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!