Living in a Village

We journey to Sinhuan Sunday morning so that we could make it to church before settling into where we would be staying for the next two nights. We enjoyed worship in English and Mende (their native language) and a sermon by Father Abraham who planted the church and is also a teacher at the school. Father Abraham praised God because he has 9 children and his oldest in currently in University. For a man living in a village to have a child in university is a testimony to how God can provide miracles! After church we walked with Father Abraham to where we would be staying. They put us up in the chiefs house and so unlike many other huts with dirt floors we had a cement ground! Then showed us the bathrooms in the back of many of the huts. One was covered with palm trees and rocks at the bottom to do your business (this is also where you bath) and the other (for #2) was also covered with palm trees and a cylinder block you could sit on! After getting settled in we walked with the children to see the women making palm oil..and after helping them for 10 minutes I was exhausted and yet these women were at least 50 years of age who had been doing this for hours already! Then it began to pour and we ran to father Abrahams porch where we sat together eating mangos until the rain cleared!

            Once the women returned Courtney and I helped prepare dinner. We did not know the language very well so she would show us how to do certain things and we would mimic her. As we cooked they played music and the children, moms, and dads began dancing (MTV style) and would laugh and Courtney and I when we would try to dance with them.

            As night fell it was pitch black. We began to get out head lamps out as the children crowded around our home. Then Uncle Ben (another teacher from the school) brought out a lamp, as other brought instruments, and chairs, and then the worship party began. We danced until 11pm at night! To watch them dance is truly remarkable because, you can see the joy in their eyes as they dance, it was amazing.

            No matter how late I go to bed I always wake up early and this was no different. People begin waking up at 6am fetching water and preparing for work for the day. Children must do their chores before they leave for school so I watched as children swept and walked up and down the hill fetching water. The morning were my favorite times because I felt apart of their culture! I said BAE (how did you sleep) as people walked past and they would respond Cyangoma (praise God) and we would shake hands to greet one another. Once everyone was ready we walked through the swamp, across the forest, and in a village together to get to school!

            The next night was another night of dancing, singing, and praise to the Lord! This village holds a special place in my heart because of people like Father Abraham and Uncle Ben who have been faithful to the Lord and have brought hope into their village by shining the light of Jesus! 

Short Term Mission Trips

I don’t think I could do another short-term mission unless it was in Sierra Leone again (since I want to continue the relationships I have built here.) The reason being that I always think of the future. So being in a short term mission you can be involved in peoples lives but you only allow a certain amount of your self to be fully immersed because you know you will be back to your “real world” in a short matter. So if you face trials “well I only have this much time left and then ill be home,” I am not saying short-term missions are a bad thing because I think they are wonderful. They have opened my eyes to realities I was blind to before going but personally I could NOT do another new short-term mission trip. If I go on another mission trip I’m going there with the mindset of being there for life. Without a pre-purchased plane ticket home. 

Sick In Africa

So I am sitting in the house with Mark. We are both in for the day because of the sickness that has overcome him, Matt, and I the past couple of days. Being sick in Africa without running water and living with 8 other people has defiantly been an adventure in itself.  It is not fun being sick in Africa.  Although it has been eye opening for realizing what it is like for the people living here. I became sick the morning we were still staying in the village and had to leave the village earlier to get home. The walk from Sinuhun to where I stay in COTN goes through a swamp and takes about 30 minutes to walk. COTN is also the only place with a nurse and so whenever people are sick they have to walk to COTN to get treatment. As I walked I praised God I didn’t feel worse and that I was able to walk straight to my house, but I thought about all the people who are sick past to point where they should be walking and yet they have to walk in the heat of Africa at least a mile (usually more) to get help. In America we get sick and we have a nice big bed to lay in, tv to reoccupy our mind from the pain were feeling, light in the night when we cant sleep, air conditioning, a car to drive in if we need help, and ambulance to pick us up if we REALLY need help, and yet here they have none of this. 

