It’s been a while! I apologize for my lack of blogging thus far on the race. There isn’t a lot of time for processing, and I think a lot of times it piles up and becomes overwhelming. I want to be more diligent in posting what the Lord has been teaching me, because he’s taught me oh so much!
We are officially in month 6-WHAT? In about a week, we will be exactly halfway through the race. That is incredibly hard to believe. It feels like it has gone by quickly and slowly all at once. We like to say that the days are long and the months are short.
Since I’ve last updated ya’ll, there have been so many changes! We have changed continents, teams, languages, time zones, and squad leaders. The World Race has alumni squad leaders that come onto the field with every squad for the first five months. Their job is to guide us and then eventually raise up leaders from our group to take their place. Katie and Rachael, our squad leaders, went back to the states almost a week ago. It was a sad goodbye, but we will see them again at debriefs! Our new squad leaders are Alyx, Jessie, and Marah. They are incredible God-fearing women, and I am excited to see the way they lead us in this next season.
It is also custom for team changes to happen, typically when the squad changes continents (but not always). This gives us a chance create new friendships and learn from more people on our squad. So, when we arrived in Malawi, we had a debrief where they announced these new teams. I am on an all-girls team, and our name is Kuwala, which means radiant in the local language in Malawi. Check out their blogs on the left side of my page! I’m so excited to learn from each of them.
We had a week debrief in Cape Maclear, Malawi, which is right on Lake Malawi. It is GORGEOUS & an incredibly restful time. After exhausting travel day(s) to Africa, it was much needed. Our travel began with a flight from capital of Honduras to Panama City. From there, we flew to Toronto, Canada. We had about an 8 our layover and then flew to Ethiopia, and then to Malawi. In total, it was about three full days of travel. I personally went over 24 hours without sleep before I finally slept on the 13 hour flight to Ethiopia. We were exhausted, and jet lag was something else! Not only did we rest at debrief, but we had meetings with our old teams, new teams, and we even went snorkeling in the lake one day as a whole squad, which was really fun! From there, we went with our new teams to our ministry sites.
My team was in the northern district of Malawi, called Mzimba. Our host, Pastor Anthony, took us to another local pastor’s home, Pastor Blessings. We lived with him, his wife Hilda, and the rest of their family. The town we were in was very rural, with the only store having the very basic food and hygiene necessities. Wifi was nowhere to be found, either. Most of the girls on my team got SIM cards for our phones, so we could have some type of communication with home, especially with Christmas coming up.
Our ministry was door-to-door evangelism as well as preaching. I LOVED it. Malawians are some of the kindest, most hospitable people I have ever met. Everywhere we went, we were being served in every way possible, especially by our host family. The women we lived with prepared all of our meals for us, did our laundry, heated hot water every night for our bucket showers, and they wouldn’t let us touch a dish. One time, we were out evangelizing and I told a woman I liked her skirt. When we came back after outreach, she handed me the skirt and wanted me to take it as a gift. Mortified, I told my host I couldn’t take this. I didn’t know how many skirts she had, and now I, a privileged white American, was walking away with one of them. Pastor Anthony told me to not receive the gift would be to deprive her of the blessing, so I reluctantly took it.
A lot of times, the way we were being treated made me feel guilty.
Why are they treating me this way?
I never did anything for them.
How can I ever repay them?
How can I receive these gifts?
I sometimes think of God this way. He has given us a gift that we can never repay. He doesn’t only give us salvation, which is all we need, but an intimate relationship with him. He wants to have a relationship with us. I think we sometimes forget how incredible that is. Not only do we receive mercy, but grace upon grace.
I like to think I have something to offer God. That somehow I can do enough good works to repay him, instead of standing in awe of him and what he has done for me, and receiving the blessings. The funny thing is, God doesn’t NEED us to do anything for him. To think we can somehow repay him is crazy.
Don’t get me wrong. God wants us to do good. But our heart posture should be from a place of gratefulness and a desire to do so, rather than in an effort to be in right standing with him. Jesus already ripped down the curtain and gave us full access to the father. He has already died for our sins and abolished the law.
God wants to bless us and serve us. But sometimes I don’t slow down enough to recognize it, or I don’t allow myself to receive them. Last month, I started allowing myself to see the way I was being served as the father serving me and blessing me through them. And man, it’s life changing. He wants to cook us food, do our laundry, and boil us hot water for our showers.
So far on the race, I have been learning more and more about an intimate relationship with my father. A big theme is how much he wants to be a part of every aspect of our lives. Yes, he knows everything about me. Yet, he still wants me to talk with him, tell him about my day, my fears, & the things that make me happy.
This new year, join me in not looking at what we can do for the Lord, but what we can do with the Lord.
He’s waiting to bless you, comfort you, & be your peace.
We arrived in Livingstone, Zambia last Thursday, and I am staying at a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base with my team. Stay tuned for updates. : )
Much love,
Rach
PS- Watch our Cribs video to check out what our living conditions were like in Malawi!
