Lessons I Learned While Serving In Africa…

1.    Everyone’s personality is different and yet everyone is used to teach others around them valuable lessons. God allowed each one of my teammates and others throughout my time in Africa to teach me priceless lessons and I am truly a different person because of the way that God used each of them to impact my life in a mighty way! For that, I am eternally grateful!

2.    God’s call to each and every one of us is specific, yet different. Africa is not for everyone, but God created me with a passion to serve and the desire to impact the lives of children and women in East Africa. My body is in America, but my heart is in Africa and is looking forward to the day that God allows me to return.

3.    How to be still and listen to God’s direction for my life.

4.   Faith wouldn’t be faith if it didn’t involve taking actions before receiving proof from God that He would follow through with his plan.

5.    Waiting on proof/fulfillment of God’s plan isn’t always the easiest nor the quickest thing to do, but God’s timing is always perfect.

6.    Beauty isn’t just about clothing brands, makeup, and specific hair styles, but God cares about how I display Him on the outside as much as the inside and it’s ok to be godly, cute, and modest all at the same time.

7.    Being alone is not the end of the world. In fact, it is during those times that God speaks to me the most!

8.    Being halfway around the world with good, but limited communication really shows you who your true friends really are.

9.    My little neighbor across the street was happier barefooted and only having 2 or 3 outfits (most of which he wore for days at a time) than any child or adult I’ve ever met that had a closet full of clothes and more shoes  than they knew what to do with. Possessions aren’t what made him happy! He had Jesus and he didn’t know any other life! I am now overwhelmed with how much I have!

10. Shopping is much faster when eggs, butter, and bread are limited to one type each and fruit is bought three times a week from the stand down the street. Eating healthier was cheaper than eating American style comfort and junk food.

11.  Being a people person is great in a people oriented country like Tanzania. Everyone says hi to each other and it doesn’t matter if you are late somewhere cause it’s more important that you were nice to the people you came in contact with along the way.

12. Leaving 15 minutes early to be somewhere is not early enough because you never know what time the Dala Dala is going to show up to get you.

13.  There is always room for one more person on any mode of transport in Africa (doesn’t matter how full it already is).

14. Losing power isn’t just a sign of bad weather, but rather a regular occurrence usually 2-3 times a week for as little as 30 minutes to as much as a day without it! Oh how we take things for granted.

15. 1,200 shillings can buy an assortment of things… a dozen eggs, sugar, flour, 6 candles, 24 boxes of matches, 4 dala dala payments, a pineapple, 2 mangos, 3 days worth of 100 text messages a day, 2 plates of rice and beans, and the list goes on! The best part about it is that 1,200 shillings is 1 American dollar! Oh how I miss shopping in Dar!

16.  Everyone sings in worship whether they are the best or worst vocalist in the group. They don’t care about the tune, but rather the heart. How amazing! The heart is more important than the talent itself!

17. Children make toys out of whatever they can! Nothing goes wasted and they have fun dancing around circles drawn in the dirt and playing soccer with a ball made from old rubber and tarp.

18. Eating whole fish is not my idea of a good meal, but it is one found often all over Dar es Salaam and I did eat it once with the eyeball still looking at me! My grandma and dad would have been so proud!

19. Florida heat is nothing compared to African heat! It’s dry so though it doesn’t seem as hot, sweat, sunburn, and dehydration happen much quicker and much more frequent.

20.  Ultimate Frisbee will never be a natural ability for me, but it is one I do enjoy and more importantly, I love the ministry and outreach gained from the hour each week that I spent playing that game!

21. No girls dorm in America could ever come close to the ones I stepped foot in while in Dar. Dirty community bathrooms with water only running half the time and rooms that normally have one or two people in the states have three or four crammed in them. Cement walls and floor with windows that open as “air conditioning” and no fans. Oh how spoiled we truly are, but I gained the understanding that we are blessed beyond what is comprehendible.

22. No matter how little they had, tithe was never a question, some went without food or transport money so they would remain faithful to God. True action of putting God first.

23. There will never be a way for me to know fully how God chose to use me while in Africa and the lives He impacted through me until I get to heaven.

