I am totally and completely overwhelmed.
I am overwhelmed by the amount of stories there are to share. Stories of adventures, our ministry hosts, what we do for ministry, wonderful people we get to meet and build relationships with, craziness of living with my team, moving to a new country,
I am overwhelmed by the love I feel from my team.
I am overwhelmed by the amazing relationships I have built with the people we work with every day.
I am overwhelmed because my nephew will be born in the next couple days.
I am overwhelmed because I just got fully funded.
I am overwhelmed by how amazing the Lord is.
We are finishing our second week of ministry, and I could not have picked somewhere I would rather be than right here. We hang out with about 25 orphaned children every day from 8 am to 5 pm. We help them get their baths in the morning, hang up the laundry that has been washed by hand, clean the constant flow of dishes, feed the little ones lunch, change them when needed, constantly pulled in three different directions by multiple children all wanting your undivided attention, get them all into bed for their afternoon naps, help the older ones with their homework, play with them outside and make sure that they don’t start fighting over their toys, make sure the little ones don’t get run over or hit with a soccer ball, chat with the aunties that work there, and generally just use all of our energy to love these people as much as we can.
Each of us totally do not have favorite kids that we naturally gravitate towards (haha), we have kids that we have built relationships with that just come to see us and want to be held by certain people. There are two little boys that make getting up at 6 am totally worth it. Sammy and Joel are about 2, and their eyes light up and they both run/waddle over to me as soon as they see me with their arms outstretched so I can pick them up. All of the kids run up to us yelling “Auntie Tara! Auntie Sky! Auntie Sara! Auntie Hannah!” and it never ceases to bring a smile to my face. They are always sad that they don’t see us on Saturdays, but we see them every Sunday after church and that is always fun.
I am in awe of these people. Even though they are going through a time that brings mass upheaval and chaos, they are the calmest and most peaceful people I have met. There was a protest last week, and no one was hurt, no property was damaged, and the people got what they were asking for. Today we tried to go out for lunch at this place we found online, but when we got there they said they were all booked for the afternoon. We walked around for a second, but we had already walked three miles in the previous two hours and we were tired of walking. We were standing outside, and a lady came out to ask us if we wanted to eat there, and we told her that we thought there were no tables available. She got this massive smile on her face and said “we will make a new table for you then!” and they pulled a table out of their shed and set it up in the garden for us. It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time, and was one of the most wonderful experiences.
We came out onto the mission field to serve others, but in the process the Lord has been so faithful in letting us be served in ways that sometimes we didn’t even know we needed. I have been shocked over and over again by how wonderful He is in providing for us, protecting us, and blessing us. We are sleeping in real (comfortable) beds, cooking our own (healthy) food, I can make real coffee (not the instant stuff), we have access to internet, my team mate lost her charger and we managed to find one that fit her laptop and had an U.S. plug.
For my last two financial deadlines, I have barely made the due date. Our final deadline is not until the end of December, but my dad reminded me how much I still needed to raise and if I was thinking about ways to continue fundraising. I told him that I had peace that the Lord would provide, but my team and I had a fundraising brainstorming session to get some ideas together about what we could do. The next evening as I was starting to work on some of these things, I got a text message from my dad letting me know that he had checked my blog to see how much I still needed, and that I was fully funded.
Sometimes all I can do is sit and marvel about how good the Lord is.
