Yesterday was my 23rd birthday. It is my 10th month of the race and my first birthday EVER away from home (birthdays are almost as big as Christmas in my family). Everybody gets together. First thing in the morning Mom and Dad sing me happy birthday. I normally get a call from my Maw Maw and Paw Paw singing Happy Birthday to me and then I get to see my sister at dinner time (sometimes it is weeks or a month since I’ve seen my sister). We all go out to dinner and come back and celebrate. Needless to say I was really sad about my birthday away from home and away from my family.
I am living in a Campsite right outside the city of Gaborone, Botswana. First thing I did was sleep in! When I woke up at 8:30 I discovered that my friend Sarah Dooley decorated outside my tent with streamers and balloons and Courtney had bought me a birthday banner! As soon as I opened my tent I had a chocolate bar and a card waiting for me.
I had an apple and peanut butter waiting for me for breakfast, some Nik Naks (African Cheetos) waiting too if that wasn’t enough. Not exactly how I would picture a birthday breakfast but the next best thing when you only have a tent to store stuff in.
My teammates sang to me as I arrived to our meeting in the morning. I couldn’t have asked for better teammates on this special day of mine. Later that day we went to lunch and dinner. They surprised me at dinner with a dessert, the closest thing I could get to a birthday cake. Later that night we had a small bon fire at the campground and made S’mores.
For my birthday I wanted to share 11 wishes I have for you:
1: My first wish for you is that you fall in love daily. No not with your spouse, not with your boyfriend or girlfriend but with God, who loves you unconditionally every single day, even when you mess up or feel crappy.
2: My second wish for you is that you make time to spend with God daily; to spend time in His word and to spend time in prayer listening for anything He has for you.
3: For you to speak the truths that God has for your life. So often we can get caught up in disappointment, finding ourselves never good enough for anybody else. Performance becomes a daily routine to please your boss, your friends, and your family. These are lies from satan. When you declare that you are worthy, that you are good enough, you are wanted by and for God. Then you start to believe those things and the enemy no longer has a foothold in your life.
4: For you to disconnect from social media and connect to the source. Remove yourself from the negatives of the world and into the comforts of Jesus. I promise you will not be missing out on much and will be much happier for it.
5: For you to live like Jesus did. Volunteer your time and money to spread the love of Jesus. Share a smile to a stranger walking past you on the sidewalk or stop and pray for people.
6: Sacrifice what you want and live by what you need. It is so easy to want the newest iPhone or see the latest movies in theaters but I encourage you sacrifice those comforts for things that don’t come naturally, like buying food for the homeless, or making somebody’s day by purchasing the meal of the person behind you in the McDonalds line.
7: That you find a community of friends who hold you accountable. When you feel like you are slowly slipping away, not doing things that you are proud of, living a way you do not want to live, you will have friends to lift you up and speak into your life instead of letting you continue on the spiral downwards.
8: Love like Jesus. It can be so easy to live like Jesus by giving our time and our money, but if these action are not out of love they they are worthless (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
9: Prepare yourself for battle. We are living in the middle of a spiritual battle between good and evil. God wants us to fight with Him instead of giving into the enemy. There are a lot of materials out there to put on your armor: first the bible, second I suggest the Bethel movies (Finger of God, Furious Love, Father of Lights and Holy Ghost) and the amount of books out there is crazy. Build your faith like you would your education.
10: Be bold. Be bold in your actions and be bold in your prayer life. Pray for the things that you cannot accomplish on your own. A lot of times we pray for things that we have control of and we don’t give God the space to show up. Pray for something that you cannot accomplish on your own or with anybody’s help but only God can accomplish the task at hand.
11: Keep your faith childlike. After living a life with so much hurt and pain, it was hard for me to trust God. Why would he let me go through so much if He loves me as much as people say He does? If we trust Him like a child trusts their parents then we allow Him to come into our lives and provide the healing that is much needed. God has much more than alcohol and Neosporin to heal our wounds.
If you cannot take on all these wishes at once (let me tell you it can be overwhelming), tackle them one by one. These are many of the things that I have learned on the World Race and things that are valuable foe you to have a strong fruitful relationship with Jesus.
Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!! Blessings from Botswana.
Stay posted for a photo blog from Swaziland to come soon.
