Monday, April 30, 2012

Zambia Quick Hits

Thankfully, we can go into town to get internet once a week here, but since it is SOO slow I am just going to write a really short blog.

The bus ride out here was brutal. 52 hours long which spanned two nights of me getting maybe 4 hours of sleep total. But thankfully, we made it!

This is the first time in my life that I don't have access to food 24/7. It's actually been kinda brutal. I have been very tired all week. Probably a mix of eating a lot less than normal, eating no sugar, and being out in the hot sun all day. At least I'm getting tan!

I've been able to run every morning which is a huge blessing! Thankfully, I haven't seen any dangerous animals although we have had some minor problems with crocodiles and hippos near our village. I get to see the sun rise every morning during my run, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get the opening song of Lion King out of my head.

There aren't any mirrors in the village. So today was pretty exciting getting to see my face again after 8 days.

This week we just mainly walked to different villages to start building relationships with people. This next week we are hoping to do the same thing, and hopefully be able to get some small Bible studies started up.

God's grace has been so apparent to me. This week could have very easily been miserable. Even though it was pretty tough, I am just blown away at how God gave me so many awesome blessings. For example, we ate a lot of rice this week. Although it's very plain, I swear that the Lord gave me different taste buds this week because it tasted almost like ice cream to me! And every night was so great as well. As a team we sat around a fire under the brightest stars I have ever seen and just talked and sang some worship songs. So awesome.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Headin' to the Big Z!

Tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Zambia by bus with six other team members! Our team includes a couple from South Africa, a couple from Wales, a guy from Zimbabwe, a guy from South Africa, and me. We will drive right through the Namib desert and into Windhoek, Namibia. We will get there at 6AM on Monday where we will have a 9 hour layover, then we will get on another bus and head for Livingstone, Zambia. We should finally reach our village by Tuesday night. I honestly wasn't very excited until yesterday when we prayed as a class for all the different outreach teams. After the prayer I felt a big weight of worry lifted off my heart, so thank you Lord! The three main areas that I'm still a little anxious about are sleep, food, and running. I'm not sure how well I will be able to sleep in a tent that is within spitting distance of hippos and crocodiles. And like I stated last week, it will be interesting to see how my body functions without my daily sugar fix of ice cream and chocolate. I guess these are just two minor sacrifices that I will have to put up with for two months.

Running has been a major issue that I've put a lot of prayer into while out here. Admittedly, running has consumed much of my life for the past 10 years and has thus become a pretty major idol in my life. It has always been obvious to me that running is an idol, but it wasn't until after last year's Twin Cities Marathon debacle that I realized how big of an idol it had become. So when I felt God leading me out to South Africa I figured that I wouldn't be running for awhile, which got me pretty down. Once I got here I started praying a lot about what God's will is with my running, and I sought out a few older guys for their advice. And thankfully, I haven't felt that God wants me to give it up, but rather just be very intentional about putting Him before my running. I still need to figure out what that looks like exactly, but I do feel like I have found a much better balance while I've been out here. The awesome thing is, ever since I have felt like God has allowed me to continue running, I have never felt so joyful while out on a run like I have these last couple of weeks! It's given me a whole new appreciation for it. But now that I'm about to head off to Zambia I am beginning to feel all of my normal running worries resurface, such as "What if I can't run as much as I'd like to/what if I can't run at all/what if I get out of shape?" So my prayer for these next couple months will be that I worry more about advancing God's Kingdom than getting my daily run in.

One last thing- I don't know why, but there are very few things in life that I like better than free samples at the grocery store. And since I've been out here I haven't seen ANY free samples even though I've checked religiously every time I go into a store. I think it's just a habit that I've developed. But that all changed when I walked into the local grocery store last week and saw free samples of bread! To say I was excited would be an understatement. My friend Matt, who was with me at the time, seemed very confused as to why I would get so excited about free bread. To be honest, it wasn't even that good, but I made sure to take advantage of it and ended up grabbing four pieces. It totally made my day.

Hopefully I can keep blogging while in Zambia. We will be heading into town one day a week so that we can get internet access. So if I have time, I will definitely keep cranking them out to keep all of you in the loop. Thanks again for the continued prayers!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Sacrifice and Sugar

This past week was really challenging. We had a guy named Jim Yost come talk to us. Jim has been on the mission field for the past 35 years in some of the most remote tribes and in some of the most dangerous places in the world. He had some amazing stories about God's goodness and faithfulness through all the difficult times he has faced over the years. Apart from being inspired by his stories, I also felt a little bit guilty. I couldn't believe how this guy had virtually given up everything for the Gospel, while I on the other hand, find it extremely difficult to sacrifice running for a day if it means reaching out to someone. After processing my thoughts with a few other guys I realized that the point of his stories wasn't to make us feel guilty, but rather to challenge us to be willing to lay down anything for the sake of the Gospel. This is definitely not easy, but Jim mentioned that for this to happen you have to continually remind yourself that God is good and he isn't trying to make your life miserable. I still have a long way to go in this area, but I have been very encouraged to know that God loves us and wants the very best for us.

I went to my first Rugby game with Jay, Matt, and some other African guys this past weekend. It was super fun because all the fans were REALLY into the game. We just picked a team to cheer for and and went nuts the whole game. I kinda hit the wall and got pretty tired in the second half from cheering so much during the first half. But our team ended up getting the W, so it was all good!

I have been liking the African food out here, but it really seems to lack one major ingredient: sugar. I always find myself going to grab the jar of sugar for every meal. So finally this past week I decided that since I will be heading to Zambia in 2 weeks, where I probably won't be eating much sugar, I should start dwindling down on my sugar intake so that I won't have sugar withdrawals while I'm out there. So I told myself that I would try to give up chocolate and ice cream for a week. Well the first 20 hours went great, but once 8pm hit, I couldn't take it anymore, so I went and got a big chocolate bar. I'm actually legitimately worried that I won't be able to function without some sort of candy-type thing everyday while I'm out there.

I hung out with two good friends, Jarvis and Emily Jelen, this past weekend. I knew them from back in the States, but I hadn't seen them in 2 years since they have been living in South Africa. They ended up making a visit to Cape Town so we hung out all weekend and ended up having a great time. It was super refreshing to get away from Africa House (where I'm living) for the weekend and not have to worry about chores and sleeping difficulties.

My parents just sent me some Swedish fish in the mail (my favorite candy)! My goal is to try and save them for Zambia. But to be honest, I will be shocked if they make it to see next week.

And lastly, the Twins kick off their 2012 season in about 5.5 hours! I'm pretty pumped. As I keep looking through our schedule, I just don't see us losing a game this year (with the possible exception of the trip to Anaheim at the end of this month now that they have Pujols). But I'm gonna go ahead and predict 162-0. Go Twins!