As I began my eleven hour car ride back home from training
camp (just a little over seven months ago) I had a lot of time to process all
that went on in those nine days. I began to prepare myself for the race (well,
as much as I could at the time) In my preparation, I realized that I would be
diving headfirst into a messy lifestyle, a very wrecked and messed up
lifestyle.
At the time, I was thinking only in the physical sense,
maybe a little bit in the mental aspects as well. In my heart, I think I knew I
would be stretched in my spiritual side but I did not think of it as a “messy” or
“wrecking” process. I would say that I began to realize my “messy” spiritual
side in Romania (two months ago) Since then, I have been working really hard on
a few things from my past that used to haunt me on a daily basis.
As for the mental side, I have been stretched in that aspect
since day one in Ecuador when I quickly realized sleeping, eating, drinking,
exercising and everything about my prior daily routines was no longer under my
control. Everything was up in the air…mentally stressful.
As for the physical side, I would say that has come and
gone…until this month. I thought I was physically stretched in Ecuador when our
assignment was to build a church from the ground up. But when our construction
only lasted two out of the four weeks we were there, I found I had a lot of
down time and could catch up on my much needed catnaps. Peru and Bolivia were
not physically stretching months by any means. The most physical activity I did
in Albania was walking and I spent an entire day at a spa…something I rarely do
even at home. As for Romania, I think I sat more than anything else. South
Africa was a great physical work out for a couple hours a day but when we had a
week off in the middle of our month, I was able to play catch up with my broken
spirit, mind and body.
This month, in Mozambique, is going to teach me a lot about
my physical limits. I’m certain my mental limits will be pushed as well since
the two kind of parallel one another. As for the spiritual side, I’m sure I
will experience some extreme spiritual darkness due to the abundance of
witchcraft in the area. (Our contact even told us that we were not allowed to
bring any masks back to the house for souvenirs because they were made with
spells on them by the people who practiced witchcraft and could still carry
dark spirits) Take it or leave it but I’m going to trust him.
John also informed us that there is a draught in our area.
By draught, I mean no running water for over half of the day. Running water is
only to be used for drinking and cooking…not showering, brushing teeth etc…
People walk up and down our street literally looking for water since we are one
of the lucky few to have a well to store water in. This is the longest the people
have gone without water in years! (by over a month too) The only way to get
water is from the rain, which has not been falling. So, we are all encouraged
and I want to encourage everyone reading this to pray for the rain so people
can save their crops, have drinking water and maybe I can take more than one
shower a weeek…maybe…LET IT RAIN!
