**Note to readers: this was written March 23rd while
I was still in Uganda**
I came on this race to learn,
be challenged,
and travel the
world.
To different degrees all these things have happened
so far.
In 7 months I have been to 9 countries.
My challenges have been many.
The list of things I have learned from God & my community is
ever growing.
Overall, in
Africa, I learned a lot about:
Endurance &
perseverance.
These are two
words I have been learning a lot about.
God has been
teaching me what it means to endure and persevere through all circumstances.
Currently I am in Uganda.
Last month I was in Rwanda.
In three days I will be in Thailand.
My lessons on
endurance and perseverance started in Rwanda,
have been
deepened & refined in Uganda,
and I believe
they will be important for Thailand.
I have never really been a quitter.
But I can promise you that in Rwanda I was more than ready to be
done with the race.
I was done with the exhaustion.
I was done with ministries I just didn’t like or feel passionate
about.
I was done with my team & being around them 24/7.
I was done with the spiritual battle I was constantly in.
I was just done; ready to be back in America.
During the battle to quit and to home, I knew that it wasn’t
Gods plan. He began whispering to me that I needed to persevere. “ugh, really god?” “why?” “I am not strong enough.” I battled wanting to go home
for a long time, but clearly I continued that battle and have stayed on the
race.
In battling, I
have learned a lot.
I learned that perseverance is possible when I begin relying on
God’s strength and not my own. I learned that battling and persevering builds
endurance, and endurance will help me to make it through any circumstances I am
currently facing or will face in the future. The more endurance we have, the
more hope we have. The more hope we have, the more victorious we will be for
the kingdom of God.
More than that,
we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope, and hope does not
put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
(Romans 5:3-5)
As we persevere & endure various circumstances, God produces
in us character of Christlikeness, and this ultimately leads to deepened hope.
Hope is a necessity. I need hope while living in this broken
world or else I will get caught up in the sad and bad. I have seen and
experienced so many sad and unjust things while traveling around the world. And
if it weren’t for the hope that the lord is giving me through my journey of
learning about endurance and perseverance, I would be in tears everyday.
It is unbelievable the way people live,
the afflictions they face,
the way they are treated,
despite all of this, there is hope.
Hope that is
sometimes unexplainable,
but hope of
redemption and provision and salvation.
Hope that
through us 43 (crazy) missionaries traveling for 11 months the kingdom of God
is advancing through us in each of the communities and countries we visit.
Hope that God
will eventually deliver these people out of their present circumstances and I
will see them again in heaven some day.
The hope I have will be a necessity in Thailand. We will be
working with women who are in the sex trafficking industry. They need hope, and
I pray that I will get to be a beckon of hope for the women I meet.
“And let us run A)” style=”font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top; “>with perseverance B)” style=”font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top; “>the race marked out for us”
[Hebrews 12:1]
