When you sign up for the race you spend so much time preparing and fundraising you leave the states so tired that you just know that sets the tone for the year. I am in month 3, go ahead and think how crazy that is, I can’t believe it either. I wouldn’t say I am adjusted to the schedule because lets be honest we are going to 11 different countries and we will never be adjusted fully but I am getting used to the different daily schedules each month a lot quicker. Side note you are able to go to bed early every night if that’s what you like (my team loves me through letting me go to bed at 9 pm every night and not being mad that I don’t stay up to watch movies.) There are days we have down time and have to fill it with FREE entertainment, again lets be honest we are on the World Race money isn’t just magically appearing in our bank account. Movies on a mac book and books on someone’s kindle ( i say someone’s kindle because I don’t own a kindle and I just mooch everyone else’s) become the highlight of our entertainment life. We do get time in your schedule to sneak off to our tent or a near by corner and read and be alone. I have already admitted I love to sleep so I usually fade in and out of reading and napping and this becomes my alone time.
I am in Maputo, Mozambique this month. Originally I was supposed to be in Rwanda doing ministry there. God found bigger plans for my month and so here I am. I sleeping in my tent on a sand ground in the backyard of a Pastor’s house, I am showering in an outhouse, and I have traditional Mozambique meals prepared for me at meal time each day. My month is a month full of prayer, we go on home visits to pray with the people of the church, we go and pray over the sick at prayer meetings, we lead prayer services at night, we go to the local hospital and pray over babies and elderly, and we spend Saturdays with the kids and youth singing and growing closer to our Father. This month looks totally different than last month. There are days I have to quickly snap myself back to being present here and not letting my heart wander to that mountain and what my 9 year old girls are doing after school at El Shaddai. I sometimes have to remind my myself I signed up for 11 countries and not 10 so I have to be present in all 11. This month is a growing of my faith. I am praying for healing over people whose language I can’t understand to even know the root of the things that need to be healed. I am relying on God to give me the words of encouragement the right words to pray and the power and faith to truly see healing over this village. My first few days here I struggled with rather or not I would love being here or if I would spend the whole month looking behind at where I have already been or ahead at where I am going. Then I started spending my down time reading a book that changed my heart…Love Does.
I started reading chapter after chapter of Bob Goff’s words, his adventures, and His love for the world and our creator. He made loving people seem so easy. He said yes to people, he pursued things, and he made things less about Him and more about others. He said something in Chapter 29 that changed what I was doing here… I spend a lot of time memorizing the events of the Bible and Bible verses and lets not even talk about trying to speak Christianese but some things never stick. Bob says in his book,
“Jesus never talked about just building consensus; He wanted us to build a kingdom instead. If you get engaged like that, you’ll be able to remember Bible verses better because you’re living them instead of just reading them.”
I mean isn’t that why I signed up for this trip because I wanted to build His kingdom all over the nations? I wanted every person of every color to love and know the creator that I love so deeply. I signed up not knowing exactly how to make that happen and what I was going to do to accomplish the task before me. It took me two days to finish this book and it opened my eyes to every answer I needed. I started by saying yes. Yes to giving my life to Christ and dedicating 11 months to traveling for Him. I said yes to being present where ever God places me like a small village in Mozambique. I am saying yes to putting other people before me and my worldly desires. I will say yes to love every person God puts in my path. Which brings me to the most important of everything I learned and will continue to learn, I am here to love people and love people well and that will bring more glory to our Father than any amount of Bible verses I can try and memorize. I will love people for who they are, what stage of life they are in, where they are in their walk with Christ, no matter their language, no matter what the world tells me about them, I will love them with everything I have and that is how they will begin to know our Father.
I have three weeks left here in Maputo. I know I will have stories and people that I will never forget when I leave this place, but most importantly when I leave here I hope these people will know a love that they have never known before because the Lord showed up and did big things. That is my prayer for this sandy village. I am going to spend the next three weeks doing a lot because if there is one thing that I know pretty well its that Love REALLY Does.
“I used to think I could learn about Jesus by studying Him, but now I know Jesus doesn’t want stalkers.”
-Bob Goff
