There are certain times during random days that I take a moment to soak up the sunshine that beams on my skin. I make a point to recognize the beauty around me during those moments and to acknowledge just how extraordinary the Lord has made my life. These are just a few of those moments:
– As I slept with eight other girls on the floor of a large room filled with rats and bats, I began to feel my fever rise. I felt that aching tenderness that accompanies a miserable, sleepless night. My throat throbbed and I knew it right then: I was sick in Africa. Of course, simply because I’m me, I thought of every possible thing I could be sick with in very, very rural Africa. Among the list was Malaria, step throat, a fungal infection, and many other things that I did not think the school clinic would be able to manage. I spent the night feel awful and worrying myself over ‘what ifs’. When the morning finally broke, Madi, my amazing, loving teammate, offered me some Dayquil and Ibuprofen. Guess what? It was just a cold! I am ridiculous! We went on a trip to the city that day and I thought I was all better (you know, because magic is real)…. nope.. the fever came back that night. I rolled over around 2am and probably made a weird sound about my discomfort. Madi, still amazing and loving, woke up and asked if I was okay. I told her I was still sick, completely expecting her to say she was sorry and go back to sleep. To my surprise, she gently rubbed my back and asked if I wanted more medicine.
Sunshine moment: I have caring, loving teammates that will give me medicine when I’m being a baby. Also, I did not have malaria in Swaziland. Oh, and I was able to talk to a pharmacist in Manzini who gave me medicine. Praise the Lamb for cold medicine.
– After a month of brisk bucket showers that never left us feeling truly clean, we arrived in Maseru, Lesotho, where our host picked us up in the parking garage of a mall at 10pm. We drove to her quaint little home only 5 minutes away and walked in carrying all of our bags. THERE IS CARPET!!!! I didn’t know it was possible to be so excited over carpet.
Sunshine moment: I sleep on a carpeted floor. Yeah. That’s amazing.
– We had only been in our new house for about two minutes when Lindeo, our host, said these two words with such sincerity: “Welcome home”. About five minutes later, Lindeo’s brother walked in and shared those same genuine words.
Sunshine moment: Even though my hometown seems to be light-years away, I am still home here. Our hosts are so, so wonderful and I am living with my bestfriends doing life together. Wow. This is my life!
-We trudged up a HUGE hill near our home on our daily run one morning that really took it out of me. We made it to the top (I’m still not sure how) and I looked at the view around us… That is.. I looked at the view between thoughts of vomiting… It is so, so gorgeous. My legs burned, my lungs burned, my throat burned, I had cotton mouth, and I still had another mile and a half and an ab workout to go. But in that moment, everything was so beautiful.
Sunshine moment: the Lord is so faithful. He called me into the unknown, and then he plopped me down in a country that truly embodies beauty. He gave me a team that loves to run. The Lord blessed me with the ability to serve Him. That morning, He gave us the strength to see the top of the mountain so we could stand in the sunshine and bask in His glory.
-Children’s ministry is… an experience.. Last week, my team worked in a little preschool called “Little Petals”, where we played with children and talked with teachers all day. What that really meant is that tiny, tiny little humans climbed all over us, pulling our hair and poking our faces and tugging on our clothes and checking to make sure our skin was actually white. It’s cute for a solid 10 minutes. Then, some kid pulls too hard or pokes your eye or sneezes on you and the cuteness vanishes instantaneously. Yeah, now magnify that by about five hours per day… you can imagine my enthusiasm level after that! To get a break from being a jungle-gym, I went to spend some time with the teachers. The teachers at this school are so tired simply from the routine lives they live in serving these kids each day. Just by having intelligent conversations with them, we could see the life coming back into their hearts and eyes. They smiled and laughed and we had a jolly-ole-time! The next day, they made us participate in a tradition Sisotho dance… that went just about the way you would imagine a bunch of white girls trying to do a traditional dance going! A couple of days later, they made all the kids leave and taught us their version of the cha-cha. That one was much more doable! One of the teachers (she’s from Sri Lanka) even made us a traditional Indian dish for dinner!
