Hello world!
It has been an adventurous time out here in the world.
China was phenomenal. It went by very quickly. We were not allowed to talk much about it. And although we taught, we weren’t officilally ‘teachers’, per say. We spent a lot of time polishing, pushing and pulling our three students to prepare for the TOEFL exam. Towards the end of the course, a breakthrough came by way of karaoke. No longer were they so scared of us; we were young, like them. The teacher-student division fell away. So, that last week we were able to bond. At the end-of-course overview, I felt such a swelling of Momma pride well up in me when we reviewed the students’ progress.
When we were leaving China, I felt unrest in my spirit. I prayed into it and asked friends to join me. One girl on our squad repeatedly prayed for God’s favor over the situation. The uneasy feelings were alleviated when our layover got changed in Qatar from 30m to 18h. The airline sent its apologies and set us up for the day in a nice hotel with allotted room service. The flights were long and I barely slept. So, during the layover I was able to nap, somewhat. A few times during the day, an announcement went out to pray. I surveyed the scene just outside my window. Being in the Middle East, you seldom saw women outside, and hardly any without head coverings. So, I stayed holed up in the hotel and soaked in the amenities. I felt extremely blessed to have the time and floorspace on which to dance. I had my own time with Jesus in worship. The rest of travel day went without a hitch. We arrived at our destination in the dark of night where we were greeted by a couple of people and a million new stars.
We have all of the squad with us this month. The place we are at now is called El Shaddai. We are working with children and teenagers. There are super healthy boundaries and we each got assigned a buddy (or two!) when we settled into the compound. We have designated time to spend with our buddies each day. My task ministry assignment is general labor. So far, we primarily work cleaning the pig pens and weeding the garden. Each team takes turns cooking meals for the squad and we eat together thrice a day. We even got a new exposure Racer, Banele. He will be with us for all of the African countries. My new team is all girls. Two of our team leaders were raised up to squad leaders for the remainder of the time on the Race. This is also the last month we have with our alumni squad leaders. So much change is happening in this month! But! even a reminder in the name of our ministry site, God is almighty. He has got this!
In other news, I have met my April deadline and now just have a few more thousand to go. God has really been showing me how He provides. And how sometimes we do not have because we do not ask. Thank you all for following my journey. Thank you for your donations, your prayers and your encouragement.
More to come!
