“If you are working and living
in God’s Will and DO NOT
face some sort of resistance,
then you might need to be sure
 you are still in
God’s Will.”
– Ben, our Contact
 

This past week, we have been working really hard on painting a church. We primed and painted the inside of the sanctuary and the whole outside of the building. And this church had many colors and details to it! We also battled the rainy season here, where it storms every afternoon intensely. We finished the church on Saturday afternoon, just in time, and it looked so awesome! The best part is that when we arrived home that evening, our beautiful, custom designed traditional African Dresses were ready for us to wear to the church dedication. We tried them on, walked out into the living to show the guys, and our contact Ben who exclaimed loudly, “My white African daughters! You look so beautiful!! You are true Africans now!! After the race you are coming right back to Kenya! Wow!!” …seriously, he said that stuff!

Sunday morning we woke up, ate a great breakfast and got dressed for a joyous church service. This morning though, it started to rain a little bit, but it stopped as we were gettign ready to leave. There were so many people at the house that morning that we had to take two trips in the van to get everyone there. The girls on our team, and a few other women ended up in the second load. It was an all women van, besides Ben who drove. Just as we got on the main road, it started to rain very hard. This is nothing new to Ben considering he is a native and used to the unpredictable rainy season that is Kenya at this time. However this morning, he had a full van of well dressed women who could not get out to push for any reason, and the rain was very hard in this moment. He decided to pull over for a second and hope that the heavy storm would pass. We waited about ten minutes, but the rain did not let up at all, so we started moving again. We turned off onto the beginning of the dirt road. I knew this stretch to the church very well since we had gone there every day this past week, so I knew that this road was not the one to worry about, the worst was yet to come…

The rain did not seem so bad anymore, in fact I think the rain was preparing to end, and we were making our way down this road. When out of no where, the van began to fishtail (which, unfortunately, is nothing new)so badly that I honestly thought we might tip over…but we did not and instead slammed into a ditch. All of us were pretty shaken up and just slightly bruised, but we were not hurt. We took a second to gather ourselves, take a deep breathe, then Ben started to drive again. But this time was different. Dawn and Angela started praying alound in tongues, and Chelsea and I prayed aloud in english. We prayed intensely until we arrived at the church finally. We covered that van in prayer. So much so that no one needed to get out to push – even though we went through many deep puddles and very slick mud, places where before we needed help to get through! We made it to the church easily, it seemed. There was no way we could have made it there safely without God LITERALLY pushing us through the entire time.

Ben is ultimately in charge of this church, and was the main speaker that morning, besides the pastor there. Ben spoke beautiful words, empowering messages about God’s love, grace and ultimate plan for the church and its members. If Ben did not get there to that church, I don’t think it would have gotten the full blessing it deserved. If us girls couldn’t have made it there, then all the people would not have been graced with our wonderfully traditionally dressed presences! We had a plan to fufill God’s plan and do good in that church that morning. So of course the Devil would want to stop us, and set up many obstacles and diversions in our way. The ride there was difficult and scary, but that is just life sometimes. We pushed through, praying the whole way, and made it there.

Life is not perfect. Not at all. We will always run into problems, distractions, heartache and sadness – Christian or not. We could let those things stop us and slow us down, but we don’t have to. God paved that road for us and we got there better than ever before! I want my life to be marked with a radical, reckless, desperate need for Jesus in my life, that the only way I get through anything is because of Him. That is how we made it to church last Sunday morning. That is how I woke up today.

So, what is your life currently marked by?