Sunshine moment: Even in ministry that felt fruitless, the Lord has used us to breathe His light into the people around us. Plus, He’s making it fun!
-On our first Sunday in Lesotho, we were in a small in-home church when Vosi handed the message and worship over to our team. Oh boy! It was time to be Spirit led and I wasn’t sure I was able to do that! We sang some worship music and then it came time for the message. Madi started with a testimony and a Scripture that stirred up some ‘hmms’ and ‘amens’. Emma followed with a testimony and Scripture that were very different but still related. Lots of ‘wows’ and ‘amens’ for that one, too. I was up and didn’t have a testimony to share… all of a sudden I was preaching on Haggai 2 and speaking life into the congregation. To my surprise, there were lots of ‘amens’ to whatever I said, too! What was I doing??? I had barely even studied Haggai a few weeks earlier and now I was delivering a sermon on some chicken scratch I wrote in the margin of my Bible?!
Sunshine moment: Being Spirit led is completely possible and very, very fruitful. It moves the people around you, but it might just move you more than them. It challenges your faith and your trust in the Lord. After that sermon, I kind of just felt this rush of joy from the Lord. That’s when I actually recognized what had just happened as the Lord’s movement through me and my team. So that was pretty nifty.
– This week we are working at a school a few kilometers away from our home. This school is unique in that it is for the kids who were rejected from the government schools. These kids are in grades 8 to 12 and are anywhere from 13 to 22. They were rejected from government schools for various sad situations: they have medical disabilities, have children, must care for their parents, must handle the home, or must work to sustain themselves.
Sunshine moment: The Lord has placed us in the exact place that needs His love here in Lesotho, and, for the first time, ministry looks how we have always imagined it looking. Praise Him!!!
-We walked in to this same, underfunded school, and began volunteering to teach different classes. They handed me the form D (11th grade) math curriculum and told me to pick what I’d like to teach. Every time I would asked to teach a subject I liked, they would tell me they’d already lectured on that. Then I turned to the math teacher and told her I was confident in all of the material and could teach anything she’d like. With such joy, she told me I’d be teaching sets (what the heck are those??) and probability (I. hate. probability.) the next day. I smiled and said “yep!”. I took the next 20 minutes skimming over the chapter on sets in between conversation with the staff. The bell rang (a literal hand bell) and the teacher said to follow her. I said, “yep!” and followed. I asked which class we were going to listen to that day. She looked at me, grinned, and said, “yours”. WHAT?!?!?!
Freakout moment: I do not even know what Sets are! How I am supposed to lecture for 80 minutes about them???
-Somehow, seriously by the grace of God, I actually taught a comprehensive lesson on sets – the topic I had somewhat glanced at for twenty minutes only moments before the class began. The students even passed the exit exam that I created as I wrote it on the cracking chalkboard!
Sunshine moment: I taught an 80 minute lecture on a topic I didn’t really know in an underprivileged African school. What is my life?!? I keep telling people that life is unpredictable and it keeps progressing into less unpredictabilit 
y! I even got to pray for the math teacher after the day was over and I was able to pray for one of the students that left in the middle of school to take care of his ill mother (he’s 13 years old.) I feel so blessed by the Lord in the fact that He is providing ministry. He is so, so faithful!
I’m sure I’m forgetting about 10,000,000 more sunshine moments, but these ones help create a glimpse into my life and the ministry we’re doing!
Thanks for reading!
Much love,
Laura 10.18.17
P.S. I really hate doing this part, but I am still not quite fully funded. My deadline is coming closer and closer and I need your help to stay out here doing the Lord’s work. Without you, I can’t work in severely understaffed schools or pray for specific situations and children or speak life into church congregations or tell people all over about the Lord’s goodness and grace. Would you consider joining me in this journey through prayer and financial support?
