Last week I had a 17 hour bus ride from Durban to Jeffery’s Bay, South Africa. While on this trip I sat near a little boy, probably around 4 years old. For the first few hours he was fairly well behaved for a child his age on a bus with not much room to roam. Then he became quite antsy and disruptive. In order to keep him occupied for a little while, I remembered I had a GI Joe in my purse (because why wouldn’t I? It’s the WR after all!). So I gave this boy my GI Joe and it kept him busy for at least a couple of hours…until he managed to first break the leg of it off, and then finally the head (and proceeded to attempt fixing it with already chewed bubble gum). Not that I expected to get this toy back, I had given it to him after all, but I was a little disappointed when my gift turned into trash in less than 3 hours.
Then God hit me with an attitude check. First of all, this boy was 4 years old. I couldn’t have expected him to keep the toy in tip-top shape for long. Secondly, what in the world was I going to do with a GI Joe, if not give it to a boy on a bus in need of a little fun? Finally, the gift was just that: a gift. Just because it broke, doesn’t make it any less of a gift! And it was silly of me to have gotten even the slightest bit upset over it.
One thing the World Race has taught me, is the discipline of sacrifice, and sacrifice comes in all shapes and sizes. Whether it’s sacrificing personal time to invest in others on your team or squad; sacrificing sleep in order to wake up early enough to have quiet time, work out, eat breakfast, and get ready before ministry starts; sacrificing your diet because you can’t always control what food you are served; sacrificing your hair because little children love to style it for you, etc… Whatever it may be, God has definitely been working in that area of my life throughout the past 5 month.
This month I’m with 2 awesome teams of girls while the men are off doing Manistry, and we’re working with a church doing a children’s camp for the kids in surrounding neighborhoods. Just like the kids in Swazi, these kids don’t have a lot and they’re living conditions are the best. But even just spending a few hours of our day with them, dancing & singing with them, teaching them games, sharing bible stories, letting them play with our hair, etc…means the world to them, and brightens my day in a way that nothing else could.
But once again this time comes with sacrifice. It’s hard, it’s challenging, it’s exhausting, it’s disheartening at times…but it’s so worth it. Sacrificing personal items, needs, wants, etc. for the sake of these kids will always be worth it.
