Okay, not really. Not physically at least. But my heart? Oh, my heart has been at home this month in a way that I did not expect to happen this year. When God gently pushed me towards the Race, I very clearly felt that He did not want me to choose a route that went to Uganda. It would have been too easy. Ever since my first trip, Uganda has felt more like home than anywhere else in the world. So I came on this trip not expecting a month where my heart was at such complete peace.. But I was wrong. I've gotten that in Mozambique.
This has been a good month.
No, a great month.
A seriously refreshing, felt completely comfortable, I-don't-wanna-leave kind of a month.
I feel like this month was a break for me. A chance for me to regain strength and momentum. A time of recuperation and renewal after a season of heartache and hurt. It simply felt so… normal.
I know what you're thinking. Normal? How can a month in a country that I've never been to, working with people I've never met, sleeping on the floor, eating rice every day, working in the garden, and tutoring teenage boys in math feel normal?
Welllllllllll……..
Over the past year and a half, I have spent more time with African people than American people. I have spent more time hanging out with people who speak another language around me than with people whose native tongue is English. Because we live on the compound of the ministry we are working with, I have the opportunity to spend my free time (and obviously ministry time) with the seven boys in the program, and I can't even tell you how normal this makes me feel. We teach each other our languages, laughing when we mix up our words. We have dance parties and play football and watch movies and take walks and sing together. We pray and we teach and we learn and we simply are together.
And I needed that. I needed intentional community with local people. I needed a bit of what has become normal to me since my first trip to Africa three years ago. My heart needed it. It's been through a lot these past five months. It's been stretched and torn and shattered and broken. God is molding and reshaping it and its hard and it hurts but in the best possible way.
My time in Mozambique is already winding down and I am definitely leaving a piece of my already-broken heart here. But the Race is the season of life that I'm in right now, and even though it hurts, it's what I signed up for. But I am beyond thankful for a month of normal, a month of refreshing and renewal and joy. It gives me the strength to pack up and move on.
6 more months? Bring it on.
[Disclaimer: I still need $1,065 to reach the final deadline on July 1st. You can click on the link to the left to donate online or send me a message and I will give you the info about sending a check! Every bit helps!]
