As I near my new fundraising deadline on February 4th, please prayerfully consider donating to keep me on the World Race. I need about $1700 by then to continue. Please pray. God has got this.
So, I was supposed to be in Mozambique right now. But I’m not. I was supposed to be fully funded by now. But I’m not. As much as I would like to have had control over making those “supposed to be’s” reality, I didn’t. So that leaves me with one choice really: I am going to be okay with the actual reality of my present situation, or am I not?
Here is a little bit about how I got to this point, and how God has been teaching me how to let go of all the things I can’t control along the way:
January 4: We prepare to depart our debrief location as a squad at 5 am on 6 minibuses; only 3 show up, and one gets stuck in the mud. After much conversation, our logistics coordinators finally are able to convince the bus folks to get us one more bus. We make it work somehow. On our way, we stop at a police checkpoint, and the drivers claim the police want $5000 MK because our bags are on the seats. As one of my squadmates so eloquently put it, “No.” My patience was greatly tested through this, but God told me to let it go. We carry on our way and make it to the Malawi – Mozambique border in the early afternoon. We exit Malawi without a problem, drive 3 or so miles through no man’s land, and start to make our way through customs to get into Mozambique. The first two teams on our squad make it through, only having to deal with disapproving looks from the guy stamping the passports, and start to load into their respective minibuses. Then came my team. As our team leader gave the customs officer our paperwork, he shook his head, laughed, and said, “This isn’t enough.”We had visas, approved by the Mozambique government, which we paid for. We had letters of invitation from our ministry contacts, with stamps of approval from the Mozambique government. We had given him the exact same paperwork as the first two teams, but, all of the sudden, it wasn’t good enough. The issue, according to this guy, was that the way we obtained the visas was illegitimate in his opinion. When our squad leaders and logistics showed him where and how we obtained the visas, as well as having him call the Mozambique embassy where the visas were obtained, in addition to our contacts, nothing changed. The moment I lost patience and walked away was when he implied that we somehow forged or created official government stamps. (I mean, really?) This is was yet another time in which God asked me to let it go. That night, the 28 of us that remained were graciously allowed to stay in the immigration building on the Malawi border.
January 5: We wake up at 5am and pack up our stuff so that the building can be cleaned. As our squad leaders and logistics coordinators continue to work on getting us into Mozambique, we spend the day hanging out outside of the immigration building, trying to stay out of the rain, and out of the way of everyone else. We were blessed enough to receive meals from a tiny restaurant just up the road, just as we had the night before. In the late afternoon we receive word that we will be packing up and heading to Blantyre, about 4 hours away, where we will stay with one of the ministry contacts that just hosted one of our teams in December. While all of this is going on, our leaders are speaking with the AIM office back in Georgia, also working tirelessly trying to get us into Mozambique, as well as our other two teams that made it through, who are continuing to wait for us in Tete, the first major city on the other side of the border. We reach Blantyre later that night, and continue to wait and see whether or not Mozambique will allow us in.
January 6-8: We rest and wait at the house in Blantyre as our leaders in Malawi and back in the U.S. continue trying to get us into Mozambique. As we hang out and watch movies, we follow word of our parents freaking out, fearing the worst, while we laugh at some of the insane rumors that have made their way back to the states in regards to us. I have no internet during this time, and therefore no way of letting my mom know that I am alive, and doing quite well. We get word the afternoon of the 8th that we will no longer be attempting to get into Mozambique, and instead will be staying in Malawi for one more month, doing ministry in Lilongwe, the capital city.
January 9-Present: We make it to Lilongwe without incident, and have been doing well in our time here.
Throughout all of that, everyone stayed safe and unharmed, no one tried to cross the border illegally (despite the fabrication of the Mozambique media), and our teams that did make it in teams did so legally, and are currently working well with their respective ministries. For them specifically, please pray for my friend Alyssa, as she is getting over Malaria right now. She has also had an appendectomy on the race, so please pray for strength and perseverance for here during here time in Mozambique.
Through all the waiting and uncertainty, God continued to show me that all of it was out of my control, so I needed to let go of my anxiety, worry, and want for control. This has been something he’s been teaching me over the last few months over and over again. This, I have realized, is something I need to do more of in all facets of my life. I am not in control, God is. I need to trust that Him being in control is a lot better for me than me being in control. If I ever forget that or think otherwise, please remind me to let it go.
