No
this is not a joke just to get you to read this blog, I do in fact have a
blonde and pink weave. It is in fact rather legit as well. “Mzungu”
in Kiswahili means “white person” so now that I have this weave I have become
more like an African. I have wanted a weave for over two years now, and what
better time than on the race in Uganda! Here are some photos of the process…
Day
1: Just beginning.
A lady from our church named Iesha did my weave. Here I am pre-weave.
It’s rainy season here right now, so as expected, we were
forced to move the weave party inside after a couple hours of work. As soon as
we moved inside, the power went out, thank God for headlamps and book lights.
At the end of day one about half of my hair was finished.
Iesha would return to the house tomorrow to finish it. Apparently mzungu hair
is much slicker than the African hair and it was taking much longer for her to
be able to complete it. Total time spent was 6 hours and there were 47 braids.
Day
2: Finishing up.
Since this is African time, and because it was raining in
the morning, Iesha showed up an hour late to the house to begin the process of
the hair. After 4 hours of plating the hair and an additional 32 braids, my
hair was finished. We cut off the excess hair on the ends.
Here is the final product of my hair with our neighbor friend Gabriel.
As you can imagine, my head is a lot heavier and this new
hair is going to take some getting used to.
Total
time spent on plating the weave: 10
hours
Total
number of braids on my head: 89
Total
number of heads turned as I walk down
the road: Too many to count.
Total
amount of weight gained from the
hair: Maybe 3 pounds (no, I’m not kidding…)
Total
number of marriage proposals since
getting my weave: Three
Level
of spice that the weave has given me:
Extra Spicy
God
knew that right now I needed to get this weave.
It can be easy to check out of ministry in these final 3
months.
It can be easy to go into my own little world and forget
the people around me, but He knew.
The extra spice from this weave has given me a freedom
and a peace to just be me.
To be the crazy teacher jumping around with her students
shouting songs at the top of my lungs with them (hopefully I will have a video
of this soon).
To be the mzungu that replaces her naps with playing with
children.
To be able to disciple my
brothers, Justus (left) and Simon (right), in knowing how to share the gospel with others as
they go out to do door-to-door evangelism; literally sitting with them for
hours going through different scriptures in the Bible.
To be the weird lady at the top of prayer mountain pretending
to eat a dead monkey, yeah that’s me.
Even in my pre-weave times I preached with a fire and a
passion that I never knew I had.
My
Daddy is telling me to finish strong. To stay present and to stay
focused on what is in front of me. He has
revealed His plans for me in the future, but I am not letting that stop me from
loving on the Africa that is before me.
I’d be lying to you if I told you that this is my view
every single day as I am out here on the field because it is far from it some days.
If you are reading this blog, please be
praying for the over 130 racers from F, G, and H squads to be able to finish
strong in our last 7 or so weeks of ministry.
It seems that every time I have opened my Bible in the
last week, I have read a verse about finishing the race strong from Hebrews
12:1-2 to Acts 20:24. My Father is telling me to finish strong, so if you too
are at the end of your race, let these verses encourage and speak to you.
“Therefore,
since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw of
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race
marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its
shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
“However,
I consider my life worth nothing to me, if
only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given
me – the task of testifying the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24
