Well, Swaziland was absolutely beautiful and the kids we got to love on were such a blessing! 🙂 We also picked up another racer who actually grew up in El Shaddai. He will be with us throughout Africa (through July) and he has been such a blessing to our fusion family!
We are now in Mokhotlong, Lesotho and it is a bit different! For starters it’s REALLY cold up here in the mountains. We have had snow a few mornings! We are in our second ‘all squad’ month so we have 24 teammates together right now, so yeah… it’s quite the circus each day. We have officially reached our halfway point in the race too – SO WEIRD! This month we are working with the Harvesters Hillock Church, we work closely with two pastors and do a variety of ministry. We have mainly been working on construction stuff helping them build a boarding house, but also participate in prison ministry, hospital feedings/ministry, high school and primary school ministry, and a women’s fellowship time each week. We have also been sharing our testimonies at church on Sundays. We have had many chances to share what the Lord has been doing in our hearts the past few months.
So now what has God been doing in mine?
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; 11 says:
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Think about that – God has made EVERYTHING beautiful in its time… not just the good stuff or the fun times. If you choose to look hard enough, you can find something beautiful in every season of your life. God created different seasons on purpose. But He meant for us to see the beauty in it all because He is always with us and always at work in us.
We are at the halfway point in our race…halfway done already I can (but I can’t) believe it!! Some days life is hard, some days I can’t feel my toes because they’re so cold, some days my body cannot physically lift one more wheelbarrow of dirt, sometimes I don’t have the words to share with people because my mind can’t form a full thought. The race is a ‘pressure cooker’ environment and sometimes things explode – and it leaves debris on everyone around. Sometimes we have bad attitudes and don’t feel like loving each other, especially in the hard moments. Since this is our second ‘all squad’ month in a row, sometimes we get sick of everyone. (Being around 23 people constantly day in and day out, is HARD!) Some days we miss our families so much we want to just go home. Sometimes we get bad news from home and want to just be with the ones we love to comfort them. I won’t pretend this race is easy or fun all the time, because that’s not reality. It is hard, but it’s such a rare time of blessing too.
The feelings we have, or seasons of annoyance we walk through, are all temporary. God is teaching me and the rest of my squad so much about Him, about loving others, and about ourselves. The lessons He is teaching us during these times are permanent, that’s what will stick with us – not the temporary human emotions we carry. On the rough days, I have to remind myself to look up [to Him] and try to see what the Lord is doing in the midst of things. I am also reminded that hard times are only for a season and that someday I will be able to find something beautiful in them, even if I can’t see it in that moment.
God never leaves us or disappoints us, His plans are always for our best interest. He wants us to grow, be stretched, be molded and changed into the person He created us to be. To be refined though, it takes fire and trials – which means it will hurt and it probably won’t be fun, but it will be worth it. The roughest months of this race have actually been the periods of the most growth in my heart. Although walking in the midst of that was not always pleasant, it was totally worth it because my faith was pushed to new heights and stretched like never before.
“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.” [Ecclesiastes 7:14]
I am learning to be thankful for the good times, and to be thankful for the hard times. God is teaching me to refocus when I am in cranky, and to fix my eyes above so I can see what He is trying to do through those times. This tweak in my outlook, to gaze up instead of down and around myself, has changed my perspective. Now I see that there really is beauty in every season of life, you just have to choose to look for it.
thanks for catching up! sorry it has been so long! another blog should be coming soon!
love,
heather
Specific prayer requests: Please be praying for our Korean teammates – they are having a difficult time getting their visas for South Africa (we know God planned this route perfectly and that He has a plan but prayers to make that plan visible to us would be awesome!), prayers for health for the team, please be praying that the ‘mid race walls’ we are all hitting wouldn’t knock us down or stop our growth, pray for us to see the good in EVERY day and to always keep our eyes on the Lord! ALSO we have about half the squad that still needs money in order to be fully funded… please pray for them and if you feel led to donate to a few of my sisters, check out some of their blogs:
Hakyeong Lee – worldracefusion.org/hakyounglee
Sara Shin – worldracefusion.org/sarashin
No weird things eaten lately…sorry!!
Fun fact: for those of you who know me well – remember how much I used to use hand sanitizer? I used that stuff 24/7 not that long ago… now I don’t even bother carrying it with me! So crazy how things change. =)
