Seth Barnes writes in his book Kingdom Journeys, “Even the most ordinary experiences-eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom- are new and unusual.” I have never read some words that have seemed so fitting in my life. Getting out of the van and stepping into the red clay of Malealea Valley, Lesotho I felt instantly disappointed. There were farmers in their lands with their hand plows and cattle pulling in all their efforts to till the soil. There were mud and stone huts with grass and aluminum roofs. There were locals carrying their babies on their backs with only blankets and walking with full buckets of waters on their heads that they just walked miles to get. I was told what was out there but for some reason I was still not excited about being there even though I was originally excited.
There I stood with mountains engulfing me. The sun barely making it over the tips of the peaks, the wind ripping through all the layers I had on, the dust hitting my eyes, the complete vastness… I have never felt so small and insignificant in my life.
We all have had similar experiences where we feel that we just took ourselves to the end of our own rope and instantly become overwhelmed with the “what did I just get myself into” mentality. I whole heartedly thought to myself… I have now left civilization and became Laura Ingles Wilder in less than 8 hours.
Our first full day in Lesotho was Sunday. We got up at 7 to go on our everyday walks and then by 10 you could see floods of people descending from the mountains to attend the church service we had in the Africa 4 Jesus building. I was so blown away by watching so many people come walking from far distances in such cold weather to go to church. The church service ended up being four hours long and I have never been a part of a more vibrant service in my life. We didn’t speak the same language, they didn’t sing any of the songs that I know, I couldn’t even listen to their prayers but their love for Jesus was something that I have again never seen before. These people didn’t have running water and had a hole in the ground for a toilet but yet they were praising the almighty like they had everything in the world. I was quickly swept off my feet in how they people were willing to give everything they had, even if it was all they had.
After getting the initial culture shock of the first day, I quickly settled in. The next couple days we put on another holiday club (vacation bible school) for the children of the valley. The missionary, Pieter told us not to expect more than the 4 children on the Africa 4 Jesus base because most of the children when they are on breaks from school assume the adult’s responsibilities in taking care of the household and the siblings instead of the parents. That morning the children started showing up at 9:30am and didn’t stop coming even after it ended at 2pm. Children showed up from Malealea Valley as well as other surrounding valleys. There were in total the first day 111 children. Pieter was amazed. The children kept showing up throughout the week. Children that were no more than 6 were showing up with their younger siblings strapped to their backs in order to come. A couple of us just took care of the younger siblings so that the older children could participate more in the holiday club.
We also walked up into the mountains to visit/pray for some villagers that didn’t normally walk to the base. We met two wonderful ladies. There was a grandmother and a mother living in the same stone shack. The grandmother had many children. We learned that seven of her children had died pretty brutal deaths. One of the children had died by someone stabbing/drilling a hole into his head. The surviving daughter had witnessed many of these deaths and so because of fear she had developed an uncontrollable, neurological disorder that caused her to shake her hands and legs continuously. The daughter had also been through hardships. Her husband had left her for another woman and her children had disowned her. After her husband died, she took in her husband’s mistress and their family that they had created together. We visited other shacks as well. One lady was so frigid from lack of movement in her old age that she is bedridden with her arms and legs permanently bent. She hasn’t been out of her little bed in her shack for at least 5 years. The stories could just keep rolling.
We also did some manual labor. There was a rift in the land that was causing water to go elsewhere instead of irrigating the parts of the fields in the valley. We hoed up some dirt put them in bags and built barriers in addition to carrying rocks to throw them in front of the barriers. The barriers we build should help some with their irrigation issues.
As I was carrying two pales of water back to the bathroom to flush our toilet, I couldn’t help but think to myself that I was the luckiest person in the world to be in Lesotho. Not only do many people not travel here but we were the only team in our squad to experience this masterpiece of a place. The mountains, wind, red clay, etc. that I was so disappointed by earlier came alive to me and I flashed back to when God must have created them. The more I stared at the mountains the more I just envisioned him painting them with a paintbrush. The stars at night as I was on the swing set seemed so alive and bright almost as if I was in outer space myself. I was also deeply humbled by the simplistic life that the permanent missionaries took up to live like one of the villagers. I started to really enjoy living like Laura [Ingels Wilder].
As if the raw beauty of the place wasn’t enough, Pieter and Kiela wanted to make sure our off day was memorable. So our hosts were also so kind to take us to this hidden waterfall. The waterfall was more than ice cold and “a tradition to dip your head under the water” so I did. When else am I going to get a Lesotho Polar Plunge? They also took us to a lodge that had some locals in a choir and band that played traditional (Sue-too) songs using instruments. Of course a couple of us danced. There was also a bar there in which we signed our names and hometown in order for us to “leave our mark” in Lesotho.
In all this new culture, beauty and excitement, I started to have very vivid dreams. In one of my dreams my brother and I went to a tattoo parlor and got some tats. No one in my immediate family has tattoos so this was an extremely strange dream right off the bat. I went first and got “Hope” on my upper right thigh but it didn’t turn out very well. It was crooked, sloppy, and just not a pretty looking tattoo. My brother went next and he got a chicken nugget tattoo on his middle toe of his right foot. It was the coolest tattoo I had ever seen as stupid as it was. I instantly became jealous of a tattoo of a chicken nugget.
Through some conversation with teammates we realized together that the dream was totally applicable to my life. The whole World Race journey has left me feeling spiritually lacking. My squad is just full of people that are just so sold out for Christ and are living their lives in every aspect for him. I can truthfully say that U squad fits the World Race description of a bunch of young Christian radicals wanting to make a difference in the world for Christ through everyday living and discipleship. But I didn’t see myself as one of them. When comparing my spiritual growth to the others on my team, I felt lacking. I had this vision of U squad marching towards God as a unit and me wandering behind with a kite as a little child. The kite represented all the questions and uncertainty that I had about a relationship with God and Christianity as a whole. I came to the conclusion that just because you are a Christian doesn’t mean that you won’t have any questions. This relates to my dream because I feel like I am constantly striving to praise God in ways that are not natural to me. I wanted to be the intellectual scripture enthusiast, the prayer warrior, the Holy Spirit embodied in human form. I wanted to be someone that God didn’t make me to be. I wanted the Hope tattoo that didn’t accurately describe me. No wonder that I was disappointed in my tattoo when it wasn’t even true to myself. I am the chicken nugget tattoo. I need to embrace that God has gifted me with many other talents to glorify him such as being personable, goofy, and giving. My teammates tell me that he has blessed me with servanthood. Of course I need to own the chicken nugget but also embrace the Hope. Other spiritual gifts may not come naturally to me but I can still embrace and grow in them but they will never look the same as everyone else’s. I can also be the Hope tattoo even though it is not as I pictured it to be. Moral of this story, find your chicken nugget and be it.
Pslam 71:14-18
“But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure. I will come and proclaim your righteousness, yours alone. Since my youth, O God, you have taught me and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.”
Pslam 71:20&21
“Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.”
