I’m Finally Ready
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of Compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles, so
that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have
received from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Only three more days and we will finally be on our way to Africa! I’m so
excited and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to get through the next few
days. If I had it my way, we would
already be on the flight to South
Africa, but obviously (and for good reasons)
I have no say in the issue. Oh well, I’m
still excited to think that in three days we will be boarding a plane to South
Africa and in four days we will be driving up the coast of Africa to
Mozambique! I feel like I’m about to
enter the promise land!
Although it would have been nice to be in Africa
last month, I can’t help but see why God did not let us go four weeks ago, or
more importantly, why He didn’t let me go four weeks ago. Africa is my
first love! I have been to Uganda on three
different occasions, but it has been 6 years since my last trip. Every year I have attempted to go back, but
nothing ever worked out. God closed
every door I tried to walk through, and for a while, I felt like I was never
going to get the opportunity to go back. Although it will not be Uganda,
I was very excited to see that this year we would be spending three months in southern
Africa. From day one, it was all I could talk about and the only place I was
really looking forward to visiting, but at the end of November I wasn’t ready.
In fact, I was more ready to give up and go home than to go
to Africa. Most of my other teammates were on the edge of their seats last month in
excitement for Africa, but I was drained and I
knew I did not have any energy or anything else in me to give. Although I missed Africa
and I desperately wanted to go, I knew full well that it would be the hardest
place on the trip. I knew we would have
to deal with more suffering, see more starving children, more AIDS victims, and
unfortunately I know that I will have to deal with more death… all of which I
was too drained to handle. So when I
heard that there were riots in Bangkok,
I was kind of happy. It was a few more
days that I could prepare myself to either hit rock bottom or just go
home.
“The Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us
in our troubles” was not about to let me give up and go home. The thing about God is that He is more
faithful than we are, or more faithful than I could ever be. God knew what I needed and he moved mountains
to put me in a place where I could be refreshed and ready to go deep again into
His love and into the pain and suffering of the world.
London
has been hard on our team, but it’s right where we ALL needed to be. The ministry we have been working with was
preparing for a week of outreach and training on different social issues before
we came, and my week before going home was spent just being poured into and
refreshed through this ministry. I was
in desperate need of good solid teachings, prayers, and encouragement and God
provided it all for me and my squad in London. Not only that, but God also provided a way
for me to go home for Christmas. I can’t
even begin to explain how important that was to me. All I know is that God knew that I needed
that week in order to finish this journey with His joy and he provided a way
for it to happen. It felt like he was
telling me that he cared about the little things in my life as much as the big
things. God is good and now I am ready to go out and enter back into this world
that is filled with trouble, and meet it with His Compassion and His
Comfort.
