The Lord is so good! There’s no other way to put it. Upon arrival in Botswana The Lord asked me to journal through the coming months. At the time I didn’t understand why The Lord was asking me to do so, but now with only a couple of weeks left I have begun to understand why. He has taught me how to truly be thankful even on hard days; how to praise him even when it isn’t easy.
March 6th – after driving over an hour on the bus we got dropped off on the side of the road with only huts in sight. At the bus stop a lady from The Village Church was waiting to show us the way to the church. When we asked her how far of a walk it was, she replied by saying, “Too far.” And with that I picked up my 35 pound backpack while wearing a floor length skirt and started walking the 2 KM to our new home for the next twenty days.
Thankfulness #221. A cold drink after a long hot walk
March 11th – Today was a good day. There aren’t any better words to use than “good”. Cayla and I stayed back from house visits to cook lunch. Today was our first meal to cook over a fire. We had to go to the store to get 3KG of beef to cut and cook for our teams. As we sat in the storeroom at the church cutting the meat I began to have a new appreciation for meat in America. The meat was black in places, and we found veins and in it. But Cayla and I had great conversations while we cut the meat. Today was such a gift!
#222. Chatting while cutting smelly-discolored meat
March 14th – This morning I woke up to a bat hanging above my head on the outside of my tent, and I could feel another crawling against my knee through the tent. I don’t think I have been more scared of an animal as I was this morning. I now have an extreme fear of bats. And I will be relocating my tent to the other side of the room.
March 21st – Today I have been thinking about all the bad things that have happened so far on my race and how I honor the people involved while at the same time sharing their stories. I sat in my hammock a long time today pondering this. The conclusion I came up with, and that The Lord confirmed, is that some stories aren’t mine to share. Some things will need to go untold to love and respect the people they involve.
#546. Loving on people in Jesus’ name knowing you can’t change their circumstances.
March 23rd – Today was a hard day. I was on lunch clean up. After I finished eating I began washing the plates. A group of kids came up and started picking the burnt rice out of the pot that had water and soap in it. Many times over the last few days I have been having a hard time loving on these very mischievous kids. When I saw them eating the rice I became frustrated again, then my heart broke; I couldn’t bear to see them so hungry while I had a full stomach of rice. We ended up making them leave and told them to come back in a coupe of hours. After the dishes were done I went and cried in my tent for over an hour partly because it broke my heart to see the kids so hungry, but also because I let myself get so mad at them when they are just hungry for love and food. I know tomorrow I will have to go and love those kids and have grace with them just like The Father had grace with me today when I got so frustrated with those kids.
#419. Being heartbroken for His children
March 29th – Last night we gathered together to pray for a girl in the community. Mbola stood in the middle of the room. I stood in the back next to Mbola’s younger sister as we began praying for her. I saw tears come down Mbola’s checks. Today as I sat in my hammock thinking about her, I felt The Lord tell me that Mbola doesn’t truly know Who the Father is. As I sat there I began to wonder how you explain who The Father, Jesus, and The Spirit are to someone who doesn’t know who they are?
April 4th – It has been 30 days since I arrived in the Bush. I’m currently at Love Botswana because I hadn’t been feeling well. The squad leaders made me come back to Maun for a few days. I didn’t realize how long I had been in the Bush until tonight. A lot has happened in the past thirty days. I’ve seen crazy things, and I’ve grown in crazy ways. In the past month I’ve enjoyed dreaming with The Lord about the future and starting each morning with Him. He has been showing me how much I’ve grown over the past 8 months. I’m thankful for the past eight months, and I’m excited to see what He has for me for the next month.
#488. Being called away by The Father for nine-months
April 15th – Yesterday we left Xakoa to go back to Maun to finish out the remainder of our time on the field. We were supposed to get on the 3:30 pm bus, but the bus broke down, and we were unable to leave until 3:30 am this morning. We camped in the yard of a sweet lady who we only met last night.
Within an hour of getting on the bus my bottle of cough syrup broke, and the entire bottle spilled out of my bag that was above me all over my head and face. I cleaned it up as much as I could with it being dark, put my ear buds in, and tried not to think about how horrible it is to be sticky when you still have six hours to travel on a bus. After sleeping about an hour I woke up, unstuck my ear buds from my ears and looked out the window. The moon was beginning to drop, the sight was beautiful. As I looked out the window The Lord reminded me that He has so many gifts to show me even on a long sticky bus ride. For most of the ride a ten-year-old girl sat next to me. We talked, played, and listened to music together. It was such a gift to get to know her.
#496. Sitting next to shy giggly kids on bus rides.
Like I said at the beginning: The Lord is so good! The past forty days in the bush have been hard, yet they have been so good!