24.It is possible to go to Africa and come home not having had Malaria, an amoeba, or another African illness! Believe me, I did it!

25. The laundry washing system of America is one taken for granted, yet amazing and I am so thankful for machine dried clothes.

26. Cooking from scratch is amazing and fun and being taught how to make something from scratch is an awesome experience too!

 

Transition, Reverse Culture Shock, and a different life…

Well, it has been quite a while since I last posted a blogso I decided that now is as good a time as ever to update you on all I am going through (especially since it’s 4 in the morning and I am wide awake and can’t sleep).  Come Wednesday, I will have been home from Tanzania 9 weeks. Man, has it REALLY been that long? Was it just 9 weeks ago? Now stop, I know what you’re thinking, those last two questions contradict each other. This is very true. These days I have mixed feelings. There are times where I feel like it was yesterday that I got off the plane in December and then there are times when I feel like it was a lifetime ago that I was returning to America. I’m not really sure that I’m fond of either feeling to be perfectly honest with you. I have my moments where all my thoughts are of Africa and I have my moments where Africa is no where in my brain and I freak out because I feel like I’ve forgotten my passion and the life that I love and lived for 5 months. I’ve known for a long time that Africa is where I will be spending the bulk of my life here on earth, but I never realized how hard my first transition back to the American life would be. Some of the transition hurdles I am jumping are as follows: Time seems to fly here more than I ever remember it doing before going to Africa, Priorities are different for everyone and what might be very high on my list is last for others, options are endless which makes grocery shopping so much harder now that I spent 5 months having 1 or 2 options for various items on my shopping list, it was so much easier to eat healthier in Africa due to the cost being much cheaper for the health items than the junk food items, church just doesn’t seem like church anymore without 1 or 2 Swahili songs in the order of worship, though gas is cheaper here than in Africa, I spend more money and burn fewer calories due to driving everywhere rather than riding Dala Dala’s and walking wherever I needed to go, I live alone now and sometimes go days without seeing people I know personally, texting was the best and cheapest way to communicate in Africa and here my texting is limited and I forget it sometimes so I’ve gone over both months I’ve been back, the daily flood of encouragement emails and now stopped due to being back and am hungry for encouragement now more than ever before, though I was an outsider in Africa, I quickly became a part. Now that I’m back in America where I should feel a part, I feel like an outsider more than ever before. Going from constant communication with people to no communication with people is a seprate challenge and shock all on its own. Being back in college, but not being full time has more minuses than pluses when the people that were new last semester think I’m new this semester and really I’m a 6th year senior. Ok so you get my drift and the list goes on for miles, but I won’t bore you with it. I want to share a funny little story as a little window of light into the shock that I’ve had.

I waited 5 weeks after getting back before I went to Wal-Mart. I knew I would be overwhelmed so I just didn’t go. Well, after I moved, I had no choice and I had to go. My friend Mary went with me the first time and we only bought a few things and left. It wasn’t so bad. Well, the next day, I decide to go back by myself and do my “stock my fridge” shopping and boy did I not know what I was getting myself into. I always start in the back and work my way up when shopping for groceries, but I didn’t realize at the time how hard this task would be from me. In Africa, we bought 1 type of milk, 1 type of butter, 1 type of bread (for the most part), and we bought our eggs, flour, and sugar from a little shop called a duka right by our house. With the eggs, flour, and sugar, we didn’t have a choice, we would just ask for a half or whole kilo of flour and sugar and then tell the man how many eggs we wanted and he would put them in a bag for us. Within the 5 months I was gone, I forgot how many types of eggs there were, what type of flour and sugar was needed for what, along with which brands were the best when it came to milk, butter, bread, cheese, etc. There were some items that I just bought 2 of because I just didn’t know which one to get. I can honestly tell you that it took me 4 hours in the store that day and spent way more than I wanted to and got more than I wanted to due to my lack of grocery knowledge. That’s just a small little story of a culture shock moment.

