I arrived in Africa four days ago. It was the beginning of a nearly year long journey to dive deeper into who God is and who He created me to be. After two days of launch preparations, I found myself on a plane to South Africa with no chance of turning back. I was officially a World Racer. The world race was no longer a thing off in the distant future, it was no longer a daydream that I could shape into what I wanted it to be. It became a reality, MY reality. My hot, sweaty, uncomfortable reality that I couldn’t run away from… no matter how badly I wanted to. Our first few days after landing in Johannesburg, South Africa, were filled with bus rides. It was about 5 hours to our hostel the first night where we slept for about 3 hours before climbing back on the bus for another 3 hours to the Mozambique border. After crossing the border with no issues, praise Jesus, we rode for another few hours to Maputo. It was here that my discomfort really began. The heat and humidity were very bad. We stopped for a few hours at Beacon of Hope in Maputo, where we were welcomed with great kindness and hospitality. After a short rest there, we began the longest bus ride of my life. More than 21 hours on a bus. It was hot and sweaty, and smelly, and I found myself already longing for the comforts of home. The bus stopped only three times during our ride from Maputo to Beira and we quickly went and used bathrooms that were far below the standards for what I would usually consider sanitary. When we arrived in Beira we stopped in at another ministry site that one of the teams would be staying with. They offered us a cold soda, our first cold drink since we left the US. I had not had enough water because we had been on a bus and I had not eaten anything since the day before, so when I flooded my body with the sugar from the coke I quickly realized the importance of hydration. Almost instantly I became nauseous and light headed. The next thing I knew I was being picked up off the floor. The heat had gotten to me and I passed out. It was the first time in my life I had ever passed out. I have gotten sunburnt and been constantly dirty, there is a constant swarm of flies around us. All of this has, at times, made me wish I could go home, but I started this journey with the knowledge that God was going to make me uncomfortable. I didn’t want it to happen so soon, I wanted some adjustment time, but I know that God is doing something good. He is teaching me to appreciate the discomfort. I am finding joy in little things like a toilet that flushes and a hot shower, our team has already begun to walk through the struggle of being homesick, but it has brought a unity and a recognition that we are not alone. Not only are we learning to depend on each other and to be open about our feelings and our struggles, but most importantly ,we are learning to depend on God and to thank him in our struggle. Our ministry host Jaco really challenged me the other day. He asked me how long I could pray… my answer was a few hours. But then he asked “How long can you pray prayers of worship and thanks without repeating yourself?” He went on to explain that God created us to worship Him. We ask for things again and again in our prayers but how often do we pray blessing over God? How often do we say “God I pray that you have a blessed day today!” Then Jaco told us of a challenge that he had issued to a previous world race team that for a whole week they pray prayers of thanks and not ask for anything. This radically challenged me and my feelings of discomfort and discontent. This doesn’t mean that you don’t pray for those things that need prayer but instead of asking “God can you please….” You thank God for what He is going to do and you trust that He will hold true to His promises. I am going to take this challenge and I would like to offer for you to join me in praying radical prayers of thanks and worship instead of asking for things. I challenge you to give this a try and see what happens in your prayer life after a week. I cannot wait to see what God reveals to me as I learn to appreciate discomfort and to give thanks in all things.
