The same God that created these beautiful mountains of Lesotho is the same God who has written, is writing, and will write my story. And just like these mountains that is… breathtaking. God is taking me to new heights and it’s hard. It’s hard to breathe (figuratively and literally), but it’s His breath in my lungs, so I will pour out my praise. God is good y’all!
My first week in Africa was kind of hard! In a previous post, “Spirit Move”, I stated how all of the locals think I’m from Africa. So when we were in Mokhotlong, Lesotho there were 3 teams of 7 people. Out of those 21 people, I am the only black person. It wasn’t the fact that I’m in close community with 19 white-Americans and 1 Puerto Rican that was hard for me. To be completely honest it was the fact that I wasn’t receiving the same amount of attention from the locals as my white counterparts were. In lame terms I was jealous. I was jealous of not having kids run up to me. I was jealous of people not treating me as if I was from America.
There was one occasion when we all were walking to the mission house from church that really made me upset. I waved at a lady sitting outside of her small house and she just straight up ignored me. One of my squad mates, who happens to be white, commented on how she just ignored “us”. I told him that it was because “I’m black, and if he waved she would respond.” I could tell that he didn’t want to believe me, but I convinced him to wave. When he waved, she waved back with the biggest smile on her face.
The next day I decided to let my teammates know how I was feeling. I felt like I really didn’t have a purpose here in Africa. My team leader decided to be real with me. She reminded me that I had one thing here that the 19 White-Americans did not have: My skin color; and that my skin color allowed me to be automatically accepted into the community. While on the other hand she felt like she appeared to some locals as the “White-American coming over to save people.” That really changed my mindset.
I began to walk into that identity and started realizing how God used my skin color for His glory in multiple ways. He used my skin color to start conversations with locals about why I was here. He allowed them to see a black man who loves serving God and people. I was able to encourage people who looked like me. He allowed me to walk down the streets without being harassed. God has a purpose, and He will use everything for His glory.
P.S. I still need to raise $2,150 by September 30th, 2016 in order to stay on the race. I won’t have access to Wi-Fi for the rest of the month, so if you could please pray with me regarding funds and spiritual warfare, that would be great! My squad experienced a lot of spiritual warfare this past month, and it has been draining on us. Now we are off to Swaziland!
