You may think I'm strong....

  Being here has made me very grateful for so many countless things. From comforts of just being at home, to food, to friends, and the list goes on. For this realization of what I have been blessed with, I am once again grateful.
Being here with my teammates Sarah, Holly, and our honorary teammate Nadine (she’s our German friend that works at a different boarding school here in town) we have spent quite a bit of time discussing how things are going here, how we are doing personally, etc. Which is much needed for the change in culture and in ourselves.

We listened to a sermon a couple weeks ago called ‘Making Sense of Your Life’ by Francis Chan, former pastor of Cornerstone church in CA. He spoke on Matthew 7:21-23
 ‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, ad do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

With this scripture he talks about how we need our lives to ‘Make Sense’. Whatever we believe in our heart needs to match up with our daily actions. So, whether you believe in the Bible, live your life so it makes sense. If you believe in Jesus then stick to it. Don’t believe on Sunday and pretend Monday through Saturday. Daily ask God to help you make it through the day, that you lay your selfishness aside and follow God’s way for you.

This was really convicting because even though I’ve come to Africa because God has called me here, it is still a daily task to lay my self aside and follow what God wants me to do. You would think it might be easier because I have been removed from everything that normally distracts me from doing what God wants me to do, but it is still a daily task. The exciting news, from my experience, is that God’s plan is ALWAYS bigger and BETTER than we can ever imagine. What we think we desire, God knows and has a better way of fulfilling that than we can imagine. Again, I’m in Africa and who would have thought!

With all of this, I so much appreciated everyone’s encouragement and support in my step of FAITH to come to Africa. Through God’s strength and courage given to me I was able to overcome some weakness and take this step. But being removed from everything I know into a totally different world. Being here shown me my weaknesses and I am re-learning to live life. Learning the language, how to live when the power is off for many hours at a time, when the water is shut off, learning a new culture completely different from the one I knew, and so many other adjustments. God has taken my weakness to the top of the list and is helping me breakthrough them into strengths.