In month 2, Rwanda, a dear missionary friend invited us over for dinner one evening. She spoiled us with spaghetti one night, brownies and ice cream too…what an unexpected treat in East Africa! Something else she shared with us then, was a metaphor that has been coming back to me lately as we are winding down toward the end of our race.
Tina talked about how she was “purple” now and what that meant. If “red” is your home country, and “blue” is the foreign country you live in…then you naturally become “purple.” Pieces of the blue country start to become a part of your previously red self, and you slowly start becoming purple. I’ve also read about the same metaphor using the illustration of playdough. When you begin to mix 2 colors of playdough together they become impossible to separate, and there are always traces of the other color…which ultimately makes a new color all together.
There are so many cool things about being purple; it’s a unique color, it is different, and it’s a mixture of 2 different things! These are all things that I love…being unique, different, and many things all wrapped into one…I know God shaped this into my heart long ago when He created me. But one thing that I find God bringing to mind in this time toward the end of my race, is that I am now purple…and I’m going back to red world soon. I no longer belong to the red world, nor the blue. I don’t necessarily have a blue world that I have lived in long term, but I have lived in 12 blue worlds this year and acquired a little of each of those worlds along the way. I’ve experienced so many things this year that have added pieces of blue to my life…extreme poverty, sacrificial & such generous giving, spiritual warfare, hearing directly from God, a lost world searching for answers… It’s difficult to find the words to convey the impact this year has had on me, and how God has grown me…it is almost like speaking a new language.
So as you are reading this, and if God puts it on your heart…I’d so appreciate your prayers for myself and my squad as we are nearing the end of our time together. I know God has big plans ahead…and only He knows which world {red? blue? both?} He is calling me to live in as a purple person.
Love y’all.
