I think I’ve seen more tears in the last 5 days than I’ve seen in the past year. Leaving for this trip was exciting and I thought I was prepared and excited for the way my life would be changed ‘on the mission field’, but even in a first-world country like Ireland, it’s difficult for me to find much comfort in a life that is so different.
Thus far, I’ve slept in the smallest 2-person tent you can find for the past 5 nights, cuddling my computer, water bottle, laundry, camera, bible and other random things that will last me for the next 11 months. I have blisters on the back of both achilles heels, washed a load of clothing with my team in which the only dryer broke, leaving us to air-dry our clothing INSIDE of our tents (since it has been a steady drizzle/downpour since we’ve been here), walked a combination of 5-10 miles per day, taken 2 showers (which I realize is probably luxury compared to the rest of what’s to come), paid 1.5 Euro for these “8-minute showers” that are more like 4 minutes and 47 seconds, not once used any sort of paper towel while eating (we just lick off the peanut butter and jelly), I definitely had hummus in my hair a few days ago at lunch, set up my tent in wind gusts topping what seemed like 50mph in our new location (Galway) Salthill Caravan Park (A few people on my team now have broken tent poles), I haven’t had access to any sort of stove, microwave or cooking facility, I’ve had an average of 6 hours of sleep per night, and my teammate Ashlee has now been peed on for a second time (this time the honors came from a very cute dog we stopped to pet while walking into town)!
I’m telling all of you this, not to complain, but to illustrate something I wasn’t even expecting – How finally getting to this point of having my circumstances flipped upside down has caused me to begin realizing how much I actually relied on the comforts I had in America. Also to illustrate how extremely simple we can live, and be JUST FINE. Again, I want to mention, we are still in Ireland which is a first world country. I’ve shed more tears that I’d like to admit. I found myself with tears in my eyes more than once, picturing myself driving my own car to a coffee shop, buying a latte, sitting down and just wasting away the day there. I’ve also imagined myself climbing into my queen-sized, pillow top mattress bed inside a house with unlimited hot shower access. My mind has also wandered to hanging out at a friends house, going to a movie theatre or just making myself a hot dinner on a STOVE. Then, I realized the reason I chose to be here. God has called me to be here so I can rely on Him as my comfort – I’ve prayed more in the last 5 days than in the last two months since training camp. Someone said something during service the other day that reminded me of the truth. God can give us a comfort and peace that this world can never give us. The less we have to physically rely on, the more we are reminded to turn to Him.
