I’m not good at taking situations that happen in my day to day life on
the World Race and putting them into words. Some people can easily
make this life seem glamorous. Some can write a blog about mundane
things, like doing laundry, and make you want to fly half way across
the world to hand wash your own giant tub of foul smelling clothes.
However, I am not one of those people. My journal looks like a 5th
graders: a lot of lists, a lot of grumbling (nobody’s perfect, don’t
judge me, I’m working on it!), and not a lot of detail. As a World
Racer, one of my ministry opportunities is blog writing. I always
intend to write life-changing, mind-blowing blogs, but they never
quite look the way I want them to. I want to share the crazy, weird
moments with you that I have experienced along this journey, but how
do I put them into words? I want to share with you how God has changed
me over the past 6 months, but sometimes it’s hard for even me to
recognize those changes. I want to share with you the things that I am
learning everyday. I think it starts with sharing the little moments
that aren’t necessarily epic, but still important.
Yesterday was our contact, Brandon’s 26th birthday. I woke up around
8 am with flies swarming me, as usual. We have about 10 pieces of fly
tape hanging from the ceiling all around the building, but there are
still at least 600 flies in here at all times. I might have had a
mental breakdown about it yesterday morning, but that is a different
story all together! So I woke up with a fly on my lip and decided I
had to get out of bed. I made a delectable breakfast of eggs
(over-easy) and strawberry yogurt and went about my day as usual. I
crafted, washed dishes, had quiet time with God, went to get Brandon’s
birthday cake, and watched Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix all
before noon. We were celebrating Brandon’s birthday during dinner, so
Mari made a feast of MEXICAN FOOD. Let’s just say I was ecstatic!
Mexican food is my personal favorite. They don’t really have it
anywhere in the world. It will be one of my first stops when I get to
America. She made refried beans, spanish rice, homemade tortillas,
beef (we never get meat, it was amazing), and much more. One of our
friends, Clive, who is a 14 year old orphan that lives near the
compound came to eat with us. He treated himself to 3 plates full of
delicious food! It was so cute. After dinner we were all stuffed and
very happy. We all went into our little nooks in the compound to
deflate our bellies after dinner for a while, and then came back for
round 2 a couple hours later, CAKE! After singing happy birthday and
digging in we all shared our favorite things about Brandon. We all
love encouraging words!
It was really hot outside yesterday, which usually leads to scorching
nights in the compound, and extra flies trying to find their way
inside. This led a few of us outside after cake. The nights here are
phenomenal. It is usually pretty breezy, and there is almost always
heat lightning. So we went out to enjoy the beauty of the night under
the tin roof of the pavilion. I feel like conversations on nights like
those are always good, and this one was no different. We talked about
the church in America, a very insightful conversation.
All that to say: this is part 1 of 2 blogs. I hear that more people
will read you blogs if you leave them hanging? I guess I will see how
that works out. To be continued…
Part 2: Why can’t I see Jesus?
