Greetings. Y’all. I have been away from home for 7 months now. I have not slept in a room by myself. I have not gone a day without seeing the face of Gabriela Gil (which is a really good thing).
This update will be short. We are in Uganda, leaving in 10 days for Romania. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited for that. I prayed before coming on the race that I would experience discomfort. What a sweet, naïve, prayer. I have not experienced more uncomfortability than I have in my time in Africa.
Last month, in Kenya, we flushed our squatting potties with buckets of water. There was one spicket on the entire property, and no running water elsewhere. We also showered with a bucket of water. And we ate a whole lot of ugali.
It surprisingly wasn’t that hard. And I will tell you why.
We visited a place called Pokot one weekend. We traveled hours through the desert to reach our destination. We crossed bridges and drove on water and roads made of pure sand. We drove down a mountainside that was so slim and rugged that it was surely not meant for cars. My first thought upon our arrival was “how the heck did these people get here and why?”
I received no answer for this question.
But the kind folks of Pokot received us so warmly. They slaughtered a goat for us and made sure we had more than enough chai to drink. They watched in amazement and awe as we put our tents together. We literally brought the electricity to them via our generator.
We even woke up to camels one morning!
The children in the other village we visited had never seen white people before. They were afraid of us for the first day we were there. Fascinated from a distance. And then they finally warmed up to us when I started taking pictures with them. Kids these days. All the same, aren’t they? Addicted to the technology!
In Kenya, it is common for a man to have more than one wife. This means that he has wealth. It is also common for 11 year olds to marry. Oftentimes, a man will pay a dowry for a child and the child must go with him. She has no say.
The people in this specific village have to walk miles to get water. They have no vehicles. It was their first time seeing a truck. They live in mud huts. They bathe in dirty river water.
A lot of this might be difficult to hear. I assure you I am not trying to be insensitive.
I spent a lot of time thinking about it. And I heard other stories that were even more troubling than the ones I had heard.
But I came to a conclusion, and it might be oversimplified and a bit of a cliche. But Jesus and the people that He puts in our life is all that we have and all that we need.
Those people have each other and they have Jesus. And they have such crazy joy. They live in blissful ignorance. They won’t know what it’s like to sleep in warm sheets that just came from the dryer. They won’t know what it means to be truly clean. They’ll probably never go 30 miles outside of where they live. And they’ll probably never know who Justin Bieber is. But all that stuff really doesn’t matter. Sorry, Justin.
I think about King Solomon and all that he acquired. And then what he says in Ecclesiastes: “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil – this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever,… And this is the end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
God didn’t promise us wealth or material things. But He did promise us Himself. He did promise that He would give us more than what we need when we ask Him because He is a good Father.
He has given the people of Pokot each other. He answers their prayers. He provides for them. He takes care of them. He fills them. He loves them a whole lot. I am not more important to Him than they are just because I live a more comfortable life.
It’s all we can do to enjoy the people God has given us and, more importantly, enjoy Him. He will ALWAYS be more.