It wasn’t till the weekend of the Wal-Mart trauma that I truly felt my reverse culture shock setting in. I’m slowly making progress to my new American life, but am trying hard to tie in specific African elements to my lifestyle. Life will never be the same for me, and I’m so glad to know that my life isn’t supposed to be the same once God transforms you and gives you the knowledge and heart for what he desires you to do with your life. For me, that is Africa serving the people. How long do I have to wait to go back? I don’t know, but one thing is for sure, I will be going home when I do.

Oh, to be Faithful like Noah…

This semester has been a walk of faith in so many ways, but God has brought me far in my relationship with Him, as well as the people closest to me because of it. When seeking to understand the true meaning of Faith or faithfulness, Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” and Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Faith is trusting direction enough to take action without having proof that it will ever take place, but action affirms belief. This is seen so many times in the Bible, but also in the lives of Christ followers today. Noah was a faithful and righteous man in the Bible. He lived in a time however, where the people of the land were not pleasing in God’s sight and wanted to destroy the earth. God found favor with Noah and gave him instructions to build an Ark to save him, his family, and 2 of every animal from being destroyed. Noah had never before seen rain and he had never before seen a boat, but he took action to do as God directed him to do even when he had no proof of what was supposed to come. It’s amazing to me the amount of faith that Noah had. I mean, if I had never seen rain or a boat before, my faith would have really been stretched too! I sit in amazement at the fact that there is about a hundred years between the time Noah was instructed to build the Ark and the time God sent the flood. No one knows except for God how many years it took Noah to actually build the Ark, but nonetheless, Noah was faithful to endure the teasing, the mocking, and the shunning of those around him, and continued on in strong faith without any proof that God would do as he said he would. Though God could have secured Noah without putting him through any pain or trouble, God gave him a task for the trial of his faith and obedience. Like with Noah, what we do in obedience to God, we and our families are likely to have the benefit of. Noah’s faith triumphed over all corrupt reasonings and God was true to His word to send the flood. Each day of faith not only required patience for Noah, but for those who choose to have faith in God’s direction today, every day requires faithful patience as well to earnestly hear and obey God’s voice. I desire to be like Noah. I desire to discover direction in my life from God and to faithfully take the steps with God to do as he tells me to do, even when those steps seem unreal or unthinkable. I desire to take action with my direction from God as Noah took action with his, and though I don’t have proof that God will allow the direction I’ve been given to come together one day, I choose to faithfully follow his lead and do as He alone desires me to do. I know in the end, it will all be worth it. I look back on significant times in my life where God has given my family direction and we had to take action without proof, and God has proven faithful. Walking by faith is never the easy route, but it is always the route that God uses to strengthen your relationship with Him and I know God has brought me so far already, I can’t even begin to imagine how much further God desires to bring me while walking this path of faith that I have chosen to obey and follow.

Happy Thanksgiving from Dar!

Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I pray God is blessing you in mighty ways and I hope your day has been Great!. Today was a normal day for the most part, until 5:30 came along and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with the team and some other Missionary families from the area. We had turkey, ham, mac and cheese, green beans, creamed corn, a few casseroles, and even some good salad with Ranch! Eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal was special, but the fellowship always means more to me than the food anyway. I got a phone call from the farm and I talked to all of my family on my dad’s side! Yay! It wasn’t long, but it was so special! Skyping with Brittany was amazing too and I got to be a part of her first Thanksgiving dinner cooking experience! I know she did Great! A few surprise phone calls were made and I enjoyed hearing such shocked voices on the other end! All in All, it has been a nice day. Enjoy your weekend and start getting ready for Christmas! Dar has had Christmas decorations up since Oct 3rd!!!! …. Only in Africa

Thanksgiving in Dar!

Unified Belief

 

