It hasn’t set in yet. I am the person that I have followed for years on blogs, Instagram, Facebook, and any other outlet World Race related. As much as they have prepared me to come in with no expectations, it seems almost impossible to do so. This month has been so different from anything I could have possibly imagined.
My team has been placed with Mission Ephrata under the direction of Pastor Zacharie Adetola to work in his compound. Here he has created a location where people can commune together for community events, church services, youth programs, seminars, etc. This month we are able to serve him and the church while reaching out to disciple youth and promote evangelical lifestyles throughout this community. This is an area that until recent years was plagued with civil war crisis and is in need of restoration for their people in every way including spiritually. Many of the French speaking nation that surround this area are untrained on the gospel and the people of Mission Ephrata are pioneering a new way of life for them.
To hear a brief summary of what this month looks like in words and to actually live out this life everyday are two very different things. To be honest I am not even sure exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the life I am living now. The Lord has slowly had to walk me hand in hand every day from beginning to end to guide my steps. This isn’t something that you can prepare yourself for. I have been challenged spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally.
It turns out that I had expectations not only of my circumstances, but of myself. Those expectations of what I thought I was going to be like have failed me. I thought I would last longer before I began to question myself. I thought I would be okay with leaving behind my superficial comforts. I thought that I knew how to serve people around me. I thought that I would be able to comfortably abide with cultural differences. And more than all else, I thought I knew what it was like to live a life on mission for the Lord.
The Lord is redefining what it means for me to be a missionary, a leader, a servant, a teammate, and even more so… He is redefining what I have always though a World Racer to be.
Living a life on mission isn’t about my location or my ministry for the month. Living this lifestyle is about using every moment to ask the Lord to step in and operate through you in every situation. It doesn’t always look like playing with children, preaching to the crowd, or going on an adventure. In fact, for me it has looked like participating in prayer vigils, working in a library, spending time with the locals, and listening to them share their hearts while sharing mine.
This isn’t the life I thought I wanted, but this is exactly what the Lord is asking of me now and I wake up every day thankful for the direction He is pointing me in. Though I don’t know what He has in store for tomorrow, I am excited for the different ways that He is allowing me to be a part of bringing His Kingdom to this country!
My prayer for now is that the Lord continues to redefine what my life on mission should look like. I want the Lord to show me how exactly that looks in His eyes so that I can carry out that vision for myself and for me team. I ask that He also continues to challenge my expectations of myself daily to stretch my faith in Him.
