I admit that I have been neglecting my blog. I’m not really sure why it is so hard for me, but the fact remains that I struggle with finding words, feeling like I have a story to tell, etc. Nevertheless, I know that it is important to share my journey with friends and family at home so please allow me the opportunity to catch up!
When I think back on our time in Turkey, I think of three things: being cold and wet, growing a lot in ministry, and living on top of other teammates in a tiny one bedroom apartment – all seven of us. It rained all the time and even snowed a couple of times while we were there! I’m sitting in Africa, sweating, as I write this and am having trouble taking myself back there, but, alas, we were cold and miserable. The main part of our ministry was walking around talking to people, and, thus, required that we were out of doors a lot. Our original race route included Jordan and Egypt, not Turkey and Bulgaria, so I had to stock up on leggings, scarves, gloves, a new sweater, etc, but managed to survive. And, once we were in our apartment, we were warmed by all the people in a small space – one blessing of our housing arrangements! 🙂 Another blessing was becoming closer as a team, if I couldn’t escape them, I had to join them!
I have always considered myself pretty out going and confident, but for some reason I spent the first four months of my World Race petrified to talk to new people. Whenever I heard that our ministry would be just talking to people, praying for them, sharing about Jesus, etc., my stomach would churn. I came to serve, not talk to people, but more importantly, I knew that I came to be stretched and accomplish whatever task was put before me. Also, thankfully, I knew I needed to lead by example for my team so I would suck it up and pretend that I was excited. But my heart was never in it, I never felt a desire to talk to strangers.
Then one day early in December, I was sitting in Starbucks, trying to post a blog, and people would not stop talking to me. At first, I was irritated because I just needed to post the blog so I could go back, but then I realized these interruptions were what I had prayed for. I prayed that God would bring people into my path to talk to… and then I was annoyed once they arrived…opps. Once I got over myself, I had such a great time just chatting, listening and learning about people’s stories.
Overall, it was a great time of growth, though it was difficult. So that is an update on my December,…better late than never! 😉 More on my January, Month 6 in Uganda to come….
