Has someone ever asked you not to complain when you had 62 straight hours of travel ahead of you? That’s exactly what the Lord said to me the night before we left for our first flight from Atlanta to Chicago. One thing I realized at Training Camp was that I have a tendency to complain when I’m physically uncomfortable, and God was challenging me to be the one to liven up the atmosphere instead of letting it sink into a continuous stream of “I’m tired’s” and “my butt hurt’s.” I can’t say I completed the exercise without one complaint, but I can say that I was much more aware of my attitude. Jesus was never a Debbie downer, I shouldn’t get to be either.
Our travel started off at 6am from the hotel to the airport in Atlanta. We flew two hours from Atlanta to Chicago where we had a 6-hour layover. Our next flight from Chicago to Dubai lasted 13 hours. I held in many “Guys, my butt really hurts,” complaints. After a 4-hour layover in the most cultural airport I’ve ever experienced, we left Dubai for Johannesburg on an 8-hour flight. Thank goodness for the TV screens on the back of the seats and my kindle, because I had a hard time sleeping that second flight. We arrived in Johannesburg at 5:30am and moseyed over to the bus station for a pleasantly freezing 12-hour wait.
I have never felt so obviously the outsider as I did sitting in that bus station. I am a white girl from Minnesota. I don’t stick out anywhere I go. The feeling was foreign to me. Our group was the only white people in that entire station other than the occasional passer-by. It really opened my eyes to what it’s like to be a minority, which is something I’ve never experienced on that scale. I was fighting stereotyping as I watched people walk past me. I memorized 1 Samuel 16:7 on the plane ride to the South Africa, which says, “The Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outer appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” I was trying to meditate on that when the South African girl sitting next to me asked me to watch her things as she went to the bathroom.
When she came back we struck up a conversation about our lives and the differences between America and South Africa. She noticed that I was reading my bible and mentioned that she was envious of my relationship with God. I was able to encourage her, telling her that the Holy Spirit lives in her heart and that she can access Him any time. I told her that Jesus must want to speak to her, because it’s no coincidence that we were sitting next to each other. That garnered a smile from her. I felt so blessed. It was the first opportunity I had to share the love of the Lord with someone on my trip.
After a minor panic of “Are we in the right bus line?!” we boarded a bus and rode 14 hours from Joberg to East London. Luckily, I was about to catch up on a lot of the sleep that I had missed out on. At one point, however, the Lord kept waking me up. I had the sense that he was trying to tell me something, so I silenced my mind and let Him speak. He decided, in that moment, to answer a prayer I had been praying for a while. He decided to teach me the meaning of selflessness.
I never thought of myself as a missionary. I don’t naturally carry the heart of a servant inside of me. I had been praying for the Lord to teach me exactly what that looks like. In that moment, the importance of people and my team came flooding into my mind. The Lord showed me an example of exactly what I need to do. He showed me I must put others before myself. Not only did he show me; He gave me the desire to do so. He gave me the desire to take the worst job simply so that someone else wouldn’t have to do it.
Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. I can work a little harder and sacrifice a little of myself each day for His people. I can put their comforts before my own. God is revealing to me that I have always had a selfless heart. He created me that way. He created everyone that way. The layers of the world had covered that up for many years, but it has been inside of me the whole time. I can be a natural servant. Christ was, and we were made in His likeness!
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” Psalm 139:14
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Thanks to the Lord, my heart is flawless. I am who He says I am. I am not the picture the world has drawn of me. I am not the image I have of myself. I am His daughter. I am a perfect onion. He is helping me shed the layers of the world. I will continually work on putting others before me that I may be like Him. For in Him dwells the ultimate happiness.
“So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called but few chosen.” Matthew 20:16
Choose me, Lord. Send me. I will go.
Speaking of going, we arrived safely in East London. Our accommodations are wonderful, and our ministry team is kind and accommodating. We are currently at work teaching vacation bible school to a wonderful little bunch of kids at Hope School. Stay tuned for more updates!
