I love the beach and let's be real… I always have. Growing up one of my absolute favorite things to do was watch home videos from family beach vacations – even the ones from before I was born. Like, we have a classic one of my brother driving a go-cart and running into every wall with his tongue hanging out. Whenever I was wishing I was at the beach I would watch a video. We only went every few Summers growing up so it was a big deal to be reunited with the sweet ocean and I still get really excited every time I'm near it. 🙂 Thankfully the race has brought me three unique and beautiful ocean experiences so far.
The weekend highlight of Mozambique/month one was going to Club Nautica in Beira. It was also our first experience with wifi and real food in Africa. I quickly understood why they refer to racers as “locusts” because we drained that place of it's resources/tables/french fries/internet and chocolate mousse quickly. I absolutely loved being in the salty Indian ocean…feeling alive and enjoying the waves and new friendships until I got stung by a jellyfish on our last trip there and it put a damper on being in the water. Still the ocean represented a place of refreshment.
I had to come to peace month three that my team was not one of the teams that were living and ministering near a beach in South Africa. I did get to go for about a week because we were blessed to have our month three “debrief” right outside of Capetown. It was absolutely beautiful. We stayed a short walk from the ocean and I think God knew it's what I needed to handle team changes. The Less Than's had their last supper, an early morning walk, and final goodbyes to the six of us being a unit on the beach. The Wildflowers, my wonderful new team, first united on the beach and made a “memory” when we were pelted by sand because the wind picked up something fierce. 🙂 I'm so excited to do life and ministry with these beautiful, Godly, wild ladies who I'd already found a friendship with all 6 of them. The ocean that week represented a place of peace and comfort but also power, depth, and a stirring for a new season.
Praying over our team changes! 🙂
We've transitioned to month four and I'm currently in India. We're partnering with India Christian Ministries and working with/in Sarah's Covenant Homes. The homes are for orphaned children who have special needs. (There are many cases of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, etc.) On Sunday we had our first opportunity to take our kids – we each chose one child to mainly focus on during this month – on an outing. We went to the beach! Can I say no blog, words, or pictures could do our experience justice? 😉 We piled into two vans with our children sandwiched between us or on our laps and rode the hour to the ocean and then spent the afternoon by and in the water. Glory, my sweet girl, and I enjoyed it so much. She did hate having sand on her legs but, I can't say that I blame her. I couldn't help but look at her and look out at the ocean and simply consider the depth there. It might sound cliché' but God created everything and everyone so beautiful. It was breathtaking on Sunday to watch my teammates interacting with these truly special children. Caring for them, chasing them, and leading them along the edge of the vast ocean. The ocean represented hope, love, comfort, opportunity, adventure, and ultimately life to me last Sunday.
www.schindia.com
