The Lord has been working in so many ways in bringing me encouragement and listening ears. He has been blowing my mind!
Two days after the robbery I was going through a very difficult time. I was exhausted and ready to go home. I didn’t know if I could handle the rest of the race and all that it might bring. I didn’t want to continue if I was going to be a burden to my team for the next 3 months in the process of healing. All I wanted was a good “Mom” hug, you know, the kind that tell you it’s okay to cry.
My teammates and I had gone to the mall to shop and watch a movie; naturally Amanda and I wanted to watch a good action movie with Bruce Willis in it so we watched G.I. Joes. It was going great until the last fight scene when the projector stopped but the noise persisted. We were both a little bit freaked out so we booked it out of there (I still have no idea how that movie ends). I was frustrated with the fact that the darkness bothered me that I was scared of something happening. We went to a store to do a little shopping and I was able to talk to Mom on the phone. She gave me the number of our friends George and Sara who are friends from church back home who are now in Kenya. She was hoping we would be able to meet up. To be honest I didn’t really have that much faith that there would be much time, plus Kenya is a big place, would we really be in the same area.
All this to say, I walked outside and went over to meet my teammate Jen when she looks at me and says, “Tashy, there’s somebody sitting over there who says she knows you.” I stopped dead in my tracks and turned and sure enough it was Sara! She was sitting with a group of other missionary women at a table at the same restaurant. It was such a God moment! I got an amazing “mom” hug and balled my eyes out. Jen had seen this group of women and gone over to see if they were part of the World Race with another squad. God bless Jen, our resident extrovert!
Sara and I were able to plan a meeting and exchange phone numbers. Neither of us knew that at that moment my mom and George were facebooking each other trying to coordinate a meeting. It all worked out so beautifully!
The next day I got to meet with both George and Sara for lunch and just talk. It was so wonderful to have familiar faces that I could talk about anything that was going on in my head. I made the decision to stay on the race and finish out my next 3 months. God knows exactly what we need for encouragement. Just when I was ready to pack up and go home he sent an amazing couple right into my path to minister and love on me.
There are so many other ways he has blessed me, including a squad mate’s mom who was at the Parent Vision Trip who was a crisis counselor. She was so wonderful to take time out of her visit with her daughter to talk with me and give me techniques for dealing with the effects of the robbery.
Our God is so good! I have so many other ways I could share about his goodness but I will have to save that for another blog. Pictures will soon be coming as well.
