I’m sure that so far my world race has seemed like a never-ending vacation. A trip full of friends, beautiful sunsets, exciting adventures, and frequent chances to hang out with some really cute kids (as seen on my instagram and facebook). I had the opportunity to travel through Eastern Europe and I was fortunate enough to be placed in many big, beautiful cities that I have every intention of some day visiting again. I went white water rafting on the Zambezi river; I took a cable car to the Millenium Cross on the top of Mt. Vodno; I took a boat ride through Matka Canyon to explore a cave; I celebrated Serbia losing to USA, but winnng second place in Olympic Basketball in downtown Belgrade; I watched as ancient Roman ruins were being excavated right before my eyes in Plovdiv; I cliff jumped into the Aegean Sea ; and I even rode a Mokoro along a stream that was created by a hippo.
Let me be honest with you — the race that you see and hear about is a lot different than the race that I am living day in and day out. This month is no exception. Once I get wifi you’ll probably see pictures of my smiling face, a breathtaking landscape, or even a goofy candid, but the pictures won’t even begin to convey to you what this month has really been like.
Seronga is unlike any place that I have been so far on my world race. This month we live in the African bush, three hours and a ferry ride away from the closest grocery store. We call our property “Camp Chill” and if you keep reading you’ll probably figure out why.
It’s rainy season and we have been sleeping in our tents the entire month. It hasn’t gone a single day without pouring rain at least once. We only have electricity 3-4 hours on a good day during which we scramble to do laundry and charge our laptops so that we can watch movies from our hard-drives. The cell phone reception has been down about 90% of the time that we have been here and there is absolutely no wifi whatsoever. I haven’t spoken to anyone from home in over two weeks. Our showers are outside, our clothes all smell, and the water has so much iron in it that our hair and fingernails are beginning to turn red. Some mornings we wake up to find that there is no water pressure, making it impossible to even brush our teeth or flush the toilet, and there is a fire that must constantly be kept up with in order for us to have hot water in our showers. This month I have seen more dung beetles, lizards, frogs, birds, cattle, donkeys, and bush babies than ever before in my life. We live right on the Okavango delta and there is even a hippo that is usually within ear shot of our living area, but don’t worry there is a fence between us. A few days ago I went outside after a big storm to check on my tent and found that it did not survive the winds and excessive amounts of rain. One of my poles snapped and then proceeded to slice a hole right through the top of my rain fly. Hopefully these are issues that can be resolved with the help of some duct tape, but for now my teammates are graciously taking me in.
For ministry we walk into town in the mornings and evangelize for a few hours. Since my team has been partnered with another team all month, we have been divided into 3 groups of 5, each containing members of both teams. My mini team has had a pretty successful month of evangelism, we have made some great friends and had a few opportunities to share the gospel, but there may or may not be a running joke that one of the families caught a ride out of town in order to avoid any more of our home visits. Then in the afternoons we have children’s ministry during which we play games with local children for about an hour, sing some songs, and have a bible lesson or make a craft depending on the day of the week. Lunch is prepared by our host everyday and the meals have been some of the most delicious that i have ever had in my entire life. Estelle does some amazing things with butternut squash, she makes a savory corned beef and cabbage dish, and we even have a meal that we like to call “fat cake” Fridays. Every night we have Bible Study with our host family and we have been reading through “Unlocking the Puzzle of the Old Testament”.
Outside of ministry, there is nothing to do here. Like I said before we are over two hours from civilization, with the exception of one “convenient” store in town that sells soda and an occasional lollipop. The first few days this was a very harsh reality that took more time than it should have to set in. It then became very easy to feel like I was losing my mind after having extended quiet times, lots of reading, working out, eating, watching movies and STILL having hours and hours of spare time to kill. God has been good through it all, though. I have had ample time to learn how to truly take my thoughts captive and reaped the abundance of benefits that comes with operating from a place of honesty and vulnerability with my teammates.
I prayed about our month this morning and realized that this is a month that most of us did not want, but all of us needed.
So, if you know a world racer, especially if you know a world racer who is at camp chill with me I want to challenge you to dig deeper than the facebook statuses and cool instagram posts. It’s easy to tell you all about the beauty, the fun and the thrill of our race, but we also love to share about the hard experiences that we are enduring in order to become more and more like Christ. The truth of it all is we are experiencing very different things and God is using all of them, the good, the bad, the smelly, the slimy, and the chill in order to accomplish His plan for our lives.
As I begin to transition into another debrief I am thankful for CAMP CHILL; I am thankful that laughter helps to pass the time; I am thankful for social media; and I am thankful that God doesn’t always give me everything that I want, but He always gives me everything that I need.
