Three years ago I started a new journal as my life was in the middle of crazy. Reddish purple with the only the word 'FAITH' emblazoned on the cover, it soon became just that–a reminder to continually grow in faith as I journeyed through my last two years of college, surviving blood clots, learning how to create community, becoming more and more vulnerable, and what seemed like a weekly crisis of faith in my walk with God.
Luckily for this blog post, once I had taken a picture of stuff in it. Yay pictures!
That journal quickly became filled with my miniscule, cramped handwriting (the reason why it's taken me so long to fill it), drawings and flowcharts that floated around my head, recipes that should always be handy, and quotes from amazing writers. And so when time for The World Race began, of course it came along with me.
This was the year to chronicle every moment, every conversation, every step of my walk with God.
And that's what it became. A new depth and life creeped into the journal as deeper life and fullness poured into me. The people I met were captured there. The raw and sometimes painful process of going deeper with the Father were recorded there and reread as reminders of the changed person I had become on days when I needed just that.
That is, until I lost it with only a month left until I came home from The Race.
I'm a pretty scatterbrained person. So the fact that I left it at a hostel in Uganda when we were traveling from Rwanda to Kenya was not surprising to me. Simply disappointing as I ruffled through my things when we had arrived at our contact's house in Kenya only to remember that I had left it and my Bible laying next to my bed at the Ugandan hostel a good 18 hour bus ride away. Trying to embrace the fact that it was only a material possession and keep a chin up on the whole 'abandoning earthly possessions' mantra of the Race, I said a quick prayer that whoever found my journal and Bible would simply be blessed by it somehow (and I also said a prayer for the lost spork, rainjacket, shoes, knife and a few other things I had absentmindedly lost throughout the Race too. Like I said: scatterbrained).
And so I said sayonara to that journal.
Until I got a Facebook message from a stranger:
Hi Stephanie!
So this may seem incredibly random, but bear with me here. My name is Morgan, and I'm a junior at a school here in Nashville where I'm part of a service program there that requires that I spend a summer doing my own service project that I've designed on my own and implementing it for nine weeks. To make a long story short, I spent this past summer in Uganda working with HIV- Positive children. While I was there, I was with a group of other American college kids who were working on their own separate projects. On weekends, we would travel to different parts of Uganda together.
One weekend, we decided to stay at the Backpackers in Kampala. As we were leaving to go home to Masaka, one of the staff came running up to me holding a small red book. On the cover of it, it said the words "Faith." She said that she had found it in the drawer and one of us had left it behind. Thinking that it belonged to one of the other students, I thanked her and grabbed the journal as I walked out. As I began flipping through it, I realized that what I had received was not simply a journal, but a treasure. I wanted to be respectful of your journal and not read it, but certain quotes and drawings I just could not take my eyes off of.
It took me a while to figure out who you were (and obviously some insane Facebook stalking, I'm sorry if this creeps you out. Aside from the fact that I have an unhealthy Harry Potter obsession and eat peanut butter every day, I promise I'm a normal person). I want you to know that from what information I've gathered, I think you are an amazing person. You have no idea how your wisdom has impacted me and several other of the American students on the trip. In fact, finding your journal and reading some of your wisdom brought one of my friends to Christ while we were in Uganda.
The other crazy part about it is, I've been SERIOUSLY thinking about going on the World Race. Like for the past year. Then by some act of God (literally), I received your journal and you've been on the world race. Crazy.
Anyway, I just wanted to message you to tell you two things. 1) That I have your journal, and would love to meet you so I can return it in person. 2) You are an absolutely amazing human being. Not only have you touched many lives and changed many hearts, but you are a living example of what it means to shine your light for Christ.
So yeah! That's all I have to say. Praying for you wherever you are and more thankful for you than you could ever know!
-Morgan
God is crazy awesome. And not only that, but He writes much, much better stories than we ever could imagine. Shout out to you God, for continually doing crazy, remarkable, and impossible things!
Turns out this champ's been having quite the adventure
