The month of July began with nearly four straight days of travel.
Welcomed by a gang of giraffe at the boarder, team Pneuma finally made it to Tanzania.
I wish I could say that such a long bus ride was a good time to rest and relax, but sleeping on an African bus is near impossible with all the twists, turns and bumps in the road. “Relaxing” is about the last word I would use to describe our travel daze.
Yes,
d a z e.
(Half the time these days, I wake up from my slumber wondering,
“What day is it? Where am I? What *country* am I in?”) And honestly, as tedious and as exhausting as travel can be sometimes, it’s true, I do *absolutely* love it!
On the way to our destination in traditional African fashion, our bus broke down.
Let me say here,
Tanzania is dangerous at night.
Tanzania is so dangerous in fact, that there is a law against passenger vehicles traveling late into the evening. So what could we do?
And here, my friends, is another amazing story of how God’s hand has been all over our travels. We broke down just a mere few *feet* from the restaurant rest stop we had dinner at.
The owner of the restaurant, (bless his heart!), let us sleep there. Nearly three teams, camped out on the floor. Rest assured, I’ll be adding this one to the list of crazy places I’ve rested my weary bones throughout the last ten months; right there on the list under “Nicaraguan Ferry.”
The following night we stayed with one of our fellow teams in Tanzania’s capital, of Dar Es Salam. It was a cramped house that night with 4 teams under the same small roof. Think, sleeping *on top* of your backpack. Oh, yes, and let me add here, no running water. It was so worth the extra night however, for a quick dip in the Indian Ocean! Who needs running water when you can bathe in the ocean? And believe me, we did. (I’ll add that one to the list, right under, “showering in a Panamanian river.”)
***F i n a l l y*** we made it to our last East African city Iringa, Tanzania.
A cute little German- influenced town, it happened to have everything needed for a good get away spot- (Which, by the way, has become something essential on this journey!) coffee, internet, and the most amazing chocolate cake I’ve had since home.
(Seriously, just *look* what a slice of cake, and an amazing cup of coffee can do for you on the Race! And just where would we get such an amazing cup of coffee? If you ever happen to find yourself in Tanzania, check out Neema cafe. They are an awesome organization that employs disabled Tanzanians to make handicrafts such as jewelry, stationary, and sewn goods. A few of us even got to go in the back and work alongside employees! To learn more, check out their website *here*!)
Our month was filled with all the usual Eastern African ministries of preaching, teaching, going to a couple of orphanages, and a weekend trip to a “local” village. (And I hesitate to say it was “local” because it was another 5 hour bus ride, on *the most crowded* smallest, smelliest bus I have ever been on in my entire life.) Oh, Africa!
Here, our home for the month! We were so blessed to work with team Calvary this month! A full house made for tons of fun! We were even blessed to have visitors from Uganda and Kenya join us this month as well!
The local kiddos *loved* the stickers I gave them! It was a great opportunity to share with them just how much they are loved by their Creator! Below, Ashely and I are playing a game at a visit to an orphanage.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the month was amazing. However, I won’t lie.
Eastern Africa has been rough.
It’s a rough place to do ministry, when nearly everyone who looks at you sees the color of your skin and wants you to give them money or food.
It’s a rough place to have a constant attitude of joy, when all the children point at you and scream the word for foreigner,
“Muzungu! Muzungu! Muzungu! How are you, Muzungu?!”
(I think if I never heard that word again in my life, I would be totally fine.)
It’s a rough place to get around, when everywhere you go, you are one of 20+ people in what is supposed to be a 12 passenger van– at most.
It’s rough to maintain your energy for ministry when all around you, your teammates are dropping like flies so to speak, getting sick from malaria, infections, typhoid, you name it. (From mosquitoes, or from dirty water. You do all you can to not drink it, but sometimes you get into a situation where all you can do is politely accept, and pray it’s okay.)
It makes it even more difficult when you are living off a diet of mostly starches, and everything is fried… fried potato wedges, fried dough, (just in two different forms of flat chapati bread or round, more the donut-like mandazi.) Oh yes, of course beans, rice, and if you are lucky, a few greens. Every. single. day. After all, part of this trip is surrendering, and part of what that means is- to a large extent- surrendering control over your diet.
To add to it all, it doesn’t help matters that you haven’t slept through the entire night the entire month. At this point on the race, your over the fact that your “bed” for the month is uncomfortable, but you still are a little freaked out by the mice in the house that keep pooping all over the floor, getting into all of your things, and there aren’t exactly any shelves to put anything on. You make due, and tie your bags to the bars on the window. You know, the bars on the window that were put there because, as you heard, Tanzania is dangerous- especially at night.
You know what, though?
For as rough as it can be, it’s all been worth it.
Every single second,
it’s been worth it.
When I think about how much I’ve grown, and when I think about how much these experiences have grown the people around me, that makes it worth it.
It’s worth it for that moment when those fifteen school children hear your story; they hear your plea to not make the same mistakes you did in life. It’s worth it when they recognize your plea for them to put their trust in something bigger than themselves is made out of an inexplicable Heavenly kind of love for them.
It’s worth it, in the moment when that elderly lady you just met on the street is desperate for something more, and she’s ready and hungry for Jesus to enter into her life and change it in radical ways.
It’s worth it in those moments of late night encouraging conversations with teammates and squadmates that fuel you forward, and allow you to press on to the next day, the next month, the next chapter…
It’s worth it, to realize you are a part of something so much bigger than yourself, and that you walk with a Kingdom kind of purpose…
It’s worth it to sing a new song.
It’s worth it to dance a new dance.
It’s worth loving in a whole new way,
It’s worth opening up your heart in a way you never before knew to be possible.
One more month…
One more month until this race is over, and God willing, hundreds more to keep on loving!
