Hello friends and family!! Sorry it’s been a hot minute since my last blog post! Wifi/internet can be a little tricky here in Africa. Can you believe I’m half way through my Race?!? Here we are in Month 6 and I am in awe of how fast it is going but thankful for how God is growing me and the impact He is making in The Kingdom!!
So a lot has happened in the last month and I’m going to do my best to catch you up to speed. We have new teams, new titles, new continents, new countries, and new cultures. I can go ahead and tell you, it hasn’t been easy. It has been quite the culture shock and it’s the first time home sickness has really set in for me. There is so much to share and I’ll try and touch on as much as I can, but one story I really want to share with you happened on our 2nd to last day of ministry in Mzimba Malawi.
Malawi is known as the warm heart of Africa and Mzimba is known as the “bush” of Malawi, both statements were proven true in our quick time there. I’ve never met more hospitable people in my entire life. They never let us lift a finger, when we evangelize, people would go knocking on doors in their village to scramble together enough chairs for us. We crashed a wedding and were treated like guest of honor, given front row seats and took pictures with the bridal party. It was an overwhelming experience because on one hand I was so blown away by the generosity and on the other hand a little frustrated because it’s out of my comfort zone to constantly receive and never give. For more insight on the bush and our living situation, check out our “Cribs” video at the end of this blog!!
So back to the story! On our 2nd to last day of ministry, our first stop was to a woman who was a believer and had such a warm spirit about her but you could tell something was troubling her. We began asking her about life and she shared that her husband is a drunkard and that he had cheated on her. She shared that he slept with another woman and then to take it a step further, he brought the bed sheet that it happened on home as a “trophy” and gave it to his wife. We had to put emotions aside and let Holy Spirit lead this encounter so we prayed over her and read her scripture, focusing on forgiveness.
I don’t know about you, but ya girl was INFURIATED. All I could think was “BURN THAT BEDSHEET GIRL!!! And you wanna know something sad? It’s a super common thing for men to be like that in this district. Most men are either drunkards, adulterers, abusers, abandoners, or sometimes all of these things. On Christmas we witnessed children being human crutches for their fathers, carrying their liquor bottles as their fathers stumbled around town. It was extremely heartbreaking to witness and something that I won’t ever forget. It disgusted me because God calls men to be cultivators of their families and to see a man running from that biblical duty with no remorse, like I said, stirred up a lot of resentment. I can’t tell you how many women we ministered to that were the head of their families. They had 3-6 children, they had to maintain the household, and on top of that they had to work in the fields or markets to make ends meet.
When the woman initially told my group and I her story, I must have misunderstood the translation because it didn’t click for me what was happening. It wasn’t until we got back home and my teammates were discussing it with our host and once I heard it again, I was so angry!! I erupted all my disgust on my teammates and it was in that moment that God made sense of why He may have closed my ears from hearing this in the moment with the woman. I think if I would have known what she was saying, I wouldn’t have had a clear mind to minister to her. My anger would have negated what the Holy Spirit was wanting to give this woman and the testimony would have been lost. Thankfully Jesus spoke to her and not my flesh.
One thing I want to be taken away from this blog is what God tells us in the Bible about anger. He says in Numbers 14:18 that He is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. My interpretation of what God is saying is that he says to be “slow” to anger. I love God and His amazing example because he doesn’t say not to be angry. We are allowed to feel that anger but what we do with that anger is where it becomes crucial because if we don’t eventually forgive and let it produce love then we miss the blessing. We can’t let what happens to us define who we are. We have to ground ourselves in the identity of Christ and not of this world or we don’t have a shot at fully experiencing Him.
So I wanna leave you with this question to meditate/pray about this week. I want you to ask God what bed sheet am I holding onto? What am I letting define me or control me? Is it resentment towards a spouse? Is it a bad financial investment? Is it alcoholism? Whatever it is, ask God to reveal it to you and then ask God why can’t I move past this? Why am I letting this consume who I am? Then sit in it, give Him the time and space to answer you.
Thank you guys for reading!!! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and/or answer any questions you have about Africa or the Race or whatever!!! Don’t forget to check out the Cribs video!!
Love you guys!!
