Botswana was my best month yet. My team was with another women’s team from the world race. We lived in tents without wifi in the bush of Seronga for the month of December. It was what I imagined the race would look like every month. Instead, we’ve mostly spent our time in cities.
We had evangelism training for three days before setting out into the villages in groups of three yelling “Coco??” at the gates of the locals homes, which means “can I come in, am I welcome?” To which they usually respond with yes because after all, we are friendly white foreigners, and that’s enough to spark anyone’s curiosity.
All in all, it was a lovely month. A lot of good news was spread to the people there. We were even able to bless a few older ladies who couldn’t read well with audio bibles instead. These little devices are conveniently charged by solar power and can change from English into their first language, Setswana.
The travel from there to South Africa was smooth and safe. Although I am getting tired of the 2am passport checks and waiting in line for the rest of your 50 friends.
Never again will I travel for a year with such a large group. Hahah
Now month 7 is nearly over for us, I can’t believe how fast the race is going now that we’ve hit the half way mark.
We had the privilege of evangelizing again, this time in the Green Park townships. It’s about a 30 minute drive one way from Muzinberg. The last two Sunday’s we attended the church service there. This has been anything but ordinary!
For starters, it was five hours long. Secondly, they spent the majority of the time in praise and worship. Meaning..people are shouting their prayers, giving praise and glory while others are still shouting- I mean singing. All the while you have a lady in front swaying back and forth saying “hallelujah, hallelujah!” After every word. At one point she said “oh Jesus, hallelujah. We thank you, hallelujah. Okay you have a seat, hallelujah. Welcome our pastor, hallelujah. Praise is over now, hallelujah” -and I thought, Amen! And took my seat.
However, it wasn’t close to being over. They just have you sit for a few seconds while they pass the mic around and once the man on the piano starts up, we all rise and get right back into it! Hahah it was up, down, up, down, for hours.. Praising at the top of our lungs with all our energy!
The service was memorable, that’s for sure. (:
I’d like to talk up the experience, but sometimes it’s okay to walk away feeling unchanged and just thankful for the chance to be there. During the car ride home we all laughed at the noise level of some of the women. I admitted that for possibly an entire hour I had my eyes closed and was visualizing myself doing yoga in the Indigo yoga center that’s down town below my favorite restaurant back home, Marco Polo. I didn’t realize it was my copping mechanism was until I had said it out loud, we all had a good laugh.
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On one of our days off a small group of us decided to go climb the famous Table Mountain. We briefly planned on taking the cable car down, but unfortunately due to the wind it has been closed all week. So what took us an hour and a half to hike up, took us even longer to hike down. It’s just a matter of making sure you have good balance and are watching for sand on the rocks. Malorie used the but-sliding method the entire way down. I was rolling on luck and chance, trying to not slip and tumble down the mountain. However, about half way down it happened- I slipped! All the while I hear an Irish man saying “I got you, I’ve got you- here we go!”
And boom, I was saved.
Hahah and what could have been one of the most memorable, romantic adventures of my life, turned out to be a 45 year old freckled Irish man who had nearly cradled me in his arms as I lost my footing. I must have been red as a tomato. But a very thankful tomato, that is.
So although I climbed that mountain like a champ on the way up, all confidence was lost on the way down. Mountain-1, Jordan-0.
One of my favorite trails here in Muzinberg stretches on for about two miles running parallel to the ocean. The tide came so close that one morning a wave crashed against the wall and ocean water dumped on me like a heavy hose. I let out a laughter infused gasp, and kept running. I instantly felt more awake, better than what any 10 shots of espresso could do. …(Coffee here is no good anyway)
So aside from my little adventures, one of my favorite things about this month would be ministry on Mondays. Instead of driving to the townships, we stay and do local ministry around town. We start by walking to Checkers and buying a box of bananas and make some peanut butter sandwiches to hand out.
Last Monday we walked through the park as a lady and her baby were in the midst of an argument with a man across the way. We ended up getting to know her and were able to share encouragements with her. Her son, Joshua ate a banana and held tight to his mom. We quickly learned from talking with her that she sleeps in the park with her two year old because they are homeless, and the man she was yelling at is the baby daddy. He lives in a little beat up home near the park- but Jeanne and her son sleep outside.
We sat with her in the shade and pretended like it wasn’t uncomfortable knowing that they are homeless and desperate for Jesus.
By the goodness of the Lord we were able to see her the following Monday as well. You could tell she was glad to see us and this time she spoke up a lot more.
She told us how she knows she will go into heaven because the lord knows her heart. He knows that when she steals it’s for a good reason, not for drugs or to take from people. It’s to feed Joshua.
I thought, THIS is ministry. And from there we dove into a great conversation about life, Jesus and His teachings.
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Last week I met a couple guys from Tennessee who said last year they had stood on monkey temple in Nepal and prayed that the Lord would take it down. This year during the month of August I was able to stand on that very temple and witness the fallen bricks that had been torn down during the earth quake.
I was standing in the midst of another’s answered prayer. How cool.
The world isn’t so big. There are no limits to our God, so let us not be humble with our prayers. I have been challenged by this mans faith and our two perspectives to pray bold prayers. To expect even greater things of God. I have a feeling He is waiting for us to ask great things of Him, great things like breaking down the temples of India, Cambodia, Nepal..not to mention the chains of women who are tricked and lead into a life of trafficking.
As long as there is power in our prayers, there will be hope for the world.
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Some wisdom I’ve picked up on:
-Nobody can negotiate with Mother Nature. -No amount of money or man power will do it, and so I want my faith to be non-negotiable like that. I was inspired during one of my jogs because a trees roots had lifted an entire cement staircase. There I caught my breath and thought about things like Mother Nature and how it just does what it’s naturally designed to do- even if you built a staircase on top of it. Eventually it will win, without compromise. That’s how I want my faith to be when trials arise.
-May you strive to honor people without conditions. -Because there will always be someone who challenges you. And you are always going to be someone else’s challenge.
-We miss the point when we care more about our Facebook status than our real lives. -Guilty!
-Our habits create our character.
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Little updates, we leave tomorrow for Durban where we will meet together with the whole squad and have our last debrief of the year! A few days after that we will be headed into Swaziland. This is the month (8) when Racers parents are invited to fly out and do life along side their sons and daughters. Please be praying for safe travels for the moms and dad and that the week will bring fruit to their relationships!
Thanks for reading and as always, thank you for your prayers!
