First, an off-topic moment too short to get its own post but which MUST be documented:
This morning I woke up from a dream in which I woke up in my bed at home, hugged my mom, ate honey nut cheerios with chocolate milk, went to my job at Moe’s and all my favorite customers came in one after another, then I came home and watched Friends on my couch while eating marshmallows and drinking Dr Pepper.
I opened my eyes, still lying in my bed in Malaysia, and yelled(in my head of course) “Godddddd he’s doing it again!!”
By that I mean, I was tattling on Satan for trying to make me believe that I’ll be okay if I don’t get fully funded and have to go home by giving me good dreams full of everything that I miss most. He did this in September too. He knows he can’t convince me that God can’t provide for me, so he had to come up with a new angle.
But I won’t let it work.
Anyways.
Since we live on an island, naturally we spent our first day off at the beach.
And since we’re in a Muslim country and have to keep our shoulders covered at ministry, naturally I didn’t wear any sunscreen at the beach so I could combat my rapidly delevoping farmer’s tan.
And since I’m an idiot, naturally I’m now nursing the literal worst sunburn of my life.
So yesterday while the rest of my team was at ministry, I spent my day lying in bed as still as I could, because the pain from my sunburn was making me feel physically sick every time I moved.
It still hurts now(not enough to keep me immobilized, but still a lot), and all my teammates have been extra good at speaking my love language today. Except my love language is physical touch, so what would normally be a source of warm fuzzies instead feels like hot knives on my skin.
I find all of this hilarious.
I have yet to consume a single grain of rice this month, and if I can help it, I’ll be keeping it that way. We don’t have a kitchen and street food is cheaper than groceries, so we eat out for every meal. I love months like these because I get to choose what I eat(I’m well known as the pickiest eater on the squad, and even though I’m a champ at choking down things I don’t like, I’d still much rather have options). I expected to be eating lots of french fries and ice cream, because those are two things that are guaranteed to never be spicy, but there are so many places to get so many kinds of noodles, so I’ve been eating them for almost every meal and I’m not the least bit tired of them.
Today we put together 200 gift bags for the homeless.
[Casey took that]
We listened to Christmas music the whole time and it was raining outside and it was possibly my favorite ministry day ever. Plus in the middle of it we found a new noodle place for lunch, where we went with our new friend.
While I was in bed yesterday, the rest of my team met a guy at a coffee shop who’s from Australia and he loves Jesus and has been wanting to do missions for a long time. He came along to ministry with them and they told him all about the World Race. I got to meet him today(because he came to help us again) and agree that he’s awesome. He says he was looking at the website all night and is seriously considering going! Except he’s really unsure about the money thing.
I love this because I love when we make a cool new friend wherever we are(like our buddy Manuel in Ecuador), but more because it’s how my story began. When I was in Costa Rica in January 2013, I met a team from M Squad who told me all about the Race, and they told me all week that I should do it, and I kept saying “But the money!” and that was the only reason I didn’t want to go.
Now I wonder if the Racers I met knew all along that I’d end up going, because I have no doubt that Avi will. And God will provide just as crazily for him as he has for me.
When I got accepted for my Race, one of my first thoughts was that it would be so cool if I met somebody who goes on to do it themselves because of meeting my team. Like passing on the torch. I hope that’s what ends up happening.
