Month 11. It’s kind of unbelievable. Before leaving on the Race, the journey ahead seemed so long! And it has been. 11 months of traveling from place to place and living out of a backpack. 11 months of airplane flights and overnight bus rides. 11 months of missing my family and my boyfriend Matt and all my dear friends at home. 11 months of getting used to different cultures, of going out to minister every day even when I’ve been tired or sick, of saying goodbye to new friends. 11 months of being in a community that challenges me in hard ways, of not being able to have time to myself or go anywhere alone, of having to surrender to authority and learn patience and wait on instructions. Yes, it has been a long journey. But it has been a good one. I will go into all the ways this journey has blessed and grown me another time, but for now I am just recognizing that although the time has come to start preparing for and thinking about home, my job here on the Race isn’t finished yet.
Team Hephzibah is spending month 11 here in Lilongwe, Malawi. Although we are technically in the capital city, our location is not anything like the city life you might imagine. As we walked through the neighborhood our contact’s home is located in, I saw barefoot children playing in the dirt outside their straw and mud houses, and was reminded of the village in the bush I stayed a week at in Zambia, only more congested and not surrounded by fields. The dirt roads are mostly too rocky and narrow for cars to pass, and there are no shops, restaurants, or modern conveniences around. We have 3 tiny cement rooms big enough for only one tent each, and so we have split up into tent-mates this month. Unfortunately the ants and cockroaches like to share our room with us, but we are learning not to mind them as roommates as long as they give us our space and don’t go through our stuff, because well, nobody likes a roommate who does that.
To be honest, going into month 11 is a challenge. Everyone is talking about home all the time and their plans and what they will do and what they will eat in the first 48 hours they are back in America. You hear the term “staying present” a lot because we all know we need to do it, but it’s hard. We’re tired. We’re ready to see our loved ones. We’re ready for the comforts of home. But we’re not done yet.
It reminds me of in Hebrews 12 where it talks about how we must run the race with perseverance. God has put me on an 11 month ministry journey. Not a 10 month one. So if I tucker out now, how will I make it to the finish line with the hope of hearing “well done, good and faithful servant”? A special shout out to my boyfriend Matt because today, right now as I type this in fact, he is running a marathon. Now, he is an amazing runner and impresses me so much with his dedication and hard work, but I know if he stopped running at mile 25 this morning and walked the rest of the way because he felt tired, he would be disappointed in himself, even if he’d run well the rest of the way. I know he will finish strong to the best of his ability, and that’s what I want to do on my Race!
So, instead of giving up, I’m going to be giving away this month. Giving away my time and not being selfish with it; giving away my negative attitudes and apathy and taking on the mind of Christ; giving away my selfish desires and doing everything I can for the people around me.
This morning I gave a sermon on “Why it’s Good to Give”. The topic was requested of me, and I think it’s perfect that God has brought that to my attention as something He desires of me for this month. I am to keep giving. Why? Well, like my three-point sermon said, because 1) God equips me to give, 2) God blesses me when I give, & 3) God is glorified when I give. That is all true for you too. So keep giving!
One last side-story about giving: Yesterday three of us had the opportunity to go to a “feeding outreach”. We drove out to a poor, rural community and found about 50 orphans sitting quietly on the floor of a one-room church building. After singing some songs and playing some games with us, the children were all told to sit and wait for some food that had been prepared to give them. We helped pass out the local staple: shima (kind of like bland, thick, mashed potatoes) and a spoonful of eggs to the orphans. It was powerful to see the hunger on their faces turn into smiles and laughter. When we asked the pastor how much it cost to do this feeding outreach each Saturday, he said “2000 kwatcha”. The equivalent?… 5 dollars. $5 to feed a meal to almost 50 orphans. $5 to turn their grumbling tummies into full bellies. So am I ready to keep giving this month? You bet.
