What’s up guys!
Sorry for the decrease in posts the past couple months but our schedule has been packed, and wifi in the African locations we’ve been lately can be scarce and sketchy.
Anyway, this month we bused from Kampala, Uganda to a small village called Kaptagat just outside of Eldoret, Kenya. We’re staying with an orphanage here that also houses a school and church, not to mention the many cows, dogs and chickens. We actually haven’t worked directly with the orphanage yet though (at least not officially as we hang out with the kids – who are incredible – every day). Instead, the first week here, we helped to run a seminar for area pastors and church leaders. This seminar, based off of a book by Rick Warren, was titled “A Purpose Driven Church” and focused on teaching the leaders how to organize and lead their churches and members with purpose and reason.
During the seminar, we got to sit in on the sessions, help lead some discussions and breakouts, and get to know the pastors and answer questions that they had as many haven’t had any kind of formal training.
This kept us pretty busy, not to mention that this organization and area are also incredible, so you’d think it’d be easy for me to be focused and present; yet that hasn’t been the case.
For reasons I’m still trying to fully figure out and process through, I’ve had a hard time connecting this month. It’s not that I’m not trying; I just can’t seem to bring myself to want to connect with anyone outside of the kids at the orphanage; even with our host who is sooooo incredible and amazing. The kids been the bright spot of this month so far.
There are six boys here whom God has blessed me with being around this month. They range in age from six to 15 years old and brighten my days like no other. When I walk downstairs in the morning they’re waiting. When I walk outside, they’ve got a soccer ball ready to go. When I’m sitting on the step just sitting or reading, they’re there asking questions and joking around. They just want to be around me, and that in turn, makes me want to be around them.
I have some days where I’ve gotten up and I just feel like going through the motions, yet God knew what was going to happen this month and gave me these kids to push me through it. Their joy and energy is infectious. Their spirits and questions challenge me. They’ve been exactly what I needed to get me through this strange funk I’ve started the month with.
They’ve taught me that we don’t always need to have our “A game.” Somedays we wake up with our “B, C or even D games,” and that’s alright. God doesn’t demand perfection out of us, just the willingness to keep going and find His strength in that as we look for the area He’s given us to plug into.
I’m still not totally out of whatever kind of weird feelings I started this month with, but I do know that I’m getting there by His grace as well as His strength that I’ve found through friendship with six young boys.
If you’re feeling or have felt like this, where you for some reason just lack your drive or connections, I’d encourage you that that’s ok. God hasn’t abandoned or left you. On the contrary, He’s waiting for you to find the specific area He’s set up just for you. One that makes you come alive and gives you energy for your day.
And who knows, maybe the reason you’re feeling the way you are right now is really God’s plan to lead you to your calling in that present moment. I know for myself, if I hadn’t started the month feeling the way I had, I probably wouldn’t have connected with the boys here the way I have, and I certainly wouldn’t have learned the lessons and grown as much.
Find where you can plug in. God’s waiting for you there.
“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.” -Isaiah 30:18
God Bless!
-Ben
