On the 1st of June, while we were in Maputo, Mozambique, before we arrived at our ministry, all of the girls and I went out for to a seafood restaurant right on the water to celebrate my birthday! I had lobster and it was delicious! But during the dinner I brought up to the girls that they should come up with a list of 25 things that I had to accomplish before my actual birthday, which is on the 4th. Audrey then dared me to go down a slide that was 100 feet from the restaurant. I agreed, thinking to myself, “Okay, that’s pretty simple. Nothing too embarrassing.” I walked to the slide, where there was a crowd of small children. As I got in line with the others, I smiled and waved at the moms standing near. As I climbed up the slide, I became super goofy, just for a little added fun-ness. Ha! I slid down, but as I neared the end, I saw the slide come to a 90 degree angle. I hit my butt so hard! I got off the slide and heard the people behind me erupt in laughter. “Oh no!”, I thought. I reached to my backside and to my surprise, I had a HUGE hole in my pants. Right down the center! Ha! I ended up partially mooning the onlookers! Oh goodness…It was hilarious!!! I praise God that I have the ability to laugh at myself. This made my birthday one for the record books; not only for epic rip in my pants, but for what my teammates did on my actual birthday!
I awoke on my birthday to Christina Callegari crawling into my tent and sticking notes on me of the 25 reasons why she loves me. Shortly after, Marissa tackled me and blindfolded me while Claire shoved balloons into my tent. During breakfast, after everyone sang happy birthday to me, I popped my balloons that were filled with encouraging notes.
After breakfast, we had a work project of cutting tall grass on a piece of the property. We used a golf club shaped machete to cut it. It was so much fun! While I was hacking away at the grass, I thought to myself, “How different this birthday was from years past.” I began to praise God for having the opportunity to be here in Mozambique. How cool is it?! To be in Africa? I wondered what I would be doing if I was back in the US; but I couldn’t help to be anything but content. I didn’t want to be anywhere else. Yes, I would love to be with family on this day. But the Lord gives you peace about things when you are where He wants you.
As dinner was about to be served, our contact and her family gave me a Mozambican birthday! They sang in Portuguese and gifted me with a chapalana (a piece of fabric that is used as a skirt/wrap). I was taken aback by their generosity and love when they had just met me two days before. After a delicious dinner my team surprised me with a cake! SIDE NOTE: Cake is a rare thing on the race because ovens are hard to come by. Needless to say, it was amazing!
After dinner in WR tradition, the teams spoke life into me. It was an incredible time of listening to what my teammates/squad mates had to say. Before this night, people had expressed how they felt about me but for some reason it took until this night to really begin to believe their words. I felt so incredibly loved.
I am surrounded by an outstanding group of believers, who I can call family. Thank you to Claire for organizing everything without my knowledge! 😉 Thank you to my team; Claire, Kyle, Audrey, Carly, Davis, and Clay! Thank you to team Lion Heart; Kristen, Kate, Christina C., Christina K., Marissa, Stephanie, and Laura! Another thank you to my wonderful squad leaders, Ray and Cam!! I love you all!
