Our ministry for the past month and a half has been working in a school, teaching form one (freshman) level students English. I, along with Hannah Grace (the best teaching bud), have 16 students who we love and support with everything we have. I have spent countless hours trying to get them to understand the most confusing language (why there are 3 meanings for the same word, I will never know), laughing with them, bribing them with candy so they stop talking for over a minute, encouraging them, making art, and so much more. I think when I first pictured the Race, I pictured this. I pictured teaching English in a rural village in the depths of Africa and it being this easy, breezy ordeal. Well, half of that has come to pass, but it’s definitely not easy, breezy. It’s hard to have patience, to smile on Fridays when I just really want the week to be done, and to see the reality of it all. The reality is that most of them will not make it out of their villages. Most of my students will not attend university and will not fulfill the dreams written in their notebooks. It’s hard to watch them push towards an unreachable goal. This was so difficult at first and made me slip quickly into a “well what’s the point” mentality, but then I realized this truth: the Lord knows my sins of tomorrow, yet He gives me grace today. He knows I won’t serve my teammates to the best of my ability tomorrow, yet He gives me an answer to a question I’ve been praying for for months today. He doesn’t fail to give me love or His best today, just because He knows my tomorrow. I cannot fail to give the students my best today, just because I may know the statistics of their tomorrow. I pray every day that they prove those statistics wrong and become those doctors and lawyers I know they can be, and if not, that they do the will of God wherever they may be. I pray that they understand their worth comes only from their Creator, not the grade on their test or how many English words they obtain. I pray they see the light in their own eyes, just as I do everyday. I pray I impact them even half as much as they do me.
This past week’s news of the Florida school shooting shook my team and I to our core, especially working in a school each day. I’ve decided to honor them the best way I know how – through prayer:
Alyssa, Scott, Alex, Martin, Cara, Nicholas, Jaime, Aaron, Chris, Gina, Luke, Joaquin, Alaina, Meadow, Helena, Carmen, Peter – darkness took you out of this world, but what majestic light you walk in now. Sweet students and faculty, I lift you up in prayer today and always. I lift up all who knew and loved you. In my eyes, you deserved many more days on this earth, but that is not what you received. You instead received a fear I can never imagine, but I trust that the Lord held you in that moment and it was more beautiful than a thought I could ever conceive. I trust that the Lord will move this mountain for those left behind to grieve what seems like a hole in their heart that just keeps growing, to forgive what seems so utterly unforgivable. So God, we give this to you. We hand you this burden and we ask that you pour out blessings upon it. We ask that you carry those that need to be carried, speak for those who do not have the strength for words. We are your people, be our God.
P.S. This blog is so long overdue, and for that I am overflowing with apologies. Please know each one of you are in my prayers every day nonetheless!! In an extremely short, summarized version of this past month and a half: We had to move out of our home for a week or so to recover from bacterial infections that four of us were diagnosed with. In that time, our beloved teammate, Alex, went back to the States (he wrote a blog about it that can be found here: alexanderhogue.theworldrace.org), I was officially diagnosed with malaria and feeling its effects quite a bit, and my team was slightly homeless. Those two weeks were unexpectedly difficult – dealing with Malawi’s all too real spiritual warfare as well – but my team handled it by fighting back with unceasing prayer and just so, so much popcorn and coffee. The sun rose again for us though, and we are back in our sweet village, fighting our way through (check out Jackson’s blog for that as well: jacksonmoushon.theworldrace.org). I am so incredibly thankful for this team’s perseverance and overwhelming sense of hope throughout the entirety of this past month especially. Please keep not only us, but our students who we work with everyday too, in your prayers!
