Today I ran for my life in south Africa.
I was crouching over a fresh nest of Croc eggs weighing them and nestling them down into their incubations crate when I heard the familiar rustling, hissing, and the whack of bamboo 10 yards away.
My teammate Caleb was on watch as my boss Xnader and I were excavating the eggs. All the sudden the Croc started to charge. Xander jumped up and grabbed his 8 foot bamboo stick to help Caleb prod the animal back into the water. He snapped his jaw furiously and when I caught site of Caleb hopping the fence 10 yards down I knew I had to get out of the pen, NOW!
I turned to scale the fence next to me but the first grip was 4 feet up and I had no leverage for my feet. I turned to feel Xander’s arm under my waist heaving me towards the gate, I hesitantly ran the next 50 yards to the gate weary of running into any of the other 6 defensive nesting females in the pen. I heard a few more gulping jaw snaps of the pissed croc as it defeatedly backed down into the water. My hands were shaking, my shirt was ripped, Caleb was still perched on the fence and me and Juliette laughed nervously about yet another rush of adrenalin. It wasn’t five minutes later we were back in the pen continuing our excavation with Caleb once again guarding us with a bamboo rod and his monkey skills.
I have run into some skepticism about our work this month, and I understand! I know this isn’t what you expect to hear racers doing a world away on a continent rife with famine, aids, and political unrest!?!?
However, the first thing you learn when you show up to training camp for the race is to lay down expectations! All the things you once depended on as givens, food, shelter, ministry, family, work, ect., they must be given over to God and not held as expectations. (there is another blog to come about that battle)! After that you realize that THE RACE IS NOT A TRIP IT IS A LIFE STYLE! It can be shockingly similar to life back home because just like your previous life it is all about your attitude and actions. YOU SHAPE THE ATMOSPHERE WHEREVER YOU ARE! In any corner of the world, any job, any relationship, any danger you face. And what you learn on the race is to create an ATMOSPHERE FOR THE SPIRIT!
I had the amazing privilege of graduating Wheaton college last May where 100% of my graduating class went into missions. Yes, their titles might not be the overt “missionary” that you are used to; they are nurses, teachers, sales men, coaches, accountants, and vets. They are in the military. They are in grad school. They are secretaries. And WE ARE ALL MISSIONARIES because we bring with us the HOLY SPIRIT everywhere we go and that creates an atmosphere for us to show God’s love and truth, which is really all being a missionary is! So this month as we work with Crocs and baby animals of all sort, and create relationships with locals we are being missionaries! Heck, even at a resteraunt, a pub, or Safari we can choose to use the atmosphere we are responsible for carrying with us every where. I believe this is like the cross we bare as Christians, our daily requirement to cary with us this atmosphere. It isn’t always easy to choose to shape our atmosphere; but when we do God allows us to walk into some pretty amazing experiences where he wants to speak. This month for our team that is working like Adam did in the garden as we trek through the wilderness of Africa pulling down hippo snares or harvesting croc nests. We get to be true stewards of creation and cultivate a reverence for nature and God’s majesty in it!
YOU CAN ALSO CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO OF OUR TIME THUS FAR ON MY FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=563759420137&comments
