I’m sitting in a hostel in Kigali, Rwanda today, our first day of month ten on the Race. It’s hard to believe I’ll be back home in less than two months now, 57 days to be exact!
Our ministry was in a small village in Ethiopia this past month, where the nearest working WiFi was three hours away in the capital city. I loved Ethiopia, I loved our ministry teaching, loving on, and playing with the orphaned children at HOPEthiopia, but this was quite the transition coming from very developed cities in Romania. It struck me often this past month that not too long ago I was in Belgrade, Budapest, and Bucharest, some of the biggest cities in Eastern Europe. For us as Americans, or anyone in the Western world, we don’t think about things like WiFi, grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters, coffee shops, and shopping malls as necessarily luxuries; they’re just a part of everyday life, and we can’t imagine not having them. Until you come to Africa, where these things exist in the big capital cities, but cannot be found anywhere else. In the village in Ethiopia, even shampoo, conditioner and soap, what we think of as basic and easily accessible needs, were hard to come by and had to be shared between the 28 women on my squad.
On our first full day in Ethiopia, the Lord gave me the word SIMPLE for the month. Life in Harbu Chulule, the village we were in, was so beautifully simple. The people don’t have our American stress, worries, or overall busyness plaguing their minds and their lives 24/7. Ethiopians work hard, take care of their families, and care for one another, yet still have more than enough joy to go around. Yes, most of the country is living in extreme poverty without such basic needs as clean water, adequate food, or basic hygiene. But they are rich where we as Westerners are living in extreme poverty. In joy, love, genuine kindness, and community.
There are a lot of Americans, even people I know personally, who are incredibly critical of overseas Christian mission work. Calling it “voluntourism” or looking at amazing, life-changing organizations like AIM and programs like the World Race and labeling us with a “white savior mentality.” These people couldn’t be more incorrect, however. It’s instead a cultural exchange, where both cultures and people groups, including us as Americans, walk away changed. Often times we as Christian missionaries are able to provide physical needs: food, clean water, assisting to build homes, planting trees for reforestation projects. But often we as the missionaries walk away infinitely more impacted than the people the Lord has called us to serve. We experience different cultures, people, and ways of life no textbook in a classroom, movie, documentary, or Google image can ever teach you. Those experiences are not ones that you so easily forget. They change everything in the world, in fact. I know that I will not return to America in August the same person who left it nine months ago. And I know that every person I have met, hugged, prayed for, every child I’ve played with this past year, has changed my life forever. They have all changed me to think and act globally, to be so very grateful for my privilege and opportunity I was born into, but more than anything, to do something with it and to devote my life to trying to do some good in the world.
I found this past month that the Gospel, this relationship I have with Jesus, and this life He’s given me really is so simple as well. Though there are a lot of “Christians” who preach otherwise, we have only two commandments, two “rules” in relationship with Christ. To love God and to love others. It’s really all about love. Living loved and being love to others, whatever and however that may look like. We often times insist on making living your life for the Lord so complicated. We overthink, overanalyze, and second guess constantly. But the beauty of the simple gospel is just that—it’s so very simple. Love God. Love others.
Though it won’t be easy, I know that He is teaching me the value and the beauty of simplicity right now so that I can carry this home with me in two months. I know that it’s changing me, my faith, and the way I will live my life forever. While I’m thankful for the country I was born in, for the freedom that was given to me, I’m eager to live so counterculturally at home. I’m eager to live out this true gospel and to show others just how simple it can be.
On repeat this month:
United Pursuit- Simple Gospel (Live)
Amanda Lindsey Cook- Still
Dawes- Somewhere Along the Way
Citizens- Looking Up
Lord Huron- Time To Run
Paul Simon- Under African Skies
