Hi yes hello, it’s me. I’m aware it’s been a minute since any updates, but WOW what a month. For the month of January, my team and I were partnered with another team – the beautiful team Covenant – and Delta Cross Ministries, a ministry located in the north of Botswana. Our town was Seronga, and it doesn’t exist in my dad’s large National Geographic atlas so I knew it was going to be an adventure. My home was my tent on the property of the incredible Booyse family. Power was sporadic, cell service was sparse at best, and wifi and fresh fruit were only a memory of days past. The property backed up to the delta, which was home to a loud hippo and some crocodiles. We showered under the trees and under the stars. The animal to human ratio was an approximate 64 to 1. The nearest grocery store was a 3 hour dirt road drive away. We bought all our groceries for the month at once. It rained more days than not. Rain often meant we couldn’t go out for ministry because the people didn’t come out when it rained.
Team Hallelujah and our light-filled squad leader, Zoe, have now arrived in Windhoek Namibia, our home base for the month, and I don’t know if I’ll experience greater culture shock on the race. Yesterday we rolled off the night train a mere 7.5 hours late, rocking our usual garb – too-dirty clothes (I’d been wearing mine for 36+ hours), smelly chacos, and a nice layer of desert sand that came in through our train windows – and found ourselves in a very official meeting in the most western-looking church I’ve seen in ages. They had nametags for us. NAMETAGS. Our team leader received a detailed, hourly schedule for the entire month. For the last six months I have often not known a full day’s schedule at once, let alone a month’s. Our home-base home for the month (we’ll be here besides our few trips to the bush) is beautiful and far too nice for the state I’m in and frankly too nice for the state I’m usually in stateside. Every few minutes I find myself exclaiming “Oh my gosh a (fill in the blank)” at something really not exciting at all. So I made a list.
The following is a growing and incomplete list of things I never knew were luxury until encountering them after a month/months without:
1. Paper towels. You mean I don’t have to dry my hands on my flannel for the umpteenth time???
2. Spices besides salt and pepper. You best believe this girl had some gourmet eggs this morning.
3. Non-stick pans and a stove that stays lit for the duration of cooking time.
4. Being able to say “go ahead and finish the bread, we can get more today;” a stark contrast from the “do not open until…” written on each item of food we purchased last month.
5. Showering without shoes on. My feet are currently unreasonably and uncomfortably clean and free of sand.
6. Not needing to check the shower for frogs or scorpions before getting in
7. Unpacking my pack without fear of mice or cockroach making home inside if left open too long.
8. A full and detailed schedule. I brought a planner on the race, but only to write what actually happened, because it’s rarely the same as what’s planned to happen.
Over the last six months, the Lord and those around me have helped me redefine so many things. It is not that my perspective has been incorrect, but incomplete, and each day I get to fill in spaces and holes and expand my understanding of truth. As I transfer out of the bush and into the city, out of simplicity and into relative luxury, I find myself mourning the loss of the secluded life in the bush – a life that was beautiful but often so difficult – more than expected. As a result and after so many months of unique living situations, I have the gift of seeing what a gift those months have been. Perhaps luxury, too, is being redefined. So I’m making a list.
The following is a growing and incomplete list of things I never knew were luxury until I got to enjoy them in such fullness:
1. Limited access to quick comforts that pad us from the full difficulty and also the full beauty of life.
2.Rising and resting with the rhythm of the sun.
3. Time and space to process and pray through difficult things I’d rather ignore, but don’t have the option to.
4. Time and space for the weight of the gospel to more fully sink deep within my heart.
5. Having little obligation in a day besides loving the ones I live with and refreshing our host family, still recovering and trying to get back into ministry after the loss of a dearly beloved daughter and sister.
6. Little access to entertainment, creating space and time to listen to the stories of those around me.
7. The space to press into learning to be loved for who I am and not what I do or how I perform.
8. The removal of any temptation for anything besides simplicity. The simple life is a full life.
May we always be people, in every circumstance, quick to press into the difficult in order to more fully experience the beautiful.
In other news, if you’ve noticed at the top of this blog, the fundraising bar is nearly full, but not quite. I still have about $2500 to go and in order to stay on the field, to continue bringing the Kingdom to the nations through the World Race, that needs to be in as soon as possible. I have been so blessed by so many supporters to this point and I am humbled daily to be here only by the generous and obedient hearts of others. If you’re interested in helping me finish this race, please donate and/or let me know so I can add you to the email coming soon with more info regarding the fundraising aspect of this race.
