Yes, my friends, I am now in Kenya, which is in fact in Africa. I have been saying to myself over and over the past couple of days… “I am in Africa, I am in Kenya… in Africa.” It is crazy to think that I am out of Asia and in a completely new place. I almost don’t know what to do with myself.
Last month was a small bit difficult for me emotionally… a lot of thinking time, getting used to leadership, spending Christmas away from everything that I know, so I was excited to realize that I would be going to a new place, even though that place is here… Africa. From the beginning of the race, I did not want to come here, but the Lord has already reassured me that I am in the right place.
In true World Race fashion, travel day was long, exhausting, and full of unknowns. After being in the sky for 9 hours, sleeping most of the time, I woke up to the sunrise over the continent that would be my home for the next three months. When I tell you that I saw a sunrise unlike any other, it almost isn’t worth it to you to describe it. The whole sky, still full of night, was completely black, and then out of seemingly nowhere… a stroke of brilliance. What I saw that morning was what looked like someone literally taking a rainbow paint brush full of the most radiant colors that a human can imagine and with one graceful stroke, simply brushing it over the black.
And yes, at that moment, the Lord spoke to my heart, as He often does in the most subtle and beautiful ways. He made a promise to me, sort of like a rainbow. The beginning of the race has been hard, and even though it won’t get any easier, He is beginning to paint my black. I feel like I have lost so much and left so much of myself behind, that I have nothing left. With the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, God, the Creator of the universe, promised to give me color again. I know that He is faithful, and I know that He is true, but did I know He was good enough to pick up the pieces? I don’t think I’ll ever understand the vastness of all that He is, but to know that He is here and He has taken me to a land of new breath is more than I could ask for.
I will be in Isibania this month, which I leave for tomorrow on a bus. The contacts that I have talked to are so excited to have me and my team. I look ahead to new breath, new life, a new destination, new vision, new fervor, and a new me.