The title of this blog might seem a little odd to you, but let me explain. Since I’ve been here in Dar, my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has grown in so many ways and I’ve been able to learn so much through my willingness to get alone and read God’s word and take time to listen to Him speak to me. Now let me just tell you, when God speaks, you must listen and you must have faith and believe in what you feel the Lord is sharing with you. Sometimes it isn’t easy to believe what you are hearing, but when God says it, it’s worth believing for sure! Being a believer in Jesus Christ is a walk of faith in itself, why can’t we gain the extra faith to be at peace with what we feel He shares with us? Sometimes He shares words of comfort, direction, His plans for your life, reasons for why He chose to do something the way He did (though He doesn’t have to give us a reason… He’s God), or even constructive criticism to help us get back on the road He chose for us to go down. No matter what God shares with you or how He chooses to share it (through scripture, through fellow believers, or to you personally in some way), as a believer, you must believe in what your Lord says or your life will be miserable filled with worry, doubt and fear. This is a lesson I am grasping more and more each day. You see, as I’ve grown in my walk with the Lord, my willingness to sit and listen to what He wants to say to me has grown too. I read scripture, I sing worship songs, I pray, and then I ask God to guard my heart, mind, body, and everything within me so that He can speak to me in a way I know it is Him alone and I will be able to trust that it is Him for when I ask Him to guard me, I know He does. Thoughts are a huge way that God can speak to us as believers and when we surrender our thoughts to Him and set aside a time to sit and listen to the thoughts that God can and will engulf our minds with, it is incredible to hear and understand exactly what it is that He’s trying to get across to us as His children. He wants what’s best for us, but sometimes has to put us through struggles to get us there. For myself personally, it is not a struggle for me to believe everything God says to me on behalf of others in my life who need to hear it from someone on earth, but it is extremely hard for me to believe everything God says to me for my personal plan and direction. I was hit hard with the fact that God doesn’t like it when I’m two faced with my belief: I believe for the sake of others, but not for my own sake. I had to make a choice. Just like God doesn’t like us to be lukewarm followers, He doesn’t like our belief in His plans for our life to be lukewarm either. I had to choose: believe all I feel God say to me or none of it. I could not be camping out on the dividing line between belief and unbelief anymore and I choose ultimate belief! For I know My God is Faithful to Those who Believe! It’s a lot easier to doubt a plan than to cling to it, but I am clinging to the plans and direction God is giving me like never before and I look forward to the day when God allows it all to come together for His name will be glorified and given credit completely for the great work He will do. Will you choose to believe for your own sake today? “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?” Numbers 23:19

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what god has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24

What makes Satan want to Attack?

Ok, so the last few days have been tough here in my part of the world and I know that it isn’t just me and it isn’t even just my team. It’s a lot of people dealing with a lot of different situations. The answer to my problem is not a sugar coated reply by any stretch of imagination; it is real and happens to every believer who is doing what God has called them to do. It is called Attack of the Evil One, also known as Satan. Some people have a hard time accepting that God could ever allow Satan to come near his followers, but God allows him to do it to stretch us and make us cling to Him more than ever before. We are told that He never gives us more than we can handle and he uses those lessons to make us stronger. Take the book of Job in the Bible, God allowed Satan to test Job’s faithfulness to him because He knew he would stay strong through it all and he would prove to be the most faithful man at that time. Job endured a lot during his testing period, but God prevailed and brought him through. Though he lost everything on earth, God gave him so much in return for being faithful. I know that God allows us to go through trials to make us stronger and more faithful and it is my prayer that myself, my team, and every other believer who is fighting the battle to stay strong in Christ will do so.

What makes Satan attack the faithful? Their dedication to Christ and fear that God is going to use us to make a difference when Satan wants to keep control of the lost. It’s an honor to be attacked as a believer because that means Satan is scared of what God is doing in and through us and he wants it to stop! I challenge you today to get in the word and be guarded with the armor God provides for us to put on through Ephesians 6 and FIGHT Hard against the attacks of the enemy! We will not be defeated when we let God be in charge and follow hard after His direction and purpose of your life! Pray for attitudes and will power to stay strong in the word and in the fight. I cannot back down from what God has showed me and called me to do and I will not lose sight of the direction God is sending me in. You can’t back down either if you are a follower of Christ. There is plenty of work to do for the kingdom and you must stay strong to believe in what God has called you to do and to complete the work He alone has chosen for you! Stay strong in the fight and let us pray for each other and lift each other up as we fight this daily battle.

A few pictures!

Road Trip To Kenya!

