Disclaimer – this is long
Hello readers if you are following me then I am sure that by now you have pieced together the fact that I am in Africa! So sorry that this is the first blog that I have put together since leaving Thailand. It is so strange to look back and realize that I have been here in Livingstone Zambia for a whole month already. I honestly never saw myself visiting Africa in my life time before the World Race, I simply did not have a big heart or desire to visit this place I now find myself in. And it is so funny how in the most unexpected places God can do the biggest things in your life.
These past weeks God has really been flipping my World Race Life upside down on itself and challenging me and growing me in so many new amazing ways. I am not sure if you already know but in the last week of Thailand, our WR Gap A squad went through team changes. At first I was very closed off to this idea, I had become very comfortable with my team, and felt like team changes would ruin the last three months of my race. I thought that I was going into Africa with no expectations, and was open to whatever God had for me, however then after team changes I realized that I expected to be with my team, so I did have expectations. At first in my human nature I was feeling bitter, and felt like in a way I had those last three months stolen away from me. However looking back now I can not imagine continuing on the race without team changes and thank God so much for giving me the opportunity to be with my team Goshen. Rachel, Bryan, Ali, Faith, Michelle, and Krista, bring out a different side in me, and give me so much joy, and adventure every single day that I spend with them.
Rae my team leader is such a humble, courageous person whom I love spending time with. Bryan is an extremely wise, and very funny guy who loves the outdoors. Ali is an amazingly kind strong willed daughter of Christ devoted to her true father. Faith is the friendliest, most enthusiastic person you’ll ever meet, she has a beautiful voice and loves worshiping the lord. Michelle has an amazing smile that she shares generously and is such a kind wise being. Krista is a very joyful person who loves to love and is so committed to learning more about God. Becoming such a close family with these amazing people I hold so close to my heart this last month has been one of the greatest chapters of my life. At some point almost every day I ask why would God put me in such an amazing place with such amazing people. I have been living solely in the present lately not worrying about the future and not thinking about the past. That is probably why I have been forgetting to blog lately. The only struggles that I have been facing are when I slip in living presently and think about how soon the end of the race is approaching, and how I will have to say goodbye to these friendships.
Anyways, I will share some details of the place I am living at and the ministry I am engaged in. Again like I had a horrible travel day of throwing up multiple times on the way to another country. We arrived at our new home, the compound in the dark of night, so I couldn’t see much of the surrounding area. I am living in the compound with two other teams, Nehemiah, and Wildfire. This was a pretty big change from living with 6 others to 20 others. In the morning I walked around in the daylight to find out we are in a large fenced in area with 5 separate large buildings many trees, and small cornfields. We are located in Maramba A which is a village 5 minutes away from Livingstone. All around us are hundreds of decently built homes with families that have crazy children who shout Mizungu (white person) the second they see me and chase me around and jump into my arms or hold my hand. The kids are so precious, I love spending time with them and learning all their unique names that range from Emmanuel to Tweeza to Precious. I have gotten really close with a few of the kids who have a special place in my heart. Our ministry is working in a preschool during the morning and football ministry during the afternoon. In an average day I would wake up at 7:00 and do T25 (a workout) with Rae, and whoever else joins, after eating breakfast our team gets together to start off our day with 30 mins of worship. Then we head out to our pre-school which is a 5 minute walk away. The moment the kids see us they run and jump into our arms, this always brightens my day. During the day we help the teacher with whatever she needs, keep the kids on good behavior and play with them outside. I love all the little tots, even though some of them are harder to get along with. At lunch we go back to eat and then have the next few hours off. These 3 hours offer so much potential to spend time with my team or to spend time with Jesus in my eno, yes I am in an eno again. During football ministry I played for the first few games until I felt like God was calling me to spend more time with the younger kids who don’t play in the football game. I have really enjoyed this ministry as it usually entails sitting down with kids, joking around with them, and getting to know more about them. Every once in a while I will bring a checker set that I made in Thailand and play with the kids. One day during soccer ministry a tall skinny 8 year old girl named Chuma came near bye and layed down on my lapp and fell asleep. This was the first little kid that had fallen asleep on me and it was a very special moment. Another day Chuma came and she had ripped off one of her toenails. I brought her back to the compound and helped fix her foot. The next few days she same aver day for a bandaid on her foot. I got to form a special bond with her and even carried her back to her house one day with Faith, her house turned out being like a mile away, lol. Ever since then I saw Chuma almost every single day, on church she would sit next to me for the full 6 hour service. Yep 6 hours at the leastOn days that we would not see each other I would get a little sad, and I know that she would to. Another kid I have gotten really close to is Toby. He is an amazing shy kind little guy who reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger. I have loved the opportunity to get close to these kids. Anyways back to the schedule after football, we eat dinner, then hangout during team time, and then after that make popcorn and end up hanging out as a team again because we love each other that much. Uggh my team is so amazing I love them so much Even if we don’t have to be together we always end as a group together. Our relationship feels so natural and I am always so happy in the presence of my team. Our personalities mix so well, and our love for adventure leads us to do crazy awesome things together, like spontaneous mud fights, climbing unfinished soccer stadiums, having bonfires, or jumping off bridges. Yep I jumped off a bridge, and not a small one. A week ago I jumped off the Victoria Falls bridge on a swing with Rae and then immediately after that I bungee jumped off the same bridge 111 meters or 370 something feet! Anyways I love my team so much and I am so glad we have been jumping into rich deep friendships so quickly.
It was kind of hard for me at first to be in another school setting for ministry However in Zambia more than any other place I feel like God is doing more ministry in me than I am doing to others. During this time I can already feel that God is teaching me so much more than in any other place on the race. He has been giving me a passion to know more about him and is calling me into the person I truly am. He has been helping me dig out the deep doubts I have entrenched in my heart. Casting out the insecurites that the enemy has placed over me. I already feel so much different of a person than I did at the beginning of the race. I feel so much more prepared to go into the world, and follow the path God is setting out for me. I honestly don’t have any clue what my life is going to look like and I am ok with that. Jesus has been teaching me so much about the meaning of faithfulness in Africa and how I need to make it a part of my daily life. I was talking to Bryan a bit ago about the future and he gave me a great visual on faithfulness. We are both outdoorsy guys and he said trusting in God is like climbing a trail on a mountain. We can not see the entire trail with our eyes only the parts that we have reached. On the trail God gives us signposts that lead us to the next signpost and so on. Right now I am comfortable in trusting that God wants me on this part of the trail, the world race, and when I reach the end he is going to give me another signpost and I am then going to follow that one. So I am not worrying about college and what that will look like.
Right now I am currently in Kabwe near Lusaka with all the other men on my squad. We are in Manestry for the next two weeks doing different kinds of ministries. Today half the guys went out and did door to door ministry and the other half stayed behind and did intercessory. I got to pray for the guys out today and worship the Lord all morning which was awesome. It has only been like two days but I already really miss my team Goshen, although I am really excited to push into the guys here and make great relationships with them. We are staying in a small home surrounded with electrical fences in the middle of nowhere. All around is the African wilderness, and the sunsets are brilliant as per usual in Africa. The nearest shop is a tiny tienda 10 minutes away that cells soda, eggs and superglue. Town is like a 10 minute drive so there is not much within walking distance. I have already loved getting to know these guys. Last night Bryan and I asked our neighbors if we could climb their water tower to watch the sunset, and it was brilliant.
Sorry about the lack of photos lately. The internet has never been good enough to post in the quality that I would prefer.
