I know it’s been awhile, but I’m back on the blog train, and want to fill you in from where I left off…
My second month on the race was full of lessons of learning to lay down my expectations in front of God and a new understanding of having patience and trust in the Lord.
Since I signed up for the Race, I had been expecting my second month to consist of doing ministry in some town in Ukraine with my six other teammates, but found out shortly before leaving Romania that our route had in fact changed. Our squad was to spend month two in Moldova instead of Ukraine, a small country also in Eastern Europe.
I then found out that I would not be getting the month with a small group of just my teammates that I had been hoping for, but my team of seven would be spending our month with two other all girl teams. We were to live and work in Tiraspol, Transnistria, a small section of Moldova that has its own government, military, and currency. Transnistria views itself as an independent country, but neither the European Union nor The United States sees it as so, but rather as a part of Moldova.
Before we arrived, we found out that Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova, and we were told we would be spending our days primarily teaching English. So I had the image of us in this big city with nice accommodations, in a classroom for a few hours a day. Well, as you might imagine, that’s not exactly how that turned out.
The month actually consisted of living on less and living in community. The twenty one of us girls living in one big open concrete room, using outdoor showers and squatty potties, living at least 30 minutes from a grocery store or Wi-Fi, working around 8 hour days split between teaching English and manual labor. To say the least the month was not turning out at all the way my expectations had led me to presume.
Each time my expectations did not turn out, I was disappointed. And I realize that this was not necessarily due to the fact that things turned out worse than I had hoped, but strictly because they turned out differently.
I was disappointed that I was not having the experience that I had planned. But as I laid my pride and my expectations aside, I came to understand I was actually having the month that God had intended for me. And as this became clear as the month went on, I was able to see why, and I was able to actually enjoy it.
The construction site I was staying at became home, and the 20 women I was living with became my sisters. All the initial inconveniences just became typical everyday life. This “country” I did not even know existed before, became a place I was able to experience God’s presence and see him at work in.
The hard, repetitive manual labor in the hot sun, moving rubble and chiseling away at bricks became rewarding seeing the progress made and knowing that the foundation we helped lay would one day become a community center that would help an innumerable amount of people physically, emotionally and spiritually for years and years to come.
The English classes that at the beginning of the month I dreaded from the lack of experience and confidence became a joy as I looked forward to seeing the familiar faces of people eager to learn and talk with us. Through our conversations in broken English, our students allowed us into their lives and became people I call friends. It allowed for natural conversations to arise about our different beliefs and to share the love and hope we have in Christ.
As I look back on the month, it is clear that God was at work in me and the work we were doing in ways that could not have happened if we were living in the world of my expectations. By the end of the month I found myself sad to leave this place that I had initially resisted. God’s plan is so much greater than anything my mind could come up with. He knows my heart. He knows ultimately what I need even better than I do. And he will never lead me astray, but only to greater things for his glory.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” -Romans 8:28