Ok, so this week, the Dar team and the Morogoro team made a nice 34 hour round trip road trip to Nairobi, Kenya. We rode up on Monday and came home on Wednesday. The purpose of this trip was to renew our visas at the Tanzania/Kenya border, but we had to stay in Kenya a couple of nights to do it. We stayed at the Baptist Mission (Hampton House) for two nights and were able to get some much needed rest and Americanized food at the nearby mall! It was wonderful! There was a food court at the mall so we were able to pick our lunch of choice and do a little bit of shopping and then for dinner, we went to a place called Java House. It was started by a former MK (missionary kid) who wanted to bring America to the missionaries in Africa and it has wonderful American food and Amazing coffee! It was FANTASTIC!!!! We were able to spend the day with our fellow Hands On mate Carissa and that was special too! She doesn’t have anyone on her team so it was nice to have a mini reunion with her. We made it home from Kenya about quarter till midnight on Wednesday night and we were exhausted. Yesterday, I was going to go up to the school to meet with some girls, but I found out before going that there was rioting and a strike so I didn’t get to go. Please pray that God will bring peace to the campus and classes will be able to start (yep, that’s right, it’s the 11^th of October and classes haven’t started yet). I’m making dinner for the boys tonight and teaching Felicia some elements of southern cooking. It will be fun! God is doing so much with us together and individually and it is Wonderful! Though we both miss our friends in the states, we have been able to cling to each other and minister to each other here and I know God will allow it to continue as we go home too! God is leading me and directing me so much right now and it is such a matter of belief and faith that He will do as He has said He will do, but I am trusting Him completely and I look forward to seeing His mighty hand in these next few months and years of my life. This blog has covered many different areas of life right now so I hope you’ve kept up. I pray your week is blessed!

 

It’s an Honor to be a Messenger

Today has been a wonderful day! We had team meeting this morning at Travis and Charity’s house and then I had accountability time with Charity. After I was done, I set out on my own to make my way back to the school where I was going to do ministry. Well, Victoria street, the street that T and C live off of, happens to be very busy. I would have been fine taking a Dala Dala, but in order to do that, I would have had to cross three lanes of busy traffic so I opted to stay on the side of the street that I was on and just start walking back. I used that time to pray as I walked and I ended up walking quite a long ways (probably about a mile and a half or two miles) in the heat of the day. I decided to take a break at steers (a little spot that tries to be American with burgers and stuff, but it really isn’t) and then I set out on foot again. About a quarter of a mile later, I realized that I was getting really hot really fast so I decided to catch a bajage (motorized rickshaw) back to my normal Dala Dala stop. I caught the Dala Dala and went up to campus ready to see what God had in store for me today! I sat up at the degree tree (the area where all the new students find out their major (they don’t choose it themselves, the school chooses it for them based on their test scores and they place them in the area that they excel in the most on their tests) and started to read my Bible and journal. About the time I was finishing up my journaling, a guy named Noelle sat down across from me and introduced himself. He has recently graduated from the university and he had noticed me reading my Bible and wanted to come and welcome me to campus. Well, after having basic introductions and I learned that he went to a Catholic church nearby  and called himself a Christian, I took some time to expand on that. We had been warned that people here are either born Christian or Muslim or African Tribal Religion, but few who are “Christian” are truly followers of Christ. I pulled out a question that had been embedded in my head growing up from my grandparents and my dad. I asked, “Noelle, would you know what I mean if I asked you ‘Are you walking with Jesus?’” He told me that he wasn’t exactly sure. So I asked him a different question. I pulled out the faith question , “What do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven?” He answered with a basic works answer, but also said that you have to ask God to forgive you every time you do something bad and you can’t have 100% assurance that you will be let into Heaven when you die. Well, God was opening so many doors for me at this point and it was Amazing. I had prayed for opportunities today and I had anticipated them to be with females, but I know God ordained this conversation for me today. I went through the ticket to heaven along with the ABC’s and used some verses of the Roman Road too. I kind of mixed many evangelism techniques, but God spoke through me in so many ways. Noelle told me that He was understanding what I was saying and liked how I was explaining it to him, but he wasn’t fully grasping the concept of ultimate forgiveness through Jesus to gain assurance of eternity in heaven because the Catholic church preaches confession, but not salvation. He wants to meet with me again and when we do that, I told him I was going to bring one of the guys I work with to meet him and talk with him too and then maybe one of the guys can disciple him. I’m doing this because we have been encouraged to stay with the same gender, but I feel God is using me as a link to get Noelle connected with the guys on my team. Towards the end of our conversation, Noelle asked me about dating relationships for Christians and what I feel God desires for them. Well this was another God given opportunity for me to share about purity. Purity is not taught here and I was able to share about my commitment to purity till marriage and how God desires that we save ourselves for one husband or one wife. It was a wonderful way to be open and honest about purity and share with him what it means to keep yourself pure. We were told that it was a very important lesson for them to hear as well. I was glad that God saw fit to open the door today for both salvation and purity to be discussed. Please pray that God will touch Noelle’s heart and He will continue to grow in his understanding. Pray for more opportunities for me and the boys on my team to minister to him, but allow him to accept the boys and have friendships to develop between them! God Is So Awesome! Be Blessed Today!

