When I signed up for the World Race, I only thought about the good, fun, exciting, sunshine and rainbows aspects of being on the field. I couldn’t wait to see wild animals and hold babies and sing Jesus songs and experience new cultures, meeting new people. Of course, I knew it would be hard sometimes. People told me that it would be. Common sense also told me that it would be. But sometimes excitement can be a mask-it gives us rose-colored glasses for an upcoming experience. Which I don’t think is necessarily bad.
These first 5 months of the Race have been sunshine and rainbows (for real, I’ve seen lots of rainbows!). They’ve also been rainy days and dust storms and bug bites. They’ve been hard. Oh so hard. In Botswana, every single plant seems to have thorns on it, and I’d get one caught in my big toe at least once a day. Some afternoons here in Zambia, I’d be falling asleep on our taxi ride home from school because the heat just took everything out of me. We tried to play football with the kids one day this month but had to cancel because there was a sudden dust storm on the grounds. We trod back to our house with dust behind our ears and plastered to our contacts. I’ve encountered camel spiders the size of my fist and gone three weeks straight without any running water. My hammock straps have become my clothesline when I have to hand-wash my clothing. Our squad has collectively dealt with runny tummies, nausea, motor accidents, scary sunburns, ear and eye infections, and a plethora of body parts swollen from spider bites. Would you call all that sunshine and rainbows? I’d think not.
But also can you imagine a life where nothing ever went wrong? Please tell me–where is the fun in that? How would you have joy for when things went right?
God and I have been talking a lot about thankfulness these past three months in Africa. Sometimes it’s something that has to be chosen, not just merely accepted. I think we can have those moments where we’re overcome with thankfulness for a specific thing or situation. But other times, I think thankfulness has to be dug out of the nitty-gritty cracks. It becomes hidden underneath piles of self-absorbment and frustrations and distractions. But when we seek it out, when we choose to have thankfulness despite circumstance, that’s when we invite Jesus to truly move.
So here’s a list of some things I’ve been very thankful for these past three months in Africa:
- Glasses. When both of your eyes have taken turns being infected all month, you realize just how thankful you are to have a pair of glasses that still allow you to see.
- FaceTime. Getting to see the faces of ones I love who are over 8,000 miles away through a phone screen…are you kidding?! YES PLEASE.
- Air Con (or AC as us Americans call it). A God-send, really.
- Evangelism in squatter camps. Helping mamas wash clothes!
- Laying on a couch in Botswana underneath an Air Con watching The Sound of Music.
- Finding out I was fully-funded!!
- Team movie nights with my laptop as the screen.
- Snacks. The continent of Africa is home to Tinga Tingas, every kind of biscuit imaginable, Cadbury chocolate, and new flavors of Doritos. I ain’t complaining.
- Dance nights!
- Kiddos to teach who listen to me (still trying to figure out why lol) and who I loved getting to spend my days with!
- Talking to my family on Christmas Day as they opened gifts in the morning (and I was getting ready to go to dinner-ha!).
- The videos my mom sent of all of my relatives saying “hello” and singing Feliz Navidad.
- J Sqaud. My family, my people. They make this Race what it is.
- Rain. Our Squad jokes that rain follows us. Our first month in the DR, our village was experiencing an uncharacteristic drought. So we prayed for rain, and it rained every. single. day. Now, we’ve noticed a trend. We arrive in a country, and it rains. We prepare to leave a country, and it rains. And it’s extremely dry in-between. If you know me, I LOVE rain! It’s my favorite background noise, and it cools everything off. And y’all know that distinct smell rain brings? Yeah, that’s my favorite. It’s actually raining now as I type this, and I’m oh so thankful. The rains are blessed here in Africa 😉
So no, the Race is not easy. It’s not simple or always fun. But it is SO GOOD. I’m so thankful to be where I am doing what the Lord has called me to do. It’s incredible, really.
We’ll be celebrating the New Year here in Zambia before getting on a flight to India on the 1st. I’M SO EXCITED I MIGHT SCREAM. Traveling to India has been a dream of mine for a long time now, and we’re going to make that dream a reality! AHHHH. Please pray for safe travels as we enter into MONTH 6. Wow, the World Race is almost half-way over. How did I get here?!
As always, thanks for keeping up with me. I love y’all to the moon!
Until next time,
Katie
