These past few days in South Africa has been one that has been full of lessons and challenges, but also has been one of the best weeks on the race for me.
Two days ago during a normal 6 a.m. cross-fit workout with some of my squad mates, I rolled my ankle.
As much as I would like to pretend that it’s not a big deal, and it doesn’t hurt that much, and I can easily go on about my normal days routine… that’s just not the reality of the situation.
Reality is, that in order to get from one place to another, I need a single crutch that was lent to me by the wonderful church we are partnering with this month to get anywhere. I hobble along, bouncing around on my one good foot to get where I need to go.
The first day of this injury was a tough one, I hadn’t quite figured out how to maneuver this one single crutch in the best way, without falling to my demise, straight on my face multiple times. It was December 23rd, and I had been planning on FaceTiming my family who would all be in town and in one place on this day. I was particularly looking forward to this chat because I had yet to have a real conversation with a few members of my family that would be there.
Homesickness had settled in, and I was looking forward to the comforting sound of my parents voice, the sly and cheesy jokes that would be told by my cheeky brother-in-law, Marcus, followed by the redeeming laughs coming from my sister who would then apologize for the awkwardly funny tales told by him. I even started my day thinking of the things I would tell them during this call and had effectively timed a good time to go to town to get wifi. But then, I sprained my ankle, and all those plans flew out the window. As the majority of my squad-mates loaded up a van to go to town, I sat there with my ankle propped up trying to think of ways I could hobble into that van and then proceed to try and make my way through a busy, pre-christmas mall just to get a few minutes of WiFi. I had then made the decision in my head that it was to be a not-so-fantastic day, and proceeded to sulk in my frustration.
Naturally, I am a pretty stubborn person. I don’t generally like to have to depend on people for the basic necessities of normal life, but these past few days have taught me a lot more than I would like to admit about trusting and relying on others. So, letting my squad mates help me get from one place to another, or grab my meal for me, or simply sit with me and wrap and ice my ankle, was a challenge to say the least.
As the day proceeded I began to see the many blessings and gifts The Lord gave me. I sat in the common-area pavilion at our camp site in which we stay with a few of my squad-mates and sang songs, listened to podcasts, and ate cheesecake provided by our fantastic ministry host all day and chose to enjoy every minute of it. I found joy in just resting and enjoying the company of my friends and the feeling of the warm South African air coming into the pavilion.
So no, I will not be performing the dance that our entire squad has been practicing each day to Hannah Montana’s “Hoedown Throw-down” tonight at the Christmas Eve play, but I will be cheering from the sidelines and thanking the Lord for the amazing opportunity to be here, in South Africa, serving Him this Christmas Eve.
That’s my Christmas gift this year; pure joy, pure life, and pure thankfulness, given by the best Gift-Giver there has even been.
Merry Christmas from South Africa!