Lessons From Africa

Well, I’m learning a lot while being halfway around the world in a land that I’ve wanted to be my home for quite some time. There are days that I feel I can do this forever and then there are days that I wonder what in the world I got myself into, but I know I’m here because God wants me here and He is teaching me new things about myself, my calling, and my future every day that I’m here. The past week has been a big step for our team. We’re learning to do things on our own as a group and alone as well. We’ve done some of this before, but when the team was here, we had somewhat of a schedule to follow and we were ministering alongside them so we were getting into a routine that way. However, the team had to go home so now we are flying solo, but we are rejuvenated after having the team here to encourage us in our ministry. The new students arrive tomorrow and we’re really excited to see them get here! This past week, I finished up a 3 session intensive bible study on the book of Ephesians with a girl named Sarah. She happens to be a foreign exchange student from the states and lives in Wisconsin. She left Friday for 6 weeks of field experience up in the bush country outside of Moshi so please remember her in your prayers if you can.  I am looking forward to starting a new bible study soon with a couple of high school girls that God has placed in my path along with a 2^nd bible study with university girls when God places them in my path.  We’ll be spending a lot of time on campus this week helping students move into their dorms and meeting people. Along with going to the dorms, I’ll be spending some time at home for personal growth through bible study, but also reading and growing from one of my books for my internship which is “The Master Plan of Evangelism” by Robert Coleman. I’m not very far in the book, but I’m already learning a lot. One of my professors from BCF a couple years ago, Dr. Tanner, had a evangelism method called 12, 11, 3. Though it wasn’t put into words that way in my book, the most effective way of evangelism in my book that I have learned is exactly this! We should choose a group to minister to, most will choose to follow, and then we will specifically choose a small number to disciple and impact closely. Jesus did this with his disciples. He chose 12 to follow him, 11 of the chosen accepted and followed, and then he discipled 3. That’s what I’m challenged to do here in Dar as well. Though I’ll be ministering to many, I should pick a few to lead and then out of those few, I’ll pick a couple to truly invest in. Please pray that God guides me these next few weeks as to who I’m supposed to invest in. One of the most important lessons that I have learned this month is my true identity in Christ. I’ve been a follower of Christ for the majority of my life, but I have let earthly teachings of what it takes to be beautiful, accepted, and needed blind me by what God has wanted me to see all along. I am beautiful because I am beautiful in Christ and He radiates in me and through me so that my physical beauty can be displayed too. Size has been an issue my whole life and while Satan tried to intimidate me time and time again, God has redeemed me and I am free from bondage that I was covered in for so long and I can now truly run the race that God has set before me. I’m working hard at my weight so that when the day comes for me to go career with the IMB, Satan can’t shove weight down my throat as a reason why I’m not capable of completing the task God has chosen for me. I’m also learning to rest in my Father for direction and guidance for the days, weeks, months, and years ahead so that I can stay on the road he has paved for me and I can know I am 100% in His Will for my life. I know I am not worthy of the plans my Father has chosen, but He is worthy and He lives in me so therefore, I am Worthy! May you allow God to remove the blinders that Satan has placed over your eyes so you can see the Worth my Father places in you too! Have a Blessed Day!

Heather and Felicia smile as they wait for their mishikaki to arrive!