Botswana has been a greatly rewarding month. There have been times in this year and in life when I felt like I was not being used to to best of my ability. This isn’t a fun thing to go through because I feel as if I am wasting time. There are other times that I have felt so overwhelming unprepared that the pressure of not being up to what it takes made me feel very small. I really don’t know which is worse. I truly believe God uses both times to grow you, stretch you, and make you better. I also believe He lets us have times like both in order to truly enjoy when you are doing exactly what you love.
This month was just that for me. I have two main passions that God has given me opportunity after opportunity to prepare for. Both fall under teaching. One of my passions is PE, and the other is youth ministry/ preaching. I have said I was going to be a PE teacher since I knew what one was. I went to school for it, was taught well and have a lot of practice at it. The other came later. I was able to get hooked up with Young Life in college and found myself leading bible studies for freshman and sophomore guys. What this made me do was come up with bible studies, which led to talking to bigger groups. After I left UNC Greensboro and was waiting to leave for the race, I got to work for Pastor Cory at Dobson First Baptist as a youth minister. He let me behind the pulpit and I also got a chance to speak at four different churches. This sparked a passion for preaching. I got a book on preaching by Timothy Keller and then another by Andy Stanley, and I was hooked.
All of these trainings were great and brought me to closer relationship with God. However, on the race, other than a weird Sunday here and there or leading my teams in workouts, I haven’t had many chances to do a lot with the things I am gifted in. Until this month. This month not only did I get to be the PE teacher, I even got to talk to their regular teacher about how to make some improvements to the program. I got to teach everyday during school and then help after school with the sports teams. If that wasn’t perfect enough, I then got to preach to the Maun “Fire by Night,” which is the youth program that consisted of over 150 middle and high schoolers. It was amazing! On Sunday at the church I got to teach in the Middle-school class and saw 23 students come to know Jesus as their Savior, all in a church that has a place for them to grow.
I don’t know what the next months hold. I may be over my head and have no idea what I am doing. Or I may have a slow month where I don’t feel very productive. If so, I will remember how much I have truly enjoyed this month and consider it a total blessing. It is definitely one to I want to always remember.
