If you have been following my blog, you know that over the past week, things have been pretty uncertain and kinda all over the place in a lot of ways.
Last week after a weird series of events, it was decided to pull my team out of our ministry and move us to another site with 2 of the other teams. Now we are working in Maputo, Mozambique with Beacon of Hope. Angie, a wonderful lady from Texas, runs a boys home and she is such an awesome contact!
We have been gardening, A LOT… Doing food preparations, cleaning, planting, visiting the communities, and preparing for Christmas!
Its been a tough week so far for me. It was difficult getting moved around this past week. There was so much that was up in the air that I didn’t know which way was up and which way was down. We didn’t have any time to process at all. We arrived late Sunday evening after supper and were up working in the garden at 5:30am the next morning. It all worked out though. You choose joy, make the best of every situation, and move on knowing God is going to work it all out for the good.
As I type this, I am sitting on my sleeping bag and sleeping mat, on the concrete floor of our host home, covered with my mosquito net, listening to a crazy african rainstorm beat down on the tin roof above me. I have never seen bugs, especially mosquitos this bad. Pretty much after it gets dark, you want to start making your way to your sleeping area because if not, the bugs will carry you off! I think for me, this has been the most uncomfortable 2 weeks thus far for me on the World Race. I have realized how much I really do miss home and miss all the simple things in life. I hear people say that all the time, but its so true… You take away your comforts, and you realize how blessed you really are. Transparency time… I think the majority of us have taken 3 showers in the last 2 weeks… maybe.
We don’t have it bad here by any stretch, but I think with it being so close to Christmas it makes things that much tougher. I shouldn’t be sweating this bad when I lay down of a night to go to sleep. Its Christmas time and its suppose to be snowing! I’m suppose to be at home sledding, sitting in front of the fire, wrapped in a blanket. I am suppose to be working at the radio station over night so I can get on the radio really early and announce all the closings. I’m not though and its weird to know that “real life” still goes on back home.
God is so good. He really really really is. I know that all this we are experiencing right now will only help make each of us stronger. Somedays, I won’t lie, it sucks. Its emotionally overwhelming and really gets to you, but you just trust the Lord and He will bring you through it… Messages and comments from home always make the process easier as well 😉
Yesterday we didn’t get to do much. Me particularly because I have been down in my back the past few days due to overdoing it in the garden while I was tilling the ground with a hoe. So, I decided that after looking at my friend Jess’ blog, I was going to hang up some stockings for my team… aka… socks… This way we could write to each other and give some gifts. We drew names for secret santa claus and really just jumped in head first into Christmas as much as you can in Mozambique… HAHA… Ended up it turned into a huge event with all 3 teams located here at this ministry. We decided to really go all out! All of us hung socks, we cut out paper snow-flakes, and made name tags for all of our stockings (because with 20 of them, its hard to tell who’s is who’s). We jammed out to some Christmas music, and just enjoyed each others company.
Tonight we had a huge feast. Kat Law, one of the racers, her Daddy decided to really bless us all! Him and Angie threw a huge shin-dig for us all! They bought us all gifts and we did the “white elephant” game, and Angie cooked us french fries, bbq chicken, and cole slaw! It was freakin’ amazing! It was nice to get a taste of home. Tomorrow we are going to spend the day cooking for Christmas days’ meal, and we will probably watch Christmas movies for the majority of the day. Stay with me… I ain’t even said the best part yet! Tomorrow night we are going to do a “candle light” aka… head-lamp and flashlight Christmas Eve worship service… and Christmas morning, Santa is suppose to make a guest appearance and we are exchanging our secret santa gifts, while we eat a good breakfast. I am probably going to cry Christmas morning because, Angie is making 2 of my favorites… Biscuits and gravy!!!! and the second thing, my favorite Christmas snack that my Nanny and I make every year… PEANUT BUTTER BALLS!!!! I was so stoked when I found out! Being away from home this year won’t be easy, but I am blown away by what the Lord has provided for us so that we have the best Christmas on the World Race anybody could ask for!
So… there you have it! A World Race Christmas! I want to wish everybody back home, family, friends, my church, breakaway, co-workers, blog readers, and anybody else that I may have failed to mention…
A VERY MERRY & BLESSED
CHRISTMAS!
Love y’all 
