Lesotho is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, next to Colorado. We’ve been here for just over a week and it has been some of the best and most trying times on the race so far. I have grown closer to my team and had to rely on the grace of God to get through every night with restful sleep.
The first night we were here, we were all exhausted after traveling for 3 days straight from Zimbabwe. Between our bus getting a ticket for a broken windshield, not knowing how long it would take to get fixed, crossing the border in the middle of the night, the drive itself being very long, we were ready for some sleep. We set up our tents along the feet of an incredible landscape of mountains, ate some dinner and settled in for bed. I’ve been asking god to reveal things to me in my dreams because I think there is power in our dreams and I think that He wants to reveal things to us in ways He hasn’t before. We just have to ask for it. I went to bed and apparently woke our whole tent village up yelling in my sleep, I don’t remember what I dreamt about or even waking up. What scares me the most is the power our minds have over what we think is reality. I’m not the only one who has had bad dreams since we’ve been here, so we pray against anything trying to mess with us and our minds on a daily basis.
This place, and all the beauty that surrounds me shows me that God is real and God is here. Where God is moving is where satan likes to play his games. God is doing awesome things in Lesotho and in Malealea and with Africa 4 Jesus and in our host family, and satan thinks this is his playground. He thinks that he can do whatever he wants with people who try and fix up the playground and the people that try to play on it. I told my team that even in the beauty of the view surrounding us, this isn’t reality. Reality is looking up at the stars (the stars are the brightest I’ve ever seen) and seeing how vast they stretch and realizing that God placed each of them in place for a reason. That is reality.
I have never really experienced spiritual warfare before and it is evident that there are wonderful things happening here, that God is at work. Our ministry host explained to us that even the Christians here sometimes miss the point of their faith. That they will preach on a Sunday morning and then go home and sacrifice animals to their forefathers. There are also witch doctors here. People know we’re here because we have to go ask the village chiefs if we can be here. There are people who don’t like what we’re doing here or the work our hosts are doing here, but that doesn’t matter because the work that The Lord is doing here will outshine all of that in the end. I am thankful for the trials and the stars that remind me that God is bigger than myself, than my mess, and all the forces trying to keep me from Him. I am thankful for my team that allows me to be myself and to bring my struggles, fears and doubts before them and still love me regardless of what I say. Who push me to be a better me and to continue to pursue reality that isn’t of this world over the reality the world is trying to tell me.
So here I am, all my fears, doubts, joys, bringing them before God, hoping and trusting that He will make something beautiful out of what I bring to Him.
Loves.