Car Accident in Africa

Obstacle #3 car accident in Africa. Courtney, Matt, and I were exhausted. It was 1pm and after picking up some needed supplies to hold us over until we got our bags we started to head to Banta (where the Orphanage is.) This is about a 7 hour ride. Needless to say we all started to pass out in the back of the range rover. I woke up without knowing what was going on, but with immediate fright. I began to be tossed around the car and all I remember is looking out the window and thinking “im going to fall out of the car, im going to fall out of the car…Im going to die”…by the power of God (and I still don’t know how I stayed inside) I was pulled back inside of the car. Then everything stopped. We all got out of the car and I see Courtney lay immediately on the ground with a bloody nose. I look at the side windows and they are both smashed out, I check on everyone else as other people stop their cars and run up to the scene to make sure we are all ok. I didn't know what to do. I hear Mama Angie tell me to get water and so I go to the back of the truck to get water and things are everywhere! There is a mix of water, eggs, food, and glass. I grab a bottle of water and go back out. It was then that I noticed that I was also bleeding and the natives around that ran when they saw the accident tried to care for my wound. Then we all piled back into the car without knowing what happened. As we sit there Courtney begins to cry, the shock of the accident begins to set in on all of us and we are paralyzed by what we just experienced. We head to the nearest “hospital” just so everyone can be checked out. We get out of the car and see the front completely smashed. We asked Uncle Magnus and Mama Angie who were sitting in front what happened and they couldn’t tell us. They said there was a force from the car pushing us to the side. We ran off the side of the rode through a ditch and back on. We still don’t know what hit the front of the car or why the two side windows were smashed out. Again I praise God that His glory shines through this situation. He continues to put situations in my life where I can ONLY rely on Him and ONLY trust in Him more and more. Father knows best! As the drive went on (we still had 6 hours a head of us) more bruises and aches began to arise. We finally arrived to the orphanage around 9pm where we received the most powerful healing, beng surrounded by the children. Before I even got out of the car I heard “auntie Jesi!.” The kids knew someone would be arriving but they had no idea who it was. I got out of the truck to the children overwhelming me with hugs and praise that I “kept my promise and returned.”Then, I walked into house 2 (the house I looked after last time) and saw pictures I had left with the kids all around the room. Pictures of my mom, dad, brothers, sister, grandma, friends…it was breathtaking to see that I have a special place in the lives of these children just as they have a special place in my life as well (if you cam to my house before leaving and saw an abundant amount of my Sierra Leone children you would understand.) Its now day 5 and I am feeling almost 100% better. Courtney and Matt still have pains in their back and shoulders and Mama Angie went to a doctor today for the pain she began to feel. But we are all here to continue to walk down the path God has laid out for us to shine His glory. 

God is Powerful!

This path God has been leading me on…has been…refining. I don’t like to fail, I like to succeed and succeed well at everything I do. And so the realization that I was not going to be able to go to India and that there was nothing that I could do about it, forced me to realize that need and fall on God and listening for His voice instead of forcing my own ways. Of course that whole process of getting both the Sierra Leone and India visa was chaos. I spent numerous hours, a lot of money, lost one passport, and lost nights of sleep worrying over the situation. God showed me that he can make things happen but he also has the power to take it away (something we rarely recognize.)

            Then by the power of God alone, Courtney surprised Matt and I in the airport and hour before boarding the plane. Recently we had come to the conclusion that Courtney would not be able to come because her second passport was lost in the mail and she was not able to obtain a visa. Amazingly, she received a emergency visa within hours and was given the go ahead to get on the plane and the visa would be handled upon getting to Sierra Leone. Another way God showed his power. We arrived in Freetown and went right through security because of the connections the COTN has with the natives.

            Obstacle #2 all 6 of our bags get lost. We were told that our carry on’s needed to be checked in because of space and so the only things we had were the cloths we were wearing, a couple books, and our medications. We arrived in Freetown at 3:00am and did not leave until 7:00am waiting to make sure we would be notified when our bags returned. But again God showed His glory. None of us were upset. We were so glad to be there that the bags did not even seem to matter. God will provide our every need. 

Financial Update

Because of everything that has been going on with my passport and visa it looks like I won’t be going to India. God has a different for me. So I may be coming home a month early. There are some opportunities for me to go to Nepal but if that works out, it will be all God.

Financial Update:

            So the deadline for me to raise money for COTN is coming up on March 29^th.  As most of you know things have gone less then smoothly with obtaining visas for Sierra Leone and India. Because of this I have literary spent all of the money I have on making this a priority (God really wants me to live with nothing when I get back…I guess he knows I like a challenge) But because of this I am completely relying on God to put it on the hearts of others to be apart of this journey and help to raise the rest of the money for both my trip to Sierra Leone and India. I still need to raise $220 for Sierra Leone. If your reading this you have either already donated or I know that you are praying for my trip! I would love your help in spreading the word about the mission God has called me to. Please share my blog, my email, my skype, and I just uploaded the mission video of Courtney, Matt, and I on skype for please share that as well!

