May 2018, smack dab in my year of 7 mission trips, was the month I said YES to the Race, and June of that year was the month I set forth on this incredible journey.
Right now I am sitting in a small guesthouse kitchen in Nelspruit (aka Mbombela), South Africa, halfway through our month 6 debrief. I spent two weeks in a small outcrop of Gabarone, Botswana, and then one week on what we affectionately call The Farm, in the bush outside of Nelspruit.
I honestly wish I could take you all with me in a little camera in my pocket so you could see and understand the amazing things I am so incredibly privileged to get to walk through with my team, and the Lord.
And I wish my words could do justice to the way I feel right now.
This trip isn’t what I expected.
When I think missions, I think service. I think long days of planning church programs, preaching, kids programs, setting up a clinic, seeing 15K patients in 5 days…etc.
This…is not like that. This has been more of a discipleship journey, where we are learning about who we are, and who God is, and our role in the midst of that. Needless to say, expectation versus reality has seriously caused tension in myself. Renting my home, selling all of my furniture, getting rid of all of the things I had built for myself, leaving my job, missing out on medical mission trips with JVMI…..I left behind a lot. A lot of the time I have asked “for what?? for this??” And then there are moments (which far outnumber the former) that I go “For THIS.”
I don’t have words to describe the incredible week I had with Cari, Kaelyn, and America on The Farm. The instantaneous family connections we made. The love I have for 8 incredible people I spent the last week with is insane. I keep saying “Do you think they love us as much as we love them?”
Attempting to put words to this time just cheapens it. I will try…some day. But for now…I am so grateful….and so overwhelmed.
The Farm is by a mountain called Uitkyk. Which is pronounced EIGHT CAKE. Which translates to “look out.” 8 people, Team CAKE….The Lord is in EVERYTHING.
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Other updates:
I am now fully funded!! (If you have a recurring monthly donation I sent you an email regarding those.) Thank you so much to everyone who has partnered with me to make this happen. I can’t explain how much it means knowing you all are backing me from home. Thank you thank you thank you!
Also, our first night in town for debrief, early in the morning while we we sleeping, someone came into our room and took my phone, my solar charge bank, and another teammate’s phone. We were unable to stop him and our things are long gone. Its a disturbing feeling waking up to having my phone pulled out from under the pillow I’m sleeping on…but I am SUPER grateful no one was hurt, and that our passports and bank cards were untouched as well. So yeah, that happened! And we’re all good here. Really, God is so good. We are all covered and safe and excited to move forward.
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I wrote this about a week ago. While none of the above has changed, this past week has been challenging and incredibly difficult in unimaginable ways. Please.keep our squad.in your prayers. Love hard, love deliberately, love loud. Tomorrow is not guaranteed.
Love you, thanks for reading.
XOXO
