Hello from Africa to my friends and family!
I will try to keep this blog entry brief, but I have so much to share and I thought, what better time than the week after Christmas! For the first time in my life, I spent Christmas away from my family where it looks very different than any Christmas I’ve ever experienced before. Usually Christmas in New Hampshire is just about freezing and very often we have snow already on the ground. In fact, just about everything has been different in my life since leaving on mission almost 4 months ago now, so I’ll just start from the beginning.
COSTA RICA (September): I spent my first month on the mission field in Costa Rica with one of the other teams in the tiny town of Los Chiles. While we were there, my team and I helped building a HUGE church sanctuary and did other manual work around our village. We helped plant trees, grass, and other various plants, and also helped build a new fence surrounding the farm property. On the weekends, we went to a few different kids clubs and VBS programs, got to play soccer with a local Christian youth program, and also got to sing worship songs for our church congregation! Throughout this month, God really worked in me on abandonment – abandonment that is of those things that were holding me back. He opened my eyes to the fact that seeking affirmation from other people is never going to lead me anywhere good. He taught me that His affirmation is the only thing that I need, and that the facade I was putting up for people, and the standards I was holding myself to had no place in my life (FREEDOM!).
NICARAGUA (October): After we left Costa Rica, our team moved to the town of San Jorge, Nicaragua near the Island of Ometepe for the next month. There we lived on a small farm that was about a 2-minute walk from the beach (crazy right?!). We lived and served at what is called a Comedor, or a place where children can come after or in between school schedules to eat, and play. This program was really awesome because it allowed children whose families may not have the food their kids need, and it provides a safe place for children who come from abusive families. In the mornings at the Comedor, the girls on my team and I would do garden work to help out our hosts, and whatever other jobs they needed done (such as separating rice grains from soy flakes when it was all mixed together…Wow, never again). This month was such a time of growth for me spiritually. God challenged me to strive for the entire month to be graceful and selfless, serving my host and my teammates with all that I could and as much time as I had. This was an amazing challenge because by practicing grace to others, I was also learning immensely about the grace God has for me, and how having grace sometimes doesn’t come easily.
RWANDA (November – present): Being pretty familiar with Central America from my travels in Honduras, it was hard to leave that corner of the world for Africa. But that is the purpose of the World Race, to move to different and new places, live among new cultures, to get out of our comfort zones and to allow God to work in and through us. As I said, things are VERY different in Africa. For starters, we don’t have bathrooms like we do at home. Instead we have to use “squatty potties” and take bucket showers. It definitely takes some getting used to! Also, the weather is very different as well, most days being well into the 80’s, even right now in the winter. In Rwanda, I have been teaching English to two different classes, one around ages 3-5 and the other around ages 6-9. This has been super fun, and definitely was something I wanted to do in Africa, since I plan to go into education when I return home. We also have church every night, where we get the opportunity to preach and sing for the congregation. Rwanda has been incredible, but also very challenging.
(I KNOW I HAVE A LOT TO SAY – STICK WITH ME!
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One thing my squad has been struggling with severely, is health issues. I personally have dealt with a severe bout of, what we believe, was kidney stones. About a week after that, I started to get sick again, with multiple flu like symptoms, constant headaches, and nausea/vomiting. It was truly awful. I went back to the hospital and they ran multiple tests, which all came back negative, except for one that said I had a parasite from contaminated water. After taking meds for this, the parasite was gone but my symptoms remained. Luckily, after a few days they started to subside and I felt normal again. Then, about two weeks later (last week and this week), my symptoms came back, but even worse than before. It got so discouraging. Until yesterday when I went to the hospital with a fever of 104 and we finally got the answer…Malaria. Yup, I took the meds, did what I was supposed to, but nevertheless I have Malaria. I think the best answer came to me from a close friend I had shared this news with and he simply said, “God will take you places no one else wants to go.” And that sums it up perfectly. That is why I am here because He has called me. And he is faithful.
My teammates have also struggled with being sick; from sore throats, to bathroom issues, to even Malaria, Rwanda has definitely been testing our health. But, through this, I know that this is the time when we need to fully trust Jesus, and sometimes that’s all I feel I can manage. God is definitely teaching me peace in these two months, because it has been incredibly hard to not be frustrated and discouraged. I know he just wants me to calm my heart and my mind and focus my eyes upon him.
We will be heading to Nepal the first week of January and I just want to sincerely say thank you to each and every one of you for reading my blog, encouraging me, supporting me with donations and tons of prayers. My final deadline is very soon, this Sunday, December 31st, and I am still roughly $1,500 away from meeting that goal. Because of my illness, I haven’t been as proactive as I had hoped in fundraising, but compared to the $13,306 you’ve all already helped me raise, that doesn’t seem too bad! Despite all of the challenges I’ve faced, I desperately want to continue this journey on to Nepal. And so I’d ask you to please prayerfully consider donating with tax-deductible donations to allow me to stay on this journey, through the link that says “Donate!” on my home page of my blog (lilyhoward.theworldrace.org). Again, thank you all for your support and especially for your continued prayers!!
Lily Howard, World Racer, Rwanda
