It all starts at 4 A.M. when the screaming of a goat being slaughtered is heard right below our windows. After rolling back to bed we wake up to Jordan’s obnoxiously loud alarm at 7 am and day starts! We read the bible and journal for an hour if we’re not sick and dying haha which this week most of us have been. Out of the 20 of us all but 2 have not thrown up, and diarrhea, stomach cramps, and stuffy noses are the way of life around here. My team is living in a room the size of a small bedroom above a coffee shop. We’re sleeping on the floor amongst piles of our dirty clothes (cause there no place to wash them) and our packs and other stuff. The room ranks and this morning we just discovered Annalise’s throw up has been chillin’ in our trash bag… so that doesn’t help! The one bathroom is shared by 20 of us (1/3 being guys) and so I’m sure you can imagine the smell and look of it after 18 of us were throwing up and having diarrhea. Lets just say the toilet wasn’t the only thing covered in bodily fluids. So…. living conditions have been difficult to say the least. But I’m learning and growing though it. I hate to say It but I have fallen into complaining and that’s not cool cause at the beginning of the race I asked God to drag me out of my comfort and but me places where I had to completely depend on him. I’ve really learned what leaning on him in trials looks like cause its something I’ve had to do every day. Yesterday I woke up and my first thought was I wish I was anywhere but here in this quarantined sick house. After sitting in that for a minute I just fell on my knees and asked for joy and strength and I praised his name. I can tell you I literally had a bounce in my step the rest of the day! He’s so faithful!! Something that’s been a huge temptation here is how easily accessible wifi is. Often I’ll find myself choosing that over anything else, especially God. And all I can tell you is I feel drained after staring at my phone forever. I know my heart needs quality Jesus time and so I’ve been having to be super intentional about choosing Him. And what’s been really cool is even if I just pull out my Bible and don’t even read it I almost always start conversation with other people about Jesus cause I’m not looking down at my phone. And that is so filling. Whenever I think I can’t go on any longer God always fills me and gives me rest so that i’m not only strengthened and rejuvenated but I’m also rejoicing. The other day I just wanted to sit in a coffee shop the whole day but I thought I would never be able to do that cause everyone else wanted to do other stuff, but I sat in a coffee shop the ENTIRE day and met a new friend Sophie from Belgium who also paints and we got to talk for hours and then I met a Nepali guy and this German dude and I had such a blast! SO FILLING! It’s times like these that I’m reminded by God’s faithfulness. He will never put us through so much that we are crushed from the weight of it all (although at times it can feel like that haha). No, he supplies us with all his strength to keep running the race strong. And so when I wake up and I’m already tired of what the day has yet to bring I fall on my knees and talk to my Father who supplies every ounce of strength in my body. He is the one who fills me. He is the bounce in my step and the song in my heart and I am not ready to face the day until I’ve seen his face.
