Every day, as Americans (USA) we take things for granted…we take our hot showers for granted, we take our hot coffee in the morning, the readily available clean water and toilet paper, flushing toilets, ect… We take for granted that we can run to the store at a drop of a hat if we need something, that we can have different food each day and most of us can afford to eat whatever we want whenever we want… but that’s not always the case overseas. I think walking into things like mission trips, or more specifically the World Race a lot of us, me especially thought, go over and we’d just be able to acclimate to the society we were joining for the month. But that’s not always the case…yes I wake up every morning go and take my cold shower, eat breakfast, do my laundry if necessary…then get ready to do whatever is necessary to get ministry going for the day…today we taught English for the first time; launch, quiet time, afternoon activity with the local boys of the home we’re staying at, dinner then team time, etc…I don’t think I ever really thought about how much adjustment there would be to this life.
Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good cold shower in the morning after the long night of sweating, but I miss not having to wait in line for it with 17 other people or so. Quiet time is great, if you can get it. I don’t mind not having wifi access most of the time, but occasionally I would like to get on to say hi to people back home. I don’t mind handwashing my laundry but I wouldn’t mind having my washer and dryer back either. Having The same thing for breakfast every day is fine…I do miss having Ice in my water though, but room temperature water does get the job done when you feel like you’re dying of thirst. Heck I don’t think I’d even mind the mosquito bites except that I didn’t bring malaria meds to prevent getting malaria. Overall adjusting has been interesting, but realizing that Community life is harder than I expected it to be.
Adjustment may be hard for us, but for the boys here at Beacon for Hope that we’re spending this month with they seem to be easy going, accepting us like there is no other option. The amazing head of operations here Angie, has 3 kids of her own. Then she has 10 boys ages 11-17 that attend school here, some are orphans, some are not. We were taught at training camp that a lot of the kids we meet this year won’t have dreams or hopes or goals, that a lot of them are focused on the here and now and not the future. I’m sure that’s true some places but the thing about Angie and Beacon for Hope is that she allows them to be dreamers, that she doesn’t hold them back from being creative, she lets them be kids, be themselves. We have one boy here this month, Fernando, who wants to be a pastor; but not just any pastor, he wants to come to the USA and start a church. That blew my mind when he said that; no one comes to the USA to plant a church, and here he is a teenage boy from Mozambique, Africa and he wants to start a church in the USA…He is truly a son of God…Hello my name is the Future.
These boys here are living life every day to the best way they know how. They have smiles on their faces that just take your breath away, they don’t know life any differently than what they have and they don’t care. They’re eager to learn, for many they say math is their favorite subject. When learning that there were more than just two continents on our planet they were so excited. They love to worship God, and the love to seek out the new. Hello my name is Curious, and Excited to Learn.
It’s only been like four days since I’ve met these boys, and while we’re here to make an impact on their life, they’re making one on ours, on mine. I’ve realized already in such a short amount of time, that life doesn’t have to be about what we’ve always known and done, it doesn’t always have to go the way we think it should; life instead should be lived for God, for his glory, for the moment, for the future…these kids are the future of Mozambique, and I am so glad we get to spend our first month here on the Race with them…Hello…my name is Changed Forever.
