Hello from South Africa !!! I hope you find yourself well as you are reading this, and if you’re someone that I am very close to or have a great relationship with I hope you find yourself comforted by God when you miss me! To my supporters, I pray everyday that God continues to bless you because I feel blessed being here and I couldn’t have done it without you guys.
On the other hand, I find myself to be very well. I felt a little homesick this Sunday 2/2/20. God comforted me but I miss hugs from my peeps back at home. We are currently staying on this amazing base with Impact Africa, it is very beautiful but we are definitely feeling the mission life, we have not had enough running water since Friday 1/31/20. So that means no showers or flushing toilets when we pee all the time, like we do back at home, until further notice. What’s great about this is that, we all feel comfortable because in this case we all probably smell the same and have oily hair haha. The sun here is intense. Some of us (not me) have some 2nd degree burns (basically) and I am terrified of going out there because it looks and sounds painful.
Our first day of ministry was on Friday and it was absolutely outstanding. I felt right in my element. It felt so unreal because in my heart there was confidence, confidence because I knew that the Holy Spirit was inside of me and leading me. Every conversation I had with a local was led by the spirit. During training camp, God activated and revealed a gift that He gave me, the gift of healing. It’s a big deal and powerful gift and every morning when I spend my time with Jesus, I pray that comparison and pride doesn’t over take. All I ask for is that God would simply just use me and my hands to heal the people of South Africa, that God would use my loving heart so that the kids and people of South Africa would feel the love of our Heavenly Father. I want nothing more than people just to know that He loves us , that He is real, that our God has never forsaken us.
Well as many of you tell me that what I’m doing is so great , and I believe that it is great.. the enemy likes to come in and try to destroy it, he brings in fear and lies. He also brings in distractions. Yes, homesick is very real, but it can begin to distract me from spending time with my teammates because all I want to do is lay in bed and yearn to text them or just talk to them for a split second. Distraction of thinking maybe I’m not called to this because I can’t sit still. The fear of not being able to use my gift because I might not be saying the right prayer, or the lie that I have no voice. The lie that maybe someone else in my team is better than I am.
These have all happened. Don’t get me wrong I love it here and I want to stay here forever and wear my beautiful flowy yellow skirt and be disconnected with the world but it’s hard. As I write this I’m sitting in this huge living room with big windows and doors that let the natural light in, where we all gather interns and world racers. We play games, talk, and rest. But In this moment I see my teammates in the state of joy and laughter. Not having running water, grieving, and processing are all things we go through but we find joy in it.
We can chose to believe the fears and lies or we can speak truth of what God says about us and hold on to the purpose that He gave us. In these following 3 months we will experience this again and again and again. Soon this will all be over and we will miss the experience so today I’m going to chose joy over grieving, today I’m going to chose truth over lies, today I’m going to chose confidence over fears.
These past 2 weeks have been hard but worth it and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. My faith and my confidence has grown more than ever before. So for those of you who say “ I could never do this” you’re probably right because it is challenging but it’s not about having running water, it’s not about having WiFi, it’s not about having AC, it’s what we get to witness God do through us. That’s the reward of the sacrifice we put in.
So to everyone back at home that has helped me through prayer, through donations, encouragements, and financially, thank you, THANK YOU because I’m living out my calling, I’m getting to actually be the hands and feet of Jesus. I will forever be grateful.
Xoxo,
Jojo
