I am going to give you a sneak-peak into one of my favorite aspects of the last few months. Communication is complicated when you are hopping all over the planet, but one of my dearest friends and I have mastered the email thing. We are currently playing a game where I send 5 questions, she answers, and then sends 5 in return. This week her questions were super reflective and helped to me to really process what this month in South Africa has been like so far. I wanted to write a blog post that was real and personal and just me. What better way to do that than to share with you just as I do with my closest friends? I decided to trade possible grammar mistakes and casual nature for a post that shares a little of the everyday conversation that I would love to have with each of you. So, thank you Lindsay, for the excellent questions and your continued support and encouragement!
1.What is the most unexpected part of Africa?
I think that so far the most unexpected part is how relaxing where we are living is! I totally expected to be showerless and crowded and hot, but it’s the opposite! Everything is so beautiful and comfortable where we are. South Africa is the most modern of the African countries, too, so a lot of the stores and such are really Westernized. The mall is like a typical U.S. mall. I am preparing myself for the fact that in a few weeks we are going to a “real” African country. I am soaking up my time here, but I am actually really pumped to rough it a little more.
2. Have you had any culture shock?
Um, I don’t think I have really. I mean, my heart breaks for a lot of the stories I hear and the places we see, but it’s almost like the constant moving to another country doesn’t give you time to be shocked. I think that coming home will be more shocking. Or maybe Europe. It is going to be crazy going from 3 months in Southern Africa to 2 months in Northern Europe. Ask me again in 3 months 🙂
3.What has God been teaching you in the past month?
Well. I don’t know if there is a BIG point this month. I am reading this great book by Beth Moore that talks about praying scripture over strongholds in your life. It’s been really good and eye opening. She talks about how when we are trying to break free of something – from anxiety, to comparison, to addictions – that we need to claim the promises of God rather then verbalizing the issue constantly. So instead of praying “God, I am anxious all the time because of this this this and this. Free me from that, ” we instead claim scripture over it every day like, “God, you are not a God of fear. You have laid out my path and intentionally made plans for my life.” Get it? It’s been a great way to stretch myself in my communication with God this month. I think it plays into lots of areas, like future husbands ; ) I actually have set aside Thursdays as a day that I pray intentionally for my future husband and my desire for control over that aspect of my life. You are welcome to join me! I pray for brothers on Monday.s (“On Wedensdays, we wear pink.”) Like lots of people’s brothers, your’s included! I like having intentional days because it helps me focus…and not spend every day praying for my future. Haha.
4. How has being away effected you?
It’s effected me SO many ways. I am really glad that I am on the Race during this season of my life. I say this because I think that had I gone earlier I would have been searching more for identity and who I want to be. I had a pretty good grasp on that when I left. This trip is a great place to find yourself in Christ, but I knew coming into it that it was a gift to be able to take a year and intentionally serve others. It’s like a honeymoon with Jesus. Sounds weird, but what I mean is that is I’ve always been in love with Jesus and I will continue to be, but this year is like an extra fun adventure! It has helped my relationship with Him to become much more intentional and intimate. I am finally at a place where I know what it is like to say that if He was all I had, I would have joy. I guess in some ways I was expecting to find some big vocational purpose or something (not that it couldn’t still happen that way), but instead I am being reminded that we need to love and serve the people around us. That is how they will see Christ. So whether that is through hugging preschoolers at Agape, teaching English to African young adults, or pouring into the girls in your hall – it is all Jesus.
I won’t lie. There are moments when the number of people in poverty, or the number of children being abused, or the number of Africans dying of aids, or the violence between religions seems totally overwhelming and huge. But then you hold a child for a few minutes and remember that God wins. This world is messed up – but the Bible told us that. That’s why we just have to love each other (#hippie) and do what we can. God didn’t ask us to save everyone. He did that already. He invites us to participate in the most epic story ever, and the ending is already written out. He wins. We’re His…so we win. Woot woot!
In a less Jesus-y way, this trip has just multiplied my love of travel and adventure. The world feels so much smaller and so much more exciting all at the same time. Its incredible to see how different people and places are all over the planet. God’s a pretty creative dude. I want to see and taste and experience and capture it all!!! My obsession with NatGeo is probably just getting worse.
5. Tell me about your day to day life!! I want to know about the food, smells, people, scenery, what you wear, basically your entire life 🙂
I wake up at like 6 in my bunk bed to my alarm – which right now is the song “Shepherd” by Bethel. I hit snooze and then eventually get up, grab my Bible and journal, get a cup of coffee ( I have a claimed a mug with a parrot on it that was in the cabinet in our kitchen) and head outside for quiet time. I have a favorite stone bench that is shaded by palm trees and crazy exotic green stuff. It normally has ants all over it, but we’re kind of friends now. After quiet time I go grab my computer and do Insanity. It’s the worst. I hate it. I basically survive the warm-up and then quit. But, #iworkout #sometimes. Then I shower and put on clothes that came out of my backpack, not my closet. It’s still kind of a challenge wanting to look “cute” and feel normal, but there is also an element of freedom in it! Then I grab a quick breakfast before our host takes us to our ministry around 7:30. This next week I will be continuing to visit a place called My Academic Enrichment Center, where I am working on literacy with students one-on-one. Most of them are in their twenties, but got pushed through the education system without ever actually learning to read. They enroll in this program for several months in order to gain basic job skills. It’s been so cool to already see them improving and making intentional decisions to better themselves and their futures. I am using a children’s version of David and Goliath as part of my reading materials. It always leads into God-space for discussion about the “giants” that they are facing and how God gives us the strength to fight those things. I have loved this ministry time so far! We typically stay and have lunch with them in the afternoon. They prepare the food as part of their skills training and we help them with conversational English. It’s a pretty great trade-off! Our host picks us back up by like 3:00 and we head back to the BEAM house, where we stay. I normally have some time to hop in my hammock and process through the day and read a little before helping with dinner. We each took a night to cook and do team time and our team has some great cooks. One of the girls even bakes for us. This is the best life ever. We do team time after dinner, which just means that we talk about the day and spend time giving each other feedback and such. We pray together and clean up from dinner and then head to bed or watch movies or whatever. We also discovered last week that we have the ingredients to make mug cakes like on Pinterest… so that was a blessing from God. Lol. To sum that up, my day-to-day life is filled with Jesus and purpose and community and dessert. I can’t imagine a better life.
Love,
Elizabeth
