Hello friends and family,
It’s been awhile since you last heard from me. I am living in a village called Kokotsha, in Botswana, Africa. It is very small village with a school, a clinic and a little Tuk-Shop that sells drinks and little supplies like flour and oil. We live out of our tents and most of our meals are cooked over the fire. We take a team of donkeys attached to a cart and explore the Kalahari Desert for dead wood to cut up for firewood. We mainly eat goat, cooked over a makeshift grill.
We have no access to the internet unless we travel three hours to Tsabong. (That’s where I was when I posted this) Our toilet is called a short drop. For those that don’t know what that is… take an oil drum, bury it, and there you go. People from my squad that live in different areas have asked me how the short drop is… I always joke and tell them “Well it gets a little shorter every day”.
Our church service is held in a large army tent where we preach and play worship music. As far as the World Race goes, this is the roughest living conditions any of us on my team have experienced. It has also been the best experience I have had while being on the World Race.
Even though we don’t have beds, running water, showers or toilets, this is where I have experienced God the most. It’s because God has shown me hungry people. Yes, sometimes hungry as in wanting food or drink, but in this regard I am talking about being spiritually hungry. I walk into my small village and people ask me to share the word of God. It’s amazing to see the hunger for the word.
When we walk into the Kokotsha primary school, we get the privilege to start our morning at 7:20 a.m. playing praise and worship music for the kids. After worship we all bow our heads and pray for the children and teachers before they start their day.
In America, worship and prayer are no longer allowed in schools which is tragic because our nation, my home, your home and your children’s home, is, and has been, turning away from the hand of God. The United States of America has been blessed more than any country I have been to. We have forgotten what God has done for us, just as the Jews had forgotten what God had done for them after being rescued out of Egypt.
We need to remember. We need to give thanks.
Instead of asking for more, more, more… Is it not enough that we woke up this morning? That our next breath is a gift from our Father and not just something we should expect from Him. Life is a gift and that’s how we should start our day, every day.
Besides working at the school playing worship songs in the morning and teaching in the afternoons we also work in a medical clinic. We start at eight in the morning where we sing, dance, pray, preach, assist nurses and weigh babies. God has blessed us with a medical team that loves the Lord. Although it is a government ran facility the medical team believes God is the ultimate healer. That He is the one who touches, comforts, heals and restores. It has been a huge blessing to be working alongside individuals that serve the Lord whole heartedly.
The clinic gives us a room of our own every Monday and Wednesday. The boys and I (as well as Nanie) call it our “War Room”. It’s a place where people from the village come for individual prayer. They seek God and it’s amazing. Some need prayer for sickness, some need prayer for jobs, some want prayer for anything and everything. So… we pray. We pray that God shows up, and He does. God has been physically healing people here. We witness it often. Out of all the things I have learned on the race, I would say the most important of them, is the power of prayer. God is in control of everything. His hand is with you, intertwined with yours as you walk through life.
Scripture says in Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Scripture also says in Luke 7:7-12 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
The Lord is faithful and is ever present. The only time we feel distant from God is when we think we are capable of doing something on our own. I was listening to a podcast by Todd White, He said “Why is it that God shows up only when we are laying on the floor, bloodied, broken and unable to get up after a fight? Why didn’t He tag in and fight that fight for us? Why is it that He sat there idly and waited for us to fall down?” What’s the answer friends and family?
The answer: He didn’t, Jesus never sat there idly and watched you take beating after beating. He doesn’t want to see His children suffer. He is tugging on the ropes of the boxing ring saying let me in [YOUR NAME HERE]!!!!, let me help! Just say my name, tag me in and I can take away this pain, this suffering and any struggle you have, away. Let me take the blows beloved. Let me take your enemy down, just as I did for you on the cross. I will do it again and again and again for you my love. Todd White more or less said that with a mix of Cole McCrary in it.
The point is, God is always there and He is ever faithful. He isn’t there just in the end but is patiently waiting for you to call on His name. Do yourself a favor and call on Jesus before the fight even begins. He will step in and He will be your hands and feet. You are a David that can kill any Goliath of life, as long as you call on the Lord. I don’t know what you are struggling with… It could be your marriage, job, finances, depression, drug addiction, loss of a loved one, sexual immorality, gluttony, health issues or lack of purpose.
Whatever you are struggling with, GIVE IT TO GOD. YES YOU. GIVE IT TO GOD.
Don’t settle for pain or suffering. Don’t tell yourself you are unworthy and deserve your circumstances. No one is worthy of what the Lord did for us. It’s a free gift. All He asks is that you love Him in return. Your marriage is worth fighting for, it’s worth fixing. God fixes the unfixable. God can give you a job or bless you in the one you are in. He is in control of your finances, He can take away your depression, your addiction, your pain, your fleshly desires, your illnesses and He can give you the ultimate purpose, to glorify God in all you do.
But we have to call on Him and say Jesus I need you, I can’t do this alone. I can’t fix this without you. I don’t want to take any more punches. Help me before I face my next Goliath.
Prayer is the key.
Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 13:13 “these three things remain: Faith, Hope and Love. The greatest of these is Love.”
Have Faith God will see you through, that He will fight your battles as long as you seek Him first. Have Hope that God can take the very thing causing you to suffer and He can turn it into a blessing, maybe even use the thing causing you to stumble as a testimony for God’s glory.
1 John 4:19 says “We love because He first loved us.” That’s why we love our Father, because He loves us and fights our battles. Without Him we are like sheep among the wolves that will soon be devoured. Satan wants to think you are alone, He wants to separate you from the herd. There Satan whispers his lies and tells you “It can’t get better, that you deserve the life you have.” IT IS A LIE.
Fall into your Father’s arms, feel His abundance of love. Call on His name and He will answer you. In Matthew 22:37 Jesus said “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” If you Love the Lord, call upon His name. Prayer is very real and very powerful. The power of the living God lives inside you. Please do not settle for mediocre. It is not in us to be mediocre. So whatever you are going through, whatever your burden may be, thank God for the life He has given you and know that He can transform anything into something beautiful.
Be thankful for Him opening your eyes today and surrender yourself to Him. You won’t regret it. God is good, even in the Kalahari desert. Thank you for reading, I hope these words I have written stir something in yourself and that you will call upon God to fix them. God bless you.
Love,
Cole Bryan McCrary
