Yes you read that right. Let me tell you about my first night here in Dondo. Before this story can be told, I have to tell you some events leading up to this. We left America on January 11th, and did not get to our ministry site until January 15th at 12:30pm. My squad traveled a total of 79 hours and 26 minutes to get here which includes 2 planes, a bus from Cape Town, South Africa to Maputo Mozambique, and then a bus from Maputo to Dondo, Mozambique where we currently are. The bus from Maputo to Dondo was almost 24 hours, which for me included half my butt on a seat and the other half on a seatbelt. Definitely the most painful bus ride I’ve ever endured, but also one of the most rewarding. I was sitting next to one of my squad leaders, Kristen, and when we weren’t sleeping, we were laughing, or sharing stories, or playing the thankful games. I seriously don’t think I could of made the ride if I wasn’t sitting next to her. Anyways, lets get to the rat, the part of this story I know you are all waiting to hear about.
Like I said earlier, travel day was a bit rough. I was draining, tiring, and painful. When we finally arrived at our site, it was 12:30am and everyone had one thing on their mind…bed, however that looked, as long as we weren’t sitting upright, we were happy. We got split up into our houses, and grabbed our stuff, and started to settle in. I pumped up my sleeping pad, so happy that I had splurged on the expensive one, and laid down. I was so happy to be in that position, I started thanking God and that’s when it happened. I felt a bump against my thigh, and then something scurry over my chins. One of my team mates was standing over me, and the look on her face confirmed to me exactly what it was that had just come out of hiding…a rat. I swear it was the size of a chihuahua. I immediately freaked out, jumped up, and ran to the opposite side of the house. After a few seconds, I ran to get some of our guys because there was no way I was hunting this beast. I stayed far away while they did their thing of shaking baskets, checking corners, shining lights and all the things that come with rat hunting. After about 10 minutes, they came up empty handed and left. Not good enough for me. I was convinced this thing was out to get me so there was no way I was sleeping on my pad on the floor. I decided I would sleep on my pack which was laying on top of some metal beams on the floor. To say I slept that night would be a lie. All night I awoke at the slightest rustle or movement anyone made. The next night came around, and I decided to hang my eno in our room. I thought I would be much safer up high than on the ground and I though I would actually be able to sleep. Not only did I wake up a lot, I was up with a few other teammates for like 2 hours in the middle of the night. I knew something was wrong, that something deeper was going on, so I asked God to show me where this fear was coming from.
Our squad has been doing things to be more vulnerable with each other these past fews days. We’ve gotten up in front of each other and shared areas of our life where we are vulnerable. No easy task. Picture 100 eyes on you as you share the dark parts of your life, makes you want to throw up a little or cry? Yeah, well welcome to my life (fyi I did not throw up.) Not only is it scary, but we’re trusting 50 people who we know but not really with areas of our lives we sometimes haven’t even shared with our best friends back home. Well day 3 rolls around and I just had a feeling it was my day to share. I couldn’t pinpoint a certain area of my life, and I was still asking God to show me where this fear was coming from preventing me from sleeping when I figured it all out. A soon as I did, God told me now share it with your squad. I didn’t want to. As person after person went, the faster my heart was beating. Finally with the help of one of my squad mates, I spoke up and told the group I was ready to share. I went into a little back story before revealing to them that before the trip God started restoring some major relationships in my life, and that I was scared that it was only because I was leaving and once the trip was done, or even farther into it, those relationships will go back to normal. I revealed that all I wanted was a restored relationship with my earthly father and was scared that God was going to take it away. They prayed for me, and guess what? I slept like a baby that night. Ok, I slept as good as someone can in a hammock in humid 80 degree weather, but still, gotta take what I can get. If it wasn’t for the rat, I probably wouldn’t of acknowledged the fear or blamed it on something else. I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I’m thankful God sent that rat to run over me.
