Debrief in Cambodia was a nice time to reflect on the past 8 months and to get excited for the next 3 months. It was a time of refinement and relaxation and good time with the Lord. Being on the field with the same people for 8 months gets tiring. Though your surroundings change, many things look the same. You have team time every day, which is beneficial, yet often redundant. You find that unless you make an effort to look for new things to talk about, you end up talking about the World Race and what is happening in front of you, or what’s to come. This is all fine, but it starts to really wear on you.
The Lord used people, scripture, and His voice to resuscitate my heart. It had grown a little weary, and He breathed new life and passion into it. He showed me why I was growing tired, and showed me how to move past it. I was tired of talking about things that my eyes could see. I was tired of being on a surface level. I wanted to go deeper on a daily basis. I wanted to ask hard questions, stir the pot, and to really get inside people’s minds and hearts. I wanted to see how the Lord wired them and how to move them past their hurts and set-backs into the person the Lord created them to be again. I wanted to be passionate about things that the Lord is passionate about and have our hearts beating with His heart. I repented to my team on the last night of debrief for somewhat giving up on them, and told them that these next 3 months instead of shrinking back, we were going to push forward. We were going to get uncomfortable and challenge each other through love.
A mere 4 years ago, Africa was the first place I really felt my heart come alive. I can’t explain what happened or why it was in this place, but I literally felt it beating. I felt passion, I felt joy, I felt peace. Often people make a big hype about Africa, and some people don’t understand. It’s not necessarily the continent that made me come alive, but just what the Lord was showing me through the people, the lifestyle and the things He has put in my heart that resonated with what I saw around me. I have been excited the whole Race to go back to this continent. To go back into true community; back where time doesn’t exist, people do; back where people have this unexplainable joy despite their surroundings because joy was never meant to be circumstantial; back where people aren’t afraid to show that joy through song and dance and laughter.
As we were flying from Cambodia to Africa, I started to feel my excitement build. When we were an hour away from landing in Uganda, my friend discovered a movie on the in-flight TV about East Africa. I began to watch and see things that I had seen 4 years ago. It all started coming back as the people, the sounds and the sites were revisited through film. As we landed I saw the lush greenery, and I couldn’t get off the plane fast enough to get my feet onto that red soil once more. They stamped our visas into our passports, and as soon as I stepped outside, I took a deep breath and took it all in. Every stimulant that once made my heart leap surrounded me once more. It still had the same smell of earthy bodies. It had the same sounds of the accents that I grew to love, the languages I wanted to learn, and the laughter that was so contagious. It had the same sites of beautiful, dark, smooth skinned people with smiles ear-to-ear, green grass and banana trees, red soil, and precious children. We drove and I could hardly contain the contents of my heart as they were spilling over into a breathless smile. I am happy to be back here, and am excited for these last 3 months.
In the presence of the Lord, there is fullness of joy. This is what I have felt as I have snuggled and prayed sweet babies to sleep, had curious little hands touching my white skin and hair, made new friends, spoken the truth of the Lord over people’s lives in the nearby community, prayed over people, and danced on stage and around the church singing praises to the King with absolute freedom with my Ugandan friends. The Lord is creative as he brings things full circle. He began stirring my heart in Africa 4 years ago, and He is ending this current season in the same place stirring it once more.
