exciting but frightening place to be- more or less without direction in a foreign country that I have very little knowledge of. To make things a little scarier I was made Team Leader for the month. It’s been hard at times, uncomfortable, but so worth it.
Worth it because through this experience we now know what it feels like to enter a nation as strangers and be treated like family. We came to survey the area, encourage those who are serving God, and set up future partnership… But somehow I feel like I’m the one who has been encouraged. I have felt so loved by the churches, pastors, and missionaries that we’ve met and I know that my Jesus is showing me how much He loves me through them
So, so often in the Old Testament God repeats the phrase “… and you will know that I am the Lord.” It’s why He performs miracles and wonders, why He blesses, as well as why He disciplines His children… His purpose is to unite all to Himself and above all else He wants us to know Him, understand who He is, and recognize Him as Father. I am so thankful that I got this opportunity to be a little uncomfortable, a little out of control, because God used it to remind me that He is the Lord.