            I would also hope you would be open to praying about supporting my trip! If you are not feeling like God is leading you to give financially but prayerfully that is amazing! But if you do feel him calling you to give I pray that you would follow and help the Gods plan be fulfilled! I love how God only makes mission trips possible (most of the time) by the help of brothers and sisters coming together for the common purpose of bringing Gods glory to the nations! 

Reflection on my Time in Spain

My experience in Spain has opened my eyes in so many ways:

Relationships

            It really is all about building relationships! It has been amazing to see the opportunities God has given me to show his glory and be involved in other peoples lives here in Spain through work. I am not working as a “missionary” or in a church. I am a school teacher, and an English tutor and that has led to some amazing relationships being formed. Yesterday, I was sitting in the park reading and 7 of my 5^th grade girls came up to me and we talked in spanglish for almost an hour and enjoyed each others company! When I go to church on Sunday at least 10 students from my school go to the same church and I get to see them. When I tutor I get to be inside homes and get to know the family, I was even invited over for dinner one night to one of my families homes! And also the opportunity I have had to get to know people in high school (I swear I know enough to start Young Life Miranda De Ebro.) Anyone can choose to be a missionary anywhere and anytime by living a life for God in an area where hearts are far from Jesus.  Because darkness is not only in villages far away in developing countries but it is in places where the truth and the AWESOME reality of Jesus and what he did for us, continues to do for us, and wants for our lives has been lost.“by 2025 in terms of numbers of adherents, Africa will have replaced Europe and the United States as the center of Christianity. BY 2050, Uganda alone is expected to have more Christians then the largest four or five Europeans countries combined.” (When Helping Hurts) After living in a Europeans country and talking with people about God that does NOT surprise me.

            What’s worse? For there to be no opportunity to hear the gospel or for the church, the word, the workers, to be surrounding the community and yet the community continues to live in darkness. Its as God explains in the Old Testament “these people come near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is made up only of rules taught by man.” Isaiah 29:13, and Jesus in the new testament “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” Matthew 15:8, I learned that more and more people are going on short term mission trips and less and less are deciding to stay long term. Long term would mean leaving your comforts, starting over with new people, learning the culture and taking the time to adjust and learn the language, and most difficult of all leaving family and friends.

Old Testament Appreciation

            “Because of the lords great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “the lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3: 22-24 You expect a verse like this to be from the new testaments, I think the reason I love it so much is that it is from the old testament. We always look at the old testament as a whole as a book of judgment and condemnation and when we focus on that we miss out on seeing the love of compassion of God shining through the scriptures…which, I think is what the Pharisees focused on. I have grown to have a new appreciation for the old testament! As I read the parts that are difficult to grasp I thank God for sending his son Jesus to die for me so that I am free from living under the law “Chris redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” Galatians 3:13, and free to live and to die for Him, and when I read the many parts about compassion, justice, grace, and hope and praise God for who he is and I continue to learn more about his character and fall more and more in love with him as our relationship continues to grow.  

Married to God

            I have also come to a new revelation concerning the life I want to live for and devote to God. This is easily summed up by Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 where he says “it is good for a man (women) not to marry” And my thoughts are perfectly explained in verses 33-34 “I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried women is concerned about the Lords affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But the married women is concerned about the affairs of this world- how she can please her husband (and look after her kids.) I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.” 

Live for Today

            I have also been wrestling with living for today for “do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself, today has enough worries of its own,” when it has come to passports/visas, school assignments, thinking about being in India and Sierra Leone, and thinking about returning home with absolutely NO MONEY left in my account. That’s why it is so reassuring to know that God will satisfy my needs. He will provide my with my visa and passport, he will lead me when I get to Sierra Leone and Africa, and when I return he will take the money I start to make when I get home (and begin working) and he can double it or triple it to lead me down the path he has planned for me.

            The most consuming part of this whole trip has obviously been the stress of obtaining visas and having a passport to leave (which Court and I are still in the middle of achieving.) Through that these verses have helped me a lot:

“God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I have received a command to bless; he has blessed and I can not change it.” Numbers 23: 19-20 …again..how reassuring to KNOW that I CANT CHANGE IT!!

But Jesus overheard them and said to Jarius, ‘Don’t be afraid just have faith.” Mark 5:36 Imagine complaining about something that is stressing you out more then anything. It has caused you to lose sleep, been consuming your mind, and making you want to BREAK, and Jesus just turns to you calmly and says “ look man, no worries, just have faith” WOW!!

My Verse From Espana:

…that I have learned to accept, and love!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” Isaiah 55:8 …AMEN!