Since I haven’t posted many blogs lately, I’m posting a blog written by my teammate Rachel Allen!
Killing the Bedbugs and Dying to Ourselves:
I’ve heard to ‘be careful what I pray for’ as long as I remember because, God answers prayers, but He doesn’t always answer them how we think He will. If you haven’t experienced this in your life yet, the series of events that happened for team Eliora this past week should be all the proof you need to believe that statement.
These first two months of the Race, our team has been trying to find ways to do a few things; grow closer to God, build a strong community, show others Jesus, and die to ourselves. We’ve seen glimpses of this prayer answered and our efforts come to fruition, but God was waiting for the perfect timing and way to bring us together. You might think I’m crazy, but bedbugs were an answered prayer.
Now let me explain that ridiculously sounding statement. This past Monday and Tuesday we were extremely blessed to travel to Victoria Falls. We got to experience one of the most incredible wonders I’ve ever seen, and adventure like I have always dreamed of doing. We stayed in a really cool hostel and took bus rides that left us with hilarious stories. However, the part of the dream I didn’t plan on was our whole team getting attacked by bedbugs at our hostel. Every single member of our team, and another team were bitten and most of us covered by bites. Frustrated, itchy and exhausted we ended up back at our apartment in Gaborone with a game plan. We needed to seal everything that we brought with us in big plastic garbage bags, and then leave them in the sun for several days to kill them.
Here’s the thing about being an all girls team on the World Race though…we have minimal clothing with us for the year, but we still pack the majority of our belongings no matter how long our trip is, or where we’re traveling. So where that left us was with most of our possessions in plastic bags we couldn’t access. Nothing builds community, humbles you and brings you closer to God than having to ask to borrow a pair of underwear and get a teammate to rub calamine lotion on a place you can’t reach.
As we sat around looking like lepers, we began to share what God was doing in our hearts, laugh together and let each other truly into our lives like we hadn’t done before. We’ve started to learn what it looks like to truly have each other’s backs, because we have had to take turns answering strangers who approach us asking what is wrong with us. We found the community we desired in a way that we never expected.
We expected that our hopes and prayers for the Race would happen on our terms, but God had a crazy plan for our team. We still have a ways to go, but there is no doubt that the Lord has done a work in us this past week. So be careful what you pray for, because you never know how the Lord has planned to answer them.
