Home Sweet American Home!

Yes, that's right! My feet are finally planted on American soil...I mean freezing cold, solid snow...WHAT A CHANGE! I just can't seem to get warm! Even in my own house I feel like my toes are going to fall off! But more importantly, my heart, has definitely been warmed by the wonderful welcome from my friends at the airport, and then a hilarious, priceless dumbfounded look on my dad's face when I surprisingly walked into the house with them a day earlier than planned...man, I got my parents good! It was a hard secret to keep, but it all worked out perfectly!
I want to apologize for not keeping up with my blogs after I reached Rwanda...I don't have any excuses, except I just felt bad that there weren't any pictures to share with you...However, I included pictures of my journey on the blog above, so when you read this, you can see the faces of who I am talking about above. So, what am I supposed to write? How do I sum up almost a year and a half of my life that even if I tried to put it in words, they would always fall short of what my heart wants to express...sure I could use all the cliche words like, "life-changing, amazing, the best year and a half of my life, challenging, exciting, words can't describe, incredible, etc.," but all those adjective "don't do justice" (another cliche). All I can say is I would gladly do it all over again, not because every moment was enjoyable (one would argue that I would even describe 1 hour on an African bus, let alone 20, as that...), but because I now have a PERSONAL testimony of how REAL and FAITHFUL God was (and still is) for me in those 3.5 months. For example, did you realize I only had to pay for 7 nights accomidation? That's almost 13 weeks of generous African hospitality, none of which people I knew before I came to Africa...Did you know that sometimes I didn't know where I would spend the night that day, but God always placed a Christian African brother to get me to a safe place? Or how I met Daniel at the bus station in Tanzania, and trusting God after meeting his mom, I left with them to be blessed with the most beautiful swahili worship, prayer, and meal before heading off for 32 hours on the worst busride of my life the following day? And before leaving said, "if you ever come back through Tanzania, please stay with us. It's not good for our Christian sister to be staying in a hotel?" Or another time when I met Anita, another sister, in the bus station in Rwanda who invited me to stay at her place in Uganda (which ended up being over 10 days)? She didn't even know me beforehand, but pampered me to a complete hour long pedicure and manicure without me mentioning anything? (keep in mind I had been in the dirt for 2 months without a proper feet cleaning due to lack of running water...) Her comment, "if you lived here with me, I would never get old because you would always make me laugh," as well as other comments about my morals and values, were confirmations from God that He was giving me His joy to pour out onto His people, as well as teaching them it is possible to live holy lives. Every country (South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda)in which I spent either 1 day or over a month, each said that I have a home there. How do you put just this small part of my time traveling into words, when I am used to a country that won't even let their own relatives stay at the house because there's "not enough room?" One "2-bedroom" house I stayed in was a village in Mozambique. I arrived there one night at midnight by bus. And God began to shower me with His favor as soon as I met Zacharias' mother, who is in her late 60s, works hard in the rice fields, has to rise with the sun at 4:30 every morning, woke up to greet me and serve me chicken dinner she had cooked for me, a rare delicacy when one lives in the village where money is "tight." Remind you, she doesn't speak English and has never met me before, but considers it an honor to have visitors. As she showed me my room, which was about 9 by 4 feet cement with space between the wall and roof, sinking mattress that swallowed me in when I laid on it, and a mosquito net with holes that wouldn't keep out a flying mouse. Now if you can imagine this in 90 degree temperature and no window for a breeze, by my standards, it was definitely NOT a comfortable place to be. But God began to teach me a beautiful lesson when I saw a little boy wake up from other room to use the latrine (a hole in the ground to use for bodily functions) outside. I poked inside that other small room to find 3 other children laying on a straw mat on the cement--no mattress, no pillow, no space to sprawl out to make themselves comfortable. On the way back into the room, Valdo stopped still halfasleep to smile at me and shake my hand to greet me. I almost had tears in my eyes when I realized I was getting the African village version of a 5 star hotel, only it was better...Let me tell you why. Who was I to be blessed with their best that they had to offer me, while the rest of the family risked getting malaria and had to sleep on top of eachother on the hard ground in the humid conditions? And they did this for 5 nights in a row without complaining, in fact wanting me to stay longer? WOULD I DO THAT FOR A STRANGER--GIVE UP MY COMFORTABLE BED AND HEALTH FOR SOMEONE I DIDN'T KNOW, AND DO IT WITH A SMILE? OUCH! But then I was seeing it from God's perspective. JESUS CHRIST gave up everything for my life and yours. I realized in this humbling moment that these people, who quickly became my adopted Mozambiquan family, were more like Christ than I probably have ever been. They gave up their best for an undeserving person, just like Jesus did for you and I.
Another woman in Tanzania did the same thing...I had only met her once briefly before on the way through, so when she showed me where I would be sleeping, I wanted to laugh in disbelief. There were two couches in the living room, but she guided me to the opposite side of her own double bed. Instead of leaving me to the couch where most people would put strangers in their house if they couldn't have their own room, I took the place where her husband normally slept when he wasn't away on business. It was now my place to lay my head for the next 10 days. What would you say to this offering?
Now some people might argue, "Well, that's African culture and we do other things to show we're hospitable people, like taking them out to eat and paying for their hotel." Here's the question I started to ask myself, what do you think Jesus would approve of? Would I give people I didn't know the best I had to offer? I can honestly say that although the conditions were a bit "uncomfortable, dirty, buggy, hot," I have never before felt so welcomed and loved by STRANGERS in my life. NEVER. How would you feel? Would you honor them by receiving it?

God asks us the same question: Will we receive God's best? And in return to be a living example of Jesus? Will we become a Christ follower despite the uncomfortable conditions? When we really understand in complete reverance and disbelief of how He gave His us His son to die a horrible death on a cross even though He was innocent and were not, not in a way where we feel guilty so we HAVE to give up our lives, then we will be compelled to love God and others the same way. With this incredible revalation, I was motivated by LOVE to give back, not guilt. Out of complete freedom in joy, not out of obligation. God deserves our best because He gave us His. Without it, I would be on a straight road to hell. And how can we repay God? It's impossible, and God made it that way so we would always need Him to help us live a life worthy of His Son. He gives us grace to try and doesn't expect perfection. It is NOT burden--something to dread and complain about--but a very precious privilege. I get to represent Christ, not Allah, or Buddha, or strange gold statues, but a true, living, loving God because He chose me to work with Him and for Him. And THAT is life. Nothing else satisfies. So find your life in Him by receiving the free gift of His Son Jesus Christ and abandon your life to Him because when you lose the life you have tried to keep for selfish desires, you will find it in His amazing purposes. God will show you what He created you to do for His Kingdom...He's planted it in our hearts and we need not to be afraid to go after it